Breakfast, Brothers & Bullshit
The silence was dense. The kind that suffocated a room. Gabriele still looked mildly electrocuted. Diamond’s towel seemed tighter than ever. Adriano’s brows were raised, the confusion painted plainly across his face.
It was Diamond who finally broke the silence.
“So… actually—”
“Nothing happened,” Gabriele cut in, too fast. “She was just startled. Y’know, when she saw me.”
Diamond narrowed her eyes at him so hard it was a miracle he didn’t combust.
Adriano rubbed a hand over his face, groaning softly. “True... that’s true.”
He turned toward Diamond.
“Dee?”
Diamond blinked, snapping out of her internal rage monologue. “Yeah?”
Adriano gestured between them, tiredly but warmly. “This is Gabriele. My older brother. Gabriele—this is Diamond. My girlfriend.”
“He’s your brother?” Diamond asked, a look of disbelief slapped across her face.
“She’s your girlfriend?” Gabriele echoed, same finger, same energy.
Adriano looked between them like they’d grown extra heads.
“Yeeeeah...” he dragged the word out. “Is there a problem?” he asked, confusion etched across his features.
Both Gabriele and Diamond snapped to attention like kids caught cheating on a test.
“Nope.” Diamond shrugged
“No problem at all.” Gabriele said.
Diamond threw on a bright smile, linking her arm around Adriano’s like she’d just remembered she was domestic and nurturing. “I made you breakfast,” she cooed sweetly. “Come eat before it gets cold.”
She started leading him toward the dining area, throwing a dagger-sharp glare at Gabriele over her shoulder.
As they walked, Diamond leaned in and hissed under her breath, “Why didn’t you tell me your fucking brother was coming?”
“I didn’t know,” Adriano muttered, side-eyeing her. “I wasn’t expecting him either.”
They reached the dining table. Adriano sat, and Diamond began dishing food like she hadn’t almost murdered someone five minutes ago.
Gabriele, meanwhile, lingered—still standing there, arms crossed, gaze locked on her with the cautious wariness of a man who'd walked into a minefield.
Diamond turned to him, giving him the fakest, most plastic smile in the history of forced hospitality.
“Care to join?” she asked, her voice dipped in sugar and arsenic.
“No, thank you,” Gabriele replied coolly. “That’s not why I came.”
Adriano lifted a brow. “So why’d you come then?”
Gabriele walked forward and pulled out a seat beside him, lowering himself into it with that typical calm control he always carried.
“I had a talk with Alessandro,” Gabriele said, eyes on his brother. “About what he did to you.”
Diamond froze mid-sip of juice.
Oh so that’s what happened, she thought to herself.
Adriano, as if reading her fucking mind, turned his head just slightly, locking eyes with her for a split second. She quickly looked away, back to buttering the toast like her life depended on it.
Gabriele kept talking. “I don’t like what he did. He almost killed you, Adriano.”
Adriano’s fork paused halfway to his mouth.
“I know things are tense with you and Alessandro and Padré right now… and I know you won’t listen if I try to reason you out of continuously going against our father. I’m not here to preach. I’m not even here to try and talk you down. But I am here to stop this shit from turning into something worse.”
Adriano chewed his food and said nothing.
Gabriele’s voice dropped, sincere now. “I want us—all of us—to have dinner.”
Adriano didn’t even hesitate. “No.” he continued digging into his eggs without a care in the world.
Gabriele let out a short chuckle, leaning back in his chair. His grey eyes drifted to Diamond for a moment, lingering longer than necessary, then flicked back to Adriano.
“I’m serious. This can’t keep going. We’re brothers. We fight, sure, but we talk. We handle shit. What do you think happens if La Rosa Nera finds out the Greco brothers are tearing each other apart like fucking dogs? Hmm? You think they’ll send us a sympathy card?”
Adriano exhaled through his nose but kept chewing.
“They’ll see weakness,” Gabriele said. “They’ll see a crack in the Greco armor. And then they’ll come after every single one of us. Pick us off like scavengers circling a dying beast.”
Adriano’s chewing slowed.
“This mafia life, Adriano... It only works because of one thing—loyalty. And blood? It’s the strongest loyalty we’ve got. If our own brother doesn’t have our back, then who the fuck will?”
The room went quiet. Gabriele let it sit.
Adriano finally turned to him, his tone flat.
“If you wanna go wine and dine with Alessandro, be my guest. Just leave me the fuck out of it.”
He took another bite of his eggs.
Gabriele smiled faintly. No offense taken. No anger in sight.
“Fine,” he said, pushing back his chair. “I’ll let you sit on it.”
He ran a hand through his brown hair, stood, and checked the time on his diamond-studded golden wristwatch.
“Guess it’s about time I take my leave.”
He looked at Adriano.
“Goodbye, fratellino.”
Adriano didn’t say a word.
Then Gabriele’s gaze shifted.
He looked at Diamond.
And this time, the stare was long. Curious. Calculating.
And maybe, just maybe… a little amused.
He gave her a small nod—almost like a salute.
Then turned and walked out, the echo of his expensive shoes fading into the silence of the villa.
Adriano kept eating.
Diamond just stared at the door.
And breakfast… well, it was still warm. But suddenly, everything else felt colder.