REESE

chapter three.

Third Person POV:

Alex walked out of his room looking and feeling absolutely exhausted. It was Saturday morning, one of the only days he could afford to take a break and relax but his night consisted of him tossing and turning in his bed. He didn't get a wink of sleep and he had no one to blame but himself.

Guilt was eating him alive.

Images of Dakoda laying crumbled on the floor in pain holding her ribs replayed over and over in his mind. He didn't mean to throw her that hard, he was just consumed by anger. She had barged in on a very important meeting with his mafia advisors. They already had doubts over him being a suitable Don for the Italian mafia, so the last thing he needed was to seem unprofessional by having his little sister interrupt a meeting. That explained his anger but absolutely did not justify his actions. His baby sister only had good intentions after all.

He sluggishly made his way over to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. He was met with his brothers sitting at the kitchen table looking no better than him. They were all sporting bags under their eyes and frown lines on their faces. Their shoulders were slumped and they looked distressed, last nights events obviously affecting them just as much as they were affecting their older brother. Large amounts of food was spread out in front of them but no one seemed to have an appetite. Alex took his seat at the head of the table and scanned the faces of his younger brothers. Blank looks adorned their expressions but Alex could see right through them, they were upset. After a couple of minutes Alex broke the silence.

"I fucked up."

Gavino, Max and Rocco snapped their heads towards their older brother.

Silence.

"No, we all fucked up." Gavino spoke up.

"Two years." Max whispered. "I acknowledged her for a period longer than twenty seconds for the first time in two years, and all I did was hurt her." Max looked at his brothers with a pained expression. "She just wanted to show us her diploma and we hurt her."

"She's grown a lot." Rocco said with a soft smile, looking down at his hands. "Still has a baby face though." He said slightly laughing. Suddenly his small smile dropped and tears welled up in his eyes. "I miss her."

The brothers felt like someone had taken out their hearts and was repeatedly stabbing them. They were ashamed not only of their actions last night, but how they handled their mother's death. They broke the one promise they made to their mother. To always protect their little sister.

Who could have predicted that it was them she ended up needing protection from.

Alex took a deep breath in and clasped his hands together on the table. He grabbed his phone and quickly texted someone before putting his phone down again and looking at his brothers. "We are going to apologize and mend our relationship with our little sister. Last night proved that we are extremely out of touch. I put my hands on her." Alex looked disgusted with himself, like it physically pained him to say the words. "I fucking put my hands on Koda. Let's just hope that she forgives us." He ran his fingers through his already messed up hair.

Gavino, Max and Rocco nodded their heads just as Agnella walked into the kitchen with a confused look on her face.

"Don, did you mean to text me to bring Miss Dakoda down?"

More guilt flooded through Alex, even his staff was surprised that he wanted to talk to his little sister. It was shameful.

"Yes Agnella, I meant what I said. Bring Koda down." He commanded with a cold tone.

"Yes sir, sorry sir." Agnella practically ran away to go fetch Dakoda.

Hurriedly making her way down the dark hallways of the mansion, Agnella finally reached Dakoda's door and knocked a few times.