Chapter 9 MAFIA DON.
\~~~RAINA.
“You could at least return our greetings,” my father hisses, and I turn to look at him sharply.
“You don’t get to say that to me, Dad. Not after everything you have done. You and Mum ignore my calls, completely!”
“We thought you needed your space,” my mother says softly as she steps closer.
“Space? Really?”
“We know it is a hard pill to swallow and…”
“It is not just hard,” I cut in, my voice tighter as I drop my bag and push my hair back from my face.
“It is bitter. It is choking. And I am guessing you have already found Talia.”
I turn to my father, but he looks away instead of answering.
“Tell me she is in her room,” I snapped. “Tell me she is upstairs taking a nap or a shower or whatever!”
“You are raising your voice, Raina. Calm down,” my mother says, reaching out to pat my back but I step away from her touch immediately, my chest burning with frustration and anger.
I shake my head, “Don’t tell me to calm down. Just tell me where Talia is.”
My father finally exhales, long and heavy. “Raina… She is not here.”
My heart drops. “What do you mean she is not here? Where else would she be? I believe you must have found her already.”
“We are handling it,” he says, still refusing to meet my eyes.
“Handling what?” I fire back. “It has been twenty-four hours! You didn’t call me, you didn’t call the police, you didn't call anyone! How is that handling anything?!”
“We don’t want to cause a scene,” my mother whispers.
“A scene?” I laugh loudly, and bitterly. “My sister goes missing, and you’re worried about a scene?”
My father’s jaw tightens. “You need to lower your voice, young lady.”
“No,” I shot back immediately. “I won’t lower anything. Tell me where she is. I don’t care what happens from here on forward, I don’t. I am really gonna be selfish right now!”
My father’s brows knit together, but he still rises from where he sits. “What do you mean?”
I don’t answer him. I let my actions speak for me while I breathe heavily.
With a loud clank, I drop the wedding ring on the table and then exhale shakily.
“Here. You either find Talia or send this to him. I am not doing this any longer.”
My father crosses the room in quick strides and grabs my arm. “Are you crazy?!”
“Well, if crazy is what I need to be for you to understand that this is wrong and insane, then that is exactly what I will be!” I fire back, yanking my arm out of his grip. “I can not, for the whole of me, stomach that man. He scares the fuck out of me!”
“That is better than dying!” my father snaps.
I let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Fine. I get it. Luciano is a very scary man. Threats roll off his tongue like it’s nothing. I understand you, I really do. But this is the twenty-first century. He can’t do shit to us. There are laws to back us. There is public sentiment too, so…”
“Luciano is the law,” my father cuts in, and I stare at him, my jaw dropping.
“God, I cannot believe you are acting this uneducated,” I hissed. “Father, can you not open your eyes? Your daughter, your favorite daughter, is missing, and you don’t think it is better to put aside your fears and find her?”
“We will find Talia later on,” he mutters. “She only leaves because she doesn’t want to marry him.”
“And what about me?!” I scream so loud my always rigid father actually flinches.
“And me? I don’t have a say in this? You think I can’t run away too? You think I can just…”
“Luciano will cross continents to find you,” my father cuts in sharply, “and he will kill you.”
And that is it.
My breath freezes and my whole body goes numb.
How can my own father say that to me? His own daughter?
I know I am not his favorite, fine. I have never cared much, actually.
But how does he say something like that, so easily, without blinking?
And my mother… just standing beside him, nodding along like it is the weather he is talking about.
“You disappoint me so much… both of you,” I say, shaking my head slowly as I bend down to pick up my bag.
“If I don’t know better, I would have sworn that I wasn’t even your biological child.” My fingers tighten around the handle of the bag, my throat burning.
“Just listen to me, Raina, and…”
“I am not going back to that house,” I cut in sharply. “And I hope you don’t find me either. Because I am never coming back here, and I am certainly not going back to him.”
I turn around gently and start walking toward the double doors.
“He is in the mafia.”
My father’s voice slices through the silence, and I freeze mid-step.
A dry scoff slips out of me. I place one hand on my waist and look back at them slowly.
“Please, can you be more creative?” I say, smacking my lips in irritation before turning again.
“He is a mafia don, a crime boss. He means his threats,” my father insists, his voice firmer now. “Luciano Rafael Moretti is not one to bluff.”
“This is not funny,” I hissed, turning to face him again, anger and fear mixing in my chest.
“Do you know the rumor that has been circulating for years, the one no one even has the guts to say to his face?” my father asks quietly.
“W… what?” I ask, my throat tightening.
My father is already standing in front of me, and then he slowly goes behind me gently.
“Rumor has it that Luciano kills his own father to take over the organization.”
“T… that’s just a rumor,” I mutter, even though my voice doesn’t sound sure at all.
“A rumor, is it?” he scoffs softly. “On the day his father died, an accident, they had called it, Luciano merged the Italian and Russian organizations. He took control of both empires, joined them together, and built an alliance that hides behind luxury shipping, finance, and art.”
“I… It’s just a rumor,” I repeat, weaker this time.
“I wish it was, my dear,” my father whispers, his voice trembling in a way I have never heard before. “But I have seen that man in his monstrous form. I have seen him do the worst, Raina. That man will do whatever he says he will.”