Carlo : Ti salveró amore mio

Chapter 43

CARLO'S POV:

"EVERYONE WAKE UP!" I scream from the bottom of the stairs.

Mom comes walking out of the kitchen and stretches. "Why are you screaming?"

"Adelaide's not here." I bite my nail nervously.

"What?" Alessia gasps as she walks down the stairs slowly, holding Ricardo's hand.

"She's not here." I turn around and l look at the guards near the front door that have said she never left from there.

"You four go check Rye." Giovanni orders a few men whilst walking down the stairs.

"I've already done that." My voice is shaky.

"Kids look outside." Rose tries to push them towards the direction of the door.

"I've done that too." I look at them all. "I've looked everywhere. Outside, Rye, every room, I even checked the roof. She's nowhere here."

Giovanni runs a hand down his face and all the doors downstairs open as the men I ordered a few minutes ago to get ready walk out. "Spread out around the city and look for Adelaide." I demand and they all leave the house.

"Um. Boss."

I turn around and see them all coming back into the house and in the middle of them is the one and only,

Adelaide.

"Oh thank fuck." I run over to her and crush her into a hug. I ignore them all walking back into the house and I hear Giovanni tell them to go back to what they were doing before. "Where did you go?"

"I had a meeting. I messaged you." She mumbles into my shoulder. I pull back from the hug and check my pockets, I take my phone out. "Your other one. Not the work one." She rolls her eyes.

I take my other phone out and sure enough there's three messages from her. The last one telling me she went to the library after the meeting.

Alessia slaps the back of my head muttering "idiot" under her breath.

I smile sheepishly. "Did you have fun?"

She rolls her eyes and smiles following Giovanni and Alessia into the kitchen, I walk behind her and she takes a water bottle out of the fridge. "We have a shipment this weekend for the clubs in the city and then next week it's just for the house."

Giovanni writes it all down and she leans against the side. "Are you okay?" I question. She seems strange.

"I'm fine." She furrows her eyebrows confused by my sudden ask.

I notice how she has dark bags under her eyes and they are slowly closing with each blink, she can't stand up on her own and she's using her weight on one arm on the table to keep her upright.

"You don't look okay."

That catches Giovanni's attention and he looks up at her.

"Stop looking then." She places the bottle on the counter and looks at Gio. "Write down anything that we need. Guns, cars, cameras. You know, and I'll see where the best places are to get them."

Giovanni nods his head and she walks out, I follow her all the way to the office and she sits behind the big desk with a notepad next to her. She starts typing away on the computer and writing in pen every now and again.

"What are you doing?" I ask after ten minutes and sit down at the front of the desk.

She looks over at me and then back to the computer. "Work. It's my Mafia too."

"I never said it wasn't. You don't have to do all this though. We have help."

"I haven't been here and I want to help out. I'm not going to rely on someone to run this place, if I did that they may as well be the boss and we step down."

She ruffles through some papers and then on the big wall filled with files. Adelaide stands up and scans them all until she picks up an orange one. "Can you add these up?" She passes me a pen and paper and the file.

I nod my head and we both get to work on either side of the desk.

****

"I want to start dancing." Bella announces as she walks into the living room.

As I sit on the floor in between Adelaide's legs as she plays with my hair and goes on her phone, I look up at Bella. She sits down in front of me.

"Become a stripper." Adelaide's voice sounds from behind me. I quickly turn my head to look at her shocked. "What?" She shrugs as she puts her hand back in my hair. "We've all thought about doing it."

I furrow my eyebrows and look back at Bella. "Don't become a stripper. Not at your age. Or any age." I shake my head.

"When you're eighteen you can choose." Once again Adelaide says.

"No. When you're nothing!" I shout.

"Ew. You want her to be a baby stripper." Adelaide fake gags.

"Don't do that." I move away from her and look away.

She chuckles and looks to Bella, "We can look for a dance instructor and if you want to go to a class we can find guards to watch over you."

Bella smiles and hugs Adelaide who slowly hugs her back. "I might become a stripper." I hear her whisper in her ear.

"Same." Adelaide agrees back in a whisper.

"No!" I shout. "No one is becoming a stripper. Not you." I point to Bella. "Not you." I point to Adelaide and they both smile at me. Mom walks into the room and point at her. "And definitely not you."

"And definitely not me what?" Mom questions amused, she sits herself down on one side of Adelaide and hugs her to her side.

"He won't let us fulfill our dreams of becoming a stripper." Adelaide pretends to be heartbroken.

Mom laughs and shakes her head about to speak.

"La La La La." I put my hands over my ears and walk out to find normal people.