Family Comes First

Chapter 33

- A m a r a R u s s o -

Sandeo wasn't wrong at all. It did take us more than forty minutes to get through security, and the gates were seconds from closing when we arrived.

The only thing that kept the plane from taking off though, was the fact that the plane had to refuel its engine because the fuel had magically disappeared somehow. Not suspicious at all.

When I had raised questioning eyebrows to Sandeo, he had just shrugged, instead playing along as if nothing was wrong.

"You are extremely lucky." the gate person told us when we arrived, showing him our boarding passes.

"We are extremely sorry, Mister." Salvestro apologized, "My younger brother had difficulty passing through security thanks to his condition."

"It's fine," he dismissed, "Just make sure to arrive earlier next time. It's not everyday that the workers forget to do their job."

I grimaced at his words, because although I didn't know for sure, I was literally ninety-nine point nine percent sure that Salvatore had something to do with it.

"Of course, Sir." Salvestro said, a look of complete relief on his face.

"No problem," he said as he scanned our flight tickets. "Have a great flight guys."

He handed them back to us, and we all filed into the plane just a few minutes later.

"What did he do?" I heard Sandeo whisper to Salvestro.

Salvestro gave a nonchalant shake of his head as he gave us all eyes full of mirth and mischief.

"Nothing." he winked.

~

"So, since we didn't celebrate Christmas properly," Salvatore started, "I'll just distribute the presents that you all got from both Savestro and myself. Ace will be delivering his gifts in a few days, so be patient with his."

Wow, I had almost forgotten that it was Christmas. With all the things that had gone down barely a week ago, I could barely recall that Christmas had passed.

"It's fine." I spoke up, "I'm used to it."

Salvestro frowned in disapproval at my words. "That is exactly what I wanted to change this year because you haven't experienced a real Christmas yet. Not with your old household members, and not with your family yet."

I couldn't help but notice how Salvestro mentioned the word household members instead of family when talking about my step-father.

"There's always next year, bro." Sandeo said, breaking the awkward silence as he slapped Salvestro on the back.

"Yeah, it's fine." I agreed, feverishly nodding my head. "There's always next year."

But who knows if I'll live to see next year's Christmas?

~~~

- A m a r a R u s s o -

"This is a disaster." I heard Salvestro groan from the living room as I made my way into the kitchen for breakfast. Normally, Salvestro would be the one waking me up, but I felt restless today, so I decided to climb out of bed myself.

Changing course as I still wasn't hungry, I decided to do something I normally wouldn't have done, but did because I wasn't a scaredy-cat anymore.

"What happened?" I heard Sandeo ask, and it was only then that I realized that everyone was there... Except for me.