Adriano

Chapter 35:

Matteo comes out of the living room, his face pale and his eyes narrowed. Jasmine follows behind him, nibbling on her lip.

'I'm going to kill her,' he snarls. 'I'm going to kill Vittoria.'

'Woah, woah!' Alessandro exclaims. 'What happened?'

'Calm down Matteo.' Adriano says, holding onto his arm. 'Don't do anything stupid.'

'Xuan, Alora and Terzo go take Eliza to a secure base.' He commands. 'Make sure Vittoria doesn't find her.'

'There's one is San Jose.' Alora explains. 'We'll take her there immediately.'

They disappear into the living room and we sit Matteo down on the couch.

Amira passes him a glass of water.

'Breathe,' Lorenzo says. 'What exactly happened.'

Matteo pulls up the sleeve of his hoodie and shows the inside of his wrist. There's a faded light brown mark.

'This isn't a birthmark, it's a burn,' he explains. 'A burn that I got when I was a baby.'

'Vittoria told us you were born with it,' Alessandro says.

'When are we going to realise that whatever Vittoria says is just pure bullshit?' Amira scoffs.

'She has a point, up until now everything she's ever told you could be a lie.' I say.

Matteo picks at the lint of the couch and Jasmine rubs his knee soothingly.

'I'm taking Rory out,' Mimi says coming in. 'All these new faces are making her anxious.'

'Ok amore,' Alessandro replies and I smile. 'Call me for anything.'

She gives him a smile and goes to get her daughter and leave.

'Matteo,' Zoya says softly. 'What exactly happened?'

The day I was born, eighteen years ago,' he starts. 'There was a fire at the hospital and my mum was evacuated.'

'She was told that her baby was lost in the fire so she went to her sister Vittoria for comfort.' He says.

'Vittoria is your aunt?' Zoya asks.

'Vittoria sent her to Dominico who tried to manipulate her.' He continues. 'It didn't work at first, not until Eliza found out that Vittoria started the fire.'

'Why did she do that?' Alessandro asks.

'Her way of repaying Dominico.' He says. 'There was an agent who double crossed them there.'

I look around at Adriano who has a hardened expression plastered across his face.

'Vittoria started the fire and took me, knowing I was Eliza's son.' He snarls. 'When Eliza found out she went insane, and Dominico used that to his advantage.'

'Vittoria's collecting kids like Pokémon.' Lorenzo mutters.

Alessandro laughs but quickly shuts himself up, realising the seriousness of the situation.

'Too soon?' Lorenzo shrugs.

'Shut up.' Amira mutters, glaring at him.

Lorenzo puts his hands up in a mock surrender.

'Continue Matteo.' I say.

'Dominico said that to get me back she has to kill one of you.' Matteo looks between Adriano and I.

'Why?' Zoya asks. 'Why them?'

'He never said.'

I look at Adriano who meets my gaze from the other side of the room.