1. No beef

ISLA

~•~

I was immersed in my show when the door to my room suddenly opened.

My eyes traveled to the door at the same time my mother saw me on the bed. Her eyes went wide, as though she had been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. That only lasted a few seconds.

Her expression transformed from guilty to stern in a matter of seconds. “What are you doing at home, Lala? Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

I grinned sheepishly.

“Lala!”

“Come on, Mom. I’m in my final year. It’s fine to skip a few classes.” My parents had my school schedule and they knew I had classes all day long. I wasn’t supposed to be home until seven in the evening but when I realized how long I would spend in college today, I decided not to go and preferred to rot in bed instead. As a result, I didn’t bother leaving my room all day long and survived on the snacks I kept in my drawer.

“Lala…”

“Last time, I promise. I’ll go to class tomorrow.”

She sighed. “You better do,” she said and turned around to leave.

I was about to put my headphones on again, but I paused. “By the way, what were you looking for in my room?” I hadn’t bothered to lock the door because I didn’t think anyone would try to come in.

“I was going to do the laundry.” She faced me again.

“You did that two days ago, Mom.”

“So you haven’t worn any more clothes since then?” Her tone was sarcastic and that was enough to shut me up. “Come to think of it, you’re old enough to do your own laundry yet you sit around waiting for me.”

I facepalmed. I shouldn’t have asked her anything. She was going to whine about it for the rest of the week and it was only Monday.

“Kids these days are ungrateful. They can never–“

“I’m sorry, Mom. I won’t question how efficiently you work anymore. You’re the best mother in the world and anyone, including me, who questions it is a fool.”

My mother smiled and stopped her rant. “I won’t disturb you but if you have dirty clothes, bring them down to the laundry room.”

“Yes ma’am.”

With that, she left.

We had a lot of workers in our house. We had help for everything; cooking, cleaning, doing dishes, doing the laundry, gardening, and whatever else anyone could think of, but my mother was a chore fanatic. She liked to do things herself and the workers were only there to help her.

She wasn’t a typical mafia wife, who just shopped for fun, knew how to use a gun, and bragged about how many things their husband owned. She never indulged herself in the things of the mafia and left it all to my dad and elder brother. She also raised me to stay away from their business which was why despite the family I came from, I still didn’t know how to use a gun.

At first, I was bitter about the fact that my mom didn’t want me to learn but as time went on, I realized she was making the right decision for me. She didn’t want my hands to be stained with blood and I appreciated that. Besides, even if I was trained, there wasn’t much I could do to help.

I was raised in a mafia household but I had the most normal life my mother could give me.

About five minutes after my mother left my room, the door was opened again.

I gritted my teeth in annoyance when I saw that it was my brother. I instinctively threw a pillow at him. “Have you ever heard of knocking? Is that a foreign term to you?”

He dodged the pillow smoothly, allowing it to hit the floor behind him and fall to the ground. “Mom said you skipped your classes so I’m here to teach you the importance of attendance.”

“Fuck off, you’re one to talk?”

My parents were quite heavy on us getting a degree, despite the nature of our family and my brother did not like that. He missed so many classes that he almost failed. He didn’t care what he graduated with as long as he graduated. He had no right to lecture me on attendance.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you should get out of my room and let me enjoy my show in peace!”

Casper rolled his eyes but took the hint and left me alone. My brother and I were four years apart but we were still very close. He made it his life’s mission to annoy me when he wasn’t busy trading contraband goods.

Happy that he had left, I stood up from my bed and locked my room door, not wanting any more disturbance. I connected my laptop to my headphones and continued watching my show.

Almost an hour later, I heard a faint cry, but I ignored it, then I heard it again. This time, I removed my headphones and focused on the sound.

Almost a minute passed before I heard it again. This time, it was louder and I could recognize that voice anywhere. Living in a mafia household, it wasn’t unusual to get raided which was why my senses were on high alert.

I closed my laptop at once and exited my room. I was careful with my steps as I could now hear more sounds. My brother was letting out pained groans every few seconds, making me wonder what the hell was happening.

My breathing was laboured but I tried to make as little noise as possible as I approached the staircase. I only had to take one step down when I came face to face with the craziest scene.

There were a lot of unfamiliar men in my home. Two men each were holding my brother, my mother, my father, and my father’s right-hand man. Even worse, some of our men were already lying lifeless on the ground.

I almost gasped but I placed my hand around my mouth, stifling any sounds as one of the men continued to punch my brother in the stomach.

“Why are you doing this?” My father. “We don’t have any beef with you!”

The man responsible for punching my brother laughed. “I know, but we only follow our boss’s orders.”

Their boss? For them to be able to break into our house, their boss had to be very powerful.

“Mr Russo’s order is that none of you should come out alive.” He added. “None.”

Russo? There was only one Russo in this city, but we were on good terms with them. There was no way Lorenzo Russo would order the killing of my family. Maybe he was just trying to scare us. Was my father currently doing any business with him?

I was dead wrong though. “And I’m going to start with you.”

Right before my eyes, the man turned around and pointed a gun at my father, and before anyone could process it, he pulled the trigger.

I screamed.