The Missing Princess

31: Son

Chapter 31

-Isabella Di Luca-

"Spokoynoy nochi, printsessa." (Good night, princess) Unkie pressed another kiss on my forehead and hugged me again before letting me go and turning to Nicco, who was standing behind me.

I hugged and said good night to Enzo, Gio, and Kiri in the meantime.

"Nicco will tuck you in for tonight, printsessa. Your brothers, cousin, and I need to have a grown-up talk," he added.

"It's alright, Unkie. Nicco and I will sleep in the tent we made in my room!" I happily told him. We're going to read lots of bedtime stories and drink hot cocoa before we go to sleep.

"Why can't I come with?" Nicco, however, was quick to argue. He always forgets that he's still seventeen.

"When you turn eighteen, then you're more than welcome to come with us, fratello. For now, stay with our sorellina, si? I love you both." Enzo pats his back and smiles at the both of us, to which Nicco reluctantly agrees.

"Come along, Nicco. We're going to have so much more fun than them in our tent!" I exclaimed and pulled my brother along upstairs.

Instead of reading stories, which Nicco deemed boring and tiring, we ended up catching up on the TV series that we've been watching for the past month, Friends. He's lucky I love Friends or I would've been incredibly upset by his comment about reading. We were watching inside our tent while drinking our hot cocoa.

"Alright, that's enough of Friends for now, tesoro. Let's go to sleep before Gio finds us still wide awake."

I nod my head in agreement at Nicco's words. Gio will surely make us take down our tent and make Nicco go back to his room.

Nicco already had his eyes shut, but for some reason I still remained awake while only clutching Mr. Fluffy.

"N-Nicco?" I poked his shoulder, trying to see if he was still awake. In an instant, his eyes opened, and he quickly turned to me, his face filled with worry, probably thinking that I'm having another one of my nightmares or flashbacks.

"I'm fine, Nicco. No nightmares. I just want to ask you, why don't you seem to like Francis?" I asked him. I just can't seem to get it out of my mind.

Francis is my first friend who's not my brother or cousin, and I'm really happy he wanted to be my friend. So I was hoping that my friend and my brother would get along too.

"He's just bad news, Izzy. I don't like seeing you with that boy; I don't trust him." He quickly replies, making me frown.

I get the sense that all my brothers don't really trust other people that much. And from experience, I should also learn not to trust people easily, but I don't know. I can't explain it. There's just something about my new friend, Francis, that makes me trust him. It's as if we knew each other before, which is just really silly, I know. I just hope that I'm right about him because I really want him as my friend. I've never had friends before.

"Why? What do you mean? Is it because Francis is a boy?" I asked, wondering if it's just because he's being my overprotective big brother again.

"I don't trust boys being all chummy with my baby sister, friends or not. They need to prove themselves first. You are our principessa after all." He smiles at me, but I still feel like there's something else that he isn't telling me, so I continue to look at my brother, unconvinced with his reply. He seems to have gotten this as he lets out a sigh.

"And, uhh... I guess our family and that Rossi boy's family aren't really on good terms with each other. You could say we have a uhh business rivalry."

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