Chapter 2 2.

A U R E L I A

The sunrise helped me to calm down a little as the sunlight peeked through the kitchen windows because it was 6 o'clock in the morning.

Silence filled the two-story house because everybody was sleeping, as the house was located in a wealthy gated community in Staten Island.

My dad could afford the house since he's an infamous lawyer, who had earned a lot of money throughout the years as he was working for The Costa Family, for Luciano Costa.

On the other hand, my mom is a stay at home wife, as she's content with her life.

Despite the silence in the house, I could barely sleep the entire night because the man I was in love with was about to marry my sister in two months on my birthday.

My drop-dead gorgeous sister, who had inherited her looks as well as her outgoing personality from our mom, was going to marry Luciano Costa.

When I was growing up, I thought my sister was an angel sent by god because of her beauty. Her dark blonde hair was always lustrous and smooth, but her deep-set eyes had an enigmatic allure, her sapphire-blue eyes captivated people like a siren.

So why was I caught off guard when I found out that Ciara and Luciano were getting married?

It was because they were not close to each other, or at least not until I left to work overseas about a year ago.

A lot of things must have happened while I was out of the country.

After I had received the invitation card, I had put on my best and brightest expression, congratulating them, because I was used to concealing my true emotions in front of my family.

Then I had excused myself from the dinner table, coming up with another lie that I was tired from the trip.

I had taken the duffel bag from the hall and headed to my bedroom on the second floor. I did not bother giving him the gift, or else I was most likely to cry in front of him.

Though, I did weep into my pillow, suffocating and drowning my cries, because I did not want anybody to hear my sobs throughout the night.

It did not help one bit when I heard Ciara leading Luciano into her bedroom as the cruel reality had set in for me.

The worst part had been hearing them fuck as our bedrooms were next to each other while my older brothers and my parents bedroom were downstairs.

By now my eyes were swollen, and red, I don't think I had cried this much in my entire life, not even when dad told me to take my own life because I had failed a test in school for valid reasons.

I felt really heartbroken because the person who I loved did not love me, but my older sister.

"You are up early." Ciara strolls inside the kitchen, her face relaxed and beaming, unlike mine.

"I went to sleep early, so I woke up early." I reply.

I shifted on my seat by the kitchen table while I watched Ciara taking out a banana chocolate oatmeal because she was eating healthy, as she was also a great cook.

She placed the banana chocolate oatmeal on the table as she poured herself some freshly pressed orange juice, then took a seat in front of me with a spoon in her hand, ready to dig in.

Ciara seemed more relaxed despite her hectic modeling schedule, and I felt that Luciano Costa had something to do with the increase of her mood.

Before she would be passive-aggressive around me, but right now she's composed and relaxed.

"Where is he?" I asked her while I nibbled around the skin of my nails with my teeth.

"Luciano? He left because he had some urgent matters to attend at five in the morning." She answered as she drank the glass of orange juice.

But I spotted the diamond ring on her ring finger.

"How did you two get together?" I blurted out because that had been gnawing at the back of my mind the entire night.

Why did he fall for her?

"It was three months ago," She says, placing the glass on the table, as she did not care about my bluntness.

"I was busy with my modeling career, and he was busy with work, but one day, I needed help to move into my new condo in Manhattan at upper east side. I was about to call a company, but surprisingly, Luciano was in New York, and he helped me." She explained, taking a bite of her oatmeal.

"How did everything escalate between you two?" I ask with enthusiasm in my voice.

Fake-enthusiasm, which my older sister did not know the difference between.

"You have to keep this between us, because I lied to mom. I told her a fairy-tale-like story because you know how much she loves romance stories, falling in love at first sight and all that."

"Of course, this will only be between us." I promised, holding back from biting too hard into the skin around my nails.

"So, Luciano did help me move into my new condo back then... But he was going through a rough time. I don't know if you heard about this, but his father ended up passing away three months ago in a car accident." She paused, taking another bite off her oatmeal.

I was taken aback by the news because I had not heard about Luciano's father's death at all, not even in the media because the Costa family was an influential family in New York City.

"He was going through a rough patch in his personal life, and I was going through a rough path in my career. We were there for each other when we needed someone to turn to, by that I mean..." She lowered her voice at the last sentence.

"We had sex. We had practically locked ourselves inside my condo in Manhattan for a day, and did nothing, but have sex. It was the best day of my life."

What the fuck.

"Do you even know what it means if you sleep with a Costa man...? Not any Costa man, but the Don, the fucking boss?" I questioned.

Ciara was twenty-three years old, she was four years older than me, and she could do whatever she wanted with her life, but one thing which was off-limits was to sleep with a Costa man.

However, my older sister, Ciara Nash, had gone and slept with Luciano Costa who was considered to be the god of the underworld in New York City, he was respected, feared, and was known to be a man to not be messed with at all.

Not only that, he was the highest ranking man in the famiglia, he was the Don, the boss.

If he slept with her, it meant that he either had to kill her or marry her because she was not a prostitute or a one-night stand from one of his nightclubs.

Instead, she was the daughter of an infamous honorable Italian lawyer, as the lawyer, our dad, served an important purpose for the Costa Family.

Luciano could not kill her, or else he needed to kill our entire family from existence because that was the law within the Costa Family.

The law was that you did not have any sort of sexual relations with any of the daughters within the mafia. The men are not allowed to take their virginity, or sleep with them.

But if you do end up having sexual relations with a woman from the mafia, it's either marriage or death to the girl's family.

An example is Luciano and Ciara, they were not allowed to have any sexual relations, unless they were legally wedded, but they had sex, and now they are going to marry. Or else Luciano has to kill of the Nash family, my family, because he could lose his position as a Don for sleeping with a daughter from one of his very important associates.

It all made sense now.

"Yes, I knew the consequences of my actions." She admitted as her expression remind lighthearted.

"Did you both agree to marry each other after or before sleeping together?" I tried to force the truth out of her, as I could read people very well, especially my family members.

Ciara stiffened at my words, but she immediately covered up the tension within her.

"B-Before w-we slept together." She stutters as she lowers her gaze to the oatmeal in front of her, avoiding my gaze, which meant she was lying.

"Or did he force himself on you?" I asked out of her well-being because I did not want to jump into any conclusions before I got the facts.

"No!" She yelled as she looked up at me, but quickly covered her mouth.

"He did not force himself on me..." She whispers a few moments later when she doesn't hear any footsteps, in case she had woken up our parents.

"That's good." A sigh of relief escaped my lips.

But my next question struck a nerve. "Is this an arranged married because you slept together?"

I was a nosy person, but I wanted to know the truth, If Luciano really loved my older sister, or if everything was arranged.

"What's with you interrogating our relationship? Why can't you back off and allow me to be happy?! Go back to that low-paying job on the cruising ship, nobody missed you anyway when you were abroad!" She had lost her temper, spitting spiteful words at me, but I had grown numb to them.

"Happy...?" I slowly stood up from my seat, as I was towering over my older sister since she was sitting down.

"What about my happiness? Should I remind you of last year, before I left to work abroad? You went to a club pretending to be me, dressed in my clothes and wearing a ginger wig. You even slept with my best friend's boyfriend. I couldn't decide what was worse: my best friend not believing me, or you going out disguised as me?"

Ciara broke down, tears flood her sapphire blue eyes, but I did not have any sympathy to show to people who never once cared about me, or people who ruin my life.

"Tears won't save you when your husband takes in a mistress. He won't appreciate having tears on his cock-unless he's into that," I joke as I leave the kitchen and head to my bedroom.

Everybody in the mafia knows that it's common for the married men in the mafia to take in a mistress, and to my luck, that wouldn't be my faith, but my older sisters.

I entered my tiny room, the smallest in the house, a clear sign my parents forgot about me when they bought this two-story place.

I grabbed my duffel bag, still packed with the expensive whiskey, which I will drink by myself to cope with my heartbreak.

I slung the heavy bag over my shoulder, clothes still unpacked, since I'd been too busy crying into my pillow the entire night.

I heard footsteps heading to my sister because her loud sobs had woken our parents-her parents.

Leaving my bedroom, I strode down the staircase, past the kitchen where my parents were comforting her. In the hallway, I put on my leather jacket and boots, when I was almost out the door my dad's thundering voice stopped me.

"Where do you think you're going without apologizing to your older sister? Show some respect in this household," he warned.

But I was an adult now, free to do what I wanted, and right then, I wanted to get the hell out of that house.

"Don't worry, papà, I'll be back for the wedding, and when Luciano takes in a mistress," I said with a large smile, waving as I stepped out of the house.

I ran to my motorcycle, which was parked next to my brother's car in the driveway.

The morning weather was perfect for a ride on my newly bought Harley.

I tied my ginger hair into a messy bun, put on my helmet, and strapped the heavy duffel bag to the back of the bike.

I jumped on the motorcycle, and a few seconds later the engine roared to life, a sound I loved, even if it woke the neighbors in the gated community.

My dad ran outside in his morning robe, cursing at me in Italian, his native language reserved for his angriest moments.

He was furious, partly because he had no idea I'd taken motorcycle lessons and gotten a license. To him, a woman riding a motorcycle was a sin.

I gave him the middle finger as I drove off, heading towards the ferry.

Some neighbors even stepped out of their homes due to the disturbance, but they had luck, they'd never see me again.