“Kindchen, easy with Tante.” He gently chastises her while pulling me in for a hug and kissing the top of my head, “How are you feeling?” His hand goes to my forehead. Much like everyone else when we get together, he’s checking for symptoms. It’s aggravating most times, but they love me. So I let it slide.
“I’m tired, but that’s it. I’m okay.” Like this morning, I leave out my body aching. No need in worrying them about something that isn’t a big deal.
By the time Dieter lets me go, Jakob is sweeping me into a hug. He tries to be sneaky about checking to see if I’m okay by grabbing my hand with his and squeezing gently. I know what he’s doing though, it’s the same thing he’s been doing for the past five years.
“I’m okay. I don’t have a fever, my hands aren’t swollen, and I’m breathing fine. I’m not made of glass. And as much as I love that you guys love me enough to care about my health. I’m more interested in what Papa was talking to Theo Rossi about when I first got here.”
Just like that, everyone’s eyes swing to my Papa and I’m long forgotten about. Well, mostly because he glares at me as he answers, “Let’s all sit, and we can discuss during dinner.”
No one protests as we take our seats. Annie on one side of me, Mama at the foot of the table on my other side. We all stay quiet and wait for my Papa to start after our dinner is served to us by our chef. Steak, rice, and veggies for everyone except for Hannah, who will only eat chicken nuggets and applesauce right now.
“So Annie and Lee walked in on my conversation with Theo Rossi. According to him, he was in shock after seeing none other than Lee and Jake last night at the Byrne wedding. Which is interesting, because I don’t remember anyone telling me about my children making an appearance a fucking made mans wedding before it happened. However, seeing her in person after all these years was a shock to say the least, and now he’s demanding to get to know her again.”
My hands tremble as he finishes his sentence. I’m twenty-two years old, I don’thaveto do anything. At the same time, I recognize that the criminal underworld doesn’t exactly work that way. The men who took me in the first place still work for him. No way in hell am I agreeing to this.
“Did you tell him, over our dead bodies? He can’t. It’s bad enough she’s in regular contact with Byrne!” Dieter exclaims. He stays neutral on most things, choosing to keep himself out of the work Papa does, but on the few occasions the women in the family get brought up, he’s ready to go to war.
“I did tell him absolutely not. We’re going to meet next week to continue our discussion.”
“I’m going.” Jakob speaks up.
“I have classes with his kid. I can give her a little encouragement to fuck off?” Annie so helpfully adds.
“Anneliese! You will do no such thing. You will go to your classes and mind your business.” Papa chastises her aseveryone else has to work to cover up their laughter. Elle Rossi is protected by at least three men at all times. That’s not even including her security detail, that’s just from her having all male friends that she grew up with.
Mama focuses her attention on me. “What do you think, sweetheart?”
I shrug, trying to feign indifference, “I don’t want to be involved more than I already am. The agreement was he would leave us alone, and you would keep me safe. You’ve held up your end of the bargain tenfold. He has to hold up his. I just want to work and have as much of a life as I can in peace.”
“And you will. You’re an adult now, these are your decisions. I’ll go to bat for whatever you want, Kostbarkeit.” Papa answers me. “Now that all that is settled, I want to talk about this rumor I heard, D.” He takes a bite of his dinner to smother his smirk.
“Rumors are just that. I’d like to know when I have the time between owning and running my shop and raising Hannah to be hooking up with a Bratva princess.”
“Stay away from those Bratva girls, trust me.” Jakob grumbles.
Annie and I laugh at him because he really should get over Natasha. It’s been years, and if you ask me, she wasn’t worth the things she messed up along the way. He and Declan Byrne were best friends growing up, or so I’ve heard. They did everything together from the time they were in sixth grade. That friendship stayed once they were adults until Natasha came ripping through their lives. She ran through those boys’ lives like a tornado and destroyed everything in her path, including their hearts and their friendship. Now they’d killeach other if someone let them, and Natasha is in the wind.
“I only have room in my life for one lady, isn’t that right, Banana?”
Hannah squeals out a laugh like her Papa is the funniest man on this earth, “Papa, my name is Hannah, remember?”
Dieter smacks himself on the forehead and throws on his best ‘oops’ face, “Oh yeah, that’s right. I forgot that’s what I named you.”
She shakes her head at him, “No, you said Mamaand younamed me.”
He gives her a sad smile, “You’re right baby. Your Mama and I picked your name out together.” Dieter’s story is his to share, but it’s heartbreaking all the same. He raises that little girl with almost no help and makes sure she knows who her mother was every step of the way.
The conversation moves on fairly quickly, and the rest of dinner passes in a blur of laughter, lighthearted ribbing, and being able to act normal for just a few hours. As the evening wraps up, I almost regret denying my parents’ offer for me to stay the night with them, and my siblings offer to come home with me. In the end I’m too stubborn to let go of my independence and insist that I’m okay to drive myself home and stay alone. After swearing to everyone that I’ll let the group chat know when I’m home, they reluctantly let me leave. It doesn’t take me longer than fifteen minutes to get home, and just as I promised, when I get into my apartment and secure the locks on my door, I pull out my phone to text them. Noticing I have two text notifications already, I ignore them both and pull up my family’s group chat.
Die FamilieThe Family
Lee: I’m home.
Papa: Good, sleep well. Call if you start feeling bad.
Mama: Do you need me to come over for tomorrow?
Annie: I can skip my eleven and be there?
