Siblings

10- Adaline and Demitri.

I walk into the room that the ball will be held at. It's officially, the building is in the beginning stages. The concrete is poured so now it's time to have a ball.

I've known about this ball for over three weeks now. It's happening in a month. Lucian was with me considering he's attending. Yes, he's in the mafia aspect of my life, but I want him here though.

"What do you think, Lucian? Good space?" I ask, looking at him. He looks at me.

"It's fine. People are going to know it's you." I rolled my eyes.

"Good for them." I say, shrugging. I twirl around. "Just imagine Lucian. It's
going to be like cinderella."

"Or Belle." He says, making me smile. I look at him.

"Or like Belle. I'm going to rule the world."

"Like Hades." A huge grin spreads across my lips. I look at him.

"Just like Hades does the underworld." The realtor comes over to us. I look at her.

"It's yours if you want."

"To buy?" I ask, curious.

"Or to rent." I look at Lucian. He sighs. "I'll come back when you guys talk about it."

"I'm buying, Lucian. You know how much Angel would love this. Look at the lights. It's just like a fairy tale." I say, smiling. "We can have balls. We can rule the world with this."

"We already do, Maeve."

"I know, but face it. This will have too many people coming here." I say, smiling. He soon smiles.

"Let's buy it-"

"Oh I know you're not here without me." Bethany says, coming into the building. We look at each other then at her. The little girl with her ran over to me.

"MOM!" I smiled huge. I crouched down and picked her up.

"Hey little bug. How are you?" I ask, curious. She smiles at me.

"I'm amazing."

"That's good." Another pair of footsteps came running at me and wrapped their hands around my legs. I looked at the other one. "My two favorite things in the world came to visit me?"

"Yes momma!" Adaline says, wrapping her hands around my neck. The boy unwrapped his hands and stepped back. I crouched down and sat down on the floor. Demitri hugged me too.

"I'm the luckiest person alive." I say, fighting back tears. This didn't go unnoticed by Adaline.

"Why are you crying?" She asks, confused.

"These are happy tears, I promise." Demitri steps back and wipes them away. "How are you, D?"

"I'm good, momma." I nod.

Yeah, I have two kids. So what? I have help doing this. I may be only 16 and they may not live with me, but we make it work. Bethany helps me out in every single way possible. They live with her. She wanted to help out when I found out I was pregnant. Everybody in the mafia knows of their existence. They would die for them and for me. That's how loyalty works.

"I wanted to surprise you with lunch." Bethany says, making me look at her. She held up three bags. "I know how you can't see them much and I know how much it was killing you with everything going on."

"Thank you." I say, my eyes softening. She shrugs. The person came back out and looked at us.

"Decided on it?" I opened my mouth.

"Yes. We're buying it." Bethany says, pulling out her cheek book. My eyes widened.

"I can pay-"

"I know you can, Maeve but I have so much money that I want to spend." She says, shrugging. "My husband would want me to spend it on this ball room. It speaks to me. Makes me feel young again, Maeve."

Bethany's late husband, Joshua, gave me the business I run today. He also gave me the mafia I run today. I owe my life to him and to his wife. They gave me food, a place to sleep, everything. I wouldn't be alive without them.

Bethany couldn't have kids. They wanted to adopt but they got put on a waiting list. They took care of Demitri after I gave birth. They raised him as their own but he still called me mom. They were okay with that. They loved him. Then I got pregnant with Adaline, Joshua died and it was just us three. I was heartbroken and so was Bethany. Demitri had no clue what was happening. When I gave birth, it felt like everything was whole again. Some parts were missing, but we were okay.

I took over everything when he died. I was already in charge of everything but it was still his. He knew he was dying so he wanted me to get a feel of it. I was 4 months pregnant. I had so much stress on my body that I almost miscarried. Everybody was worried about it. I went on bed rest and Lucian took over until I gave birth.

The mafia grew, adding on the Russians, Spanish, and English in a year with me leading. Everybody loved me. Then in the past year, we got even larger. The new ones are Japan, Silicano and some of the gangs that are mostly here in New York.

Since I took over the businesses, I kept adding money into Bethany's bank account. She did own half of it. If she wanted to sell hers, she could. I had no say in it because it wasn't mine. I didn't care what she did with it. I didn't care if she went out and gambled it all. I just cared if she had opinions for the things I did. I go to her before I do anything. Before I added the gyms, the bars, before I added anything.

"It feels like a ball, mom." Adaline says, looking around. I look around too.

"It does, doesn't it?" I ask, curious. She nods and stands up. "You're not thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Sleep over!" She yells, happily. I nod.

"We can totally do that. Before I actually have to use it." She nods and wraps her arms around my neck. Lucian smiled at us.

"Am I invited?" Bethany asks, curious. We look at her.

"Oh yeah." I look at D. "And you are too." I say, starting to tickle him. He laughs. Adaline steps away from me, not trying to get ticked. I stood up and chased after her, tickling her. She giggles.

I felt alive, you know? I felt good. I had no worries in the world. Sure, I had worries but right now, I had none.

The rest of the afternoon, I spent with my kids. Lucian left after a while, going home to his wife and kids. He wanted to spend time with them.

We all had fun. It felt good to step back from work. I wanted to be in my kids life as much I could get in. I knew when I turned 18, it would be hard juggling things. I would automatically get custody of the kids and we would move. To where, probably far away from here. I hated New York. Sure, a lot of good memories were here, but I wanted a beach. I wanted a beach right in front of my house or I walked to it in three minutes. Either way, I wanted a beach.