Ruin Has Come To Our Family Novels & Stories

she yelled, tears pouring down uncontrollably. “No, please,” she screamed repeatedly, her voice echoing in the emptiness. Her family was everything to her, and now, they were falling apart. She couldn’t believe the nightmare her life had become. Unable to bear the loss, she moved toward the edge of the cliff, despair clouding her mind. She wanted to end it all. Her mother was going to be locked away for the rest of her life, her brother and unborn child were gone, and her husband had ended their marriage. The crushing weight of her losses made death seem like the only escape.

By the time I stumble back into the living room, the house is unrecognizable, turned upside down, drawers open, and shelves stripped. Burner steps toward me, unshaken. “When she returns, you call me. If you help her hide, you’ll only make it worse for her.” His gaze cuts through me like steel. “Do the right thing, Mr. Creed.” And then they’re gone. Sirens fading into the night, leaving behind a wrecked house, a fractured family, and a hollow ache in my chest. I stand in the ruins of my own home, heart pounding with one thought:

"The Russo family ruined our lives. Don't you see the symmetry? You and I, we're victims, and we're from the same world." "How did they hurt you?" "They did what the Russo Famiglia does best. They killed. They murdered. They stole. Everything my father built, the Russos ripped it away and left us a husk of our former selves. Do you remember what it was like back in the day? Before the war ruined everything?"

“Because right now, the only thing we have left… is each other. And Rhea.” I frowned slightly. “Rhea’s gone.” He shook his head. “No,” he said. “She’s not.” Something was unsettling in the way he said it. “Even if she hates us,” he added, “she’s still ours.” I didn’t respond. I just stood there, looking at the broken glass on the floor, trying to process everything that had just happened. We lost our father. Our home. And Rhea… We didn’t just lose her. We destroyed her.

I managed to choke out, the name catching on the shards in my windpipe. Ryan didn't look back. He floored the accelerator, the engine's metallic grind sounding like a scream as the SUV tore into the indigo shadows of the Deep Ruins’ entrance. I looked at the scene: Kael, pinned by the weight of his own rotting pride; Leo, pale as a ghost in my lap, staring at a mother he was slowly forgetting; and my own hands, stained with the blood of two men who were tearing my son apart. We weren't a family. We were a sacrifice in motion.

he says low. “Or our reckoning” I reply and he stiffens. Redemption sounds nice until you remember every man in our family probably thought the same thing before they ruined everything. If our mate is at Dark Falls I pray to the goddess she can survive us.

We built something out of the wreckage. And now, looking at Aurelio beside me, broken but still breathing, I knew we’d do it again. We’d rebuild him. Stronger. Better. Because that’s what family did. That’s what we always did. Even if it killed us.

Broken. Bloody. But finally, undeniably, a family.

“Now!” We run, stumbling through smoke and shaking ground. The ruins groan, relics glowing brighter. Outside, under the cracked sky, we stop. The whole ruin throbs with dark light. Jude grips my arm. “Talk to me, sunshine. What the fuck did we just do?” I stare at the ruins, heart pounding. “We ended his grudge.” “Yeah?” “But maybe… maybe it cost us something.” The light flares one last time, and a whisper rides the wind again—soft, cold, final.

The person who destroyed his family and happy life ***