Chapter 1
Aliyana Capello Catelli
Present-day
The path to paradise begins in Hell
Dante Alighieri
"Salvatore, I need you. Salvatore," I scream through the empty church. My heels click on the wooden floors as the harshness of my breath sounds the air with the extent of my madness. My mind reels as I rush down the aisle.
"Salvatore, I know you're in here," I yell. His tall form comes from the back door. His black pants and a black shirt with his clerical collar, a stark reminder of all that has happened. The ring on my finger weighs heavily on my hand as I face the man who served me for years, without knowing the demon he chose to protect. His scar stands out as he stops in front of me, intertwining his fingers tightly together.
"It's been almost a year Aliyana. What did you do?"
I drop to my knees, "It is what I didn't do. Forgive me, father, for I have sinned," I say, as my body releases the tightness that has weighed upon it these passing years.
"Oh Aliyana, what have you done?" I look up at the Priest from St Anthony's church who once served me as a loyal soldier and earned his freedom.
A tear betrays me as I stare into his harsh, unyielding gaze as I once did many years ago. Only then I was a girl touched by the poison of my father and the cruelness of a king. Now I am a queen, wrapped in the robes of hell, soaked in the blood of the innocent and owned by a Venomous King. How far into hell have I fallen?
"Aliyana, tell me." Salvatore does not know what he seeks when he utters those words. But I look up at the innocent Priest.
"I killed them all."
There comes a time in life, where even the damned must own up to the truth. There is that moment when we get away from everything. That specific second, where you are standing there and it all hits you. All the lies, the stories you spun, the people you've hurt. The ones you betrayed and ruined for absolutely no good reason other than a hope that by doing it your heart will lessen with the pain and maybe tomorrow would be a brighter day. Only it is not the case. I have lived, loved and felt every emotion they taught me not to.
In my 29 years on this earth, I have done things that no sane person could even fathom. My story is not one filled with the love for one man, but the love for many men. A love for a father who always wanted the best for me, even if his ways of showing it were misguided.
I loved him for all that made him. Be it the sliver of goodness that rests in his deep soul, or his thirst for power that caused many to enter the gates of the afterlife. My love for him is… was everlasting, even if he was the snake leading me to temptation.
Then there was the love I had for the 4 boys who grew up with me in Chicago. The brothers I never knew I wanted until they showed me how it felt to belong to something that wasn't defined by the blood in my veins or the gender that made me. Romero, Michel, Gabriel and Lorenzo were the brothers, who became a part of me until one of them fell and one of them betrayed us.
And lastly, there was the love for two men, both belonging to the Shadows. One set on becoming the most powerful villain of all and the other - who only wished to be with me. But jealousy, hatred, revenge and honor twisted all the goodness and my story became a bitter tale of falling in love with your enemy and honoring your promise to the ones that I swore to protect. My story is no tragedy, nor is it a happily ever after, but it is mine and here I am, still alive, so I can finally tell it.
"Salvatore, I must confess." I remain on my knees as his fingers unlock themselves and his roughened fingers grip my chin. I lift my head.
"I will listen. Do you promise to confess in all honesty and tell only the truth?" He asks the question he once asked me years ago. Only then I turned away from him, ashamed of all those that I hurt. Now I am no longer haunted by the decisions of my past, I am ready for atonement.
"Yes, I will tell you everything. My confession begins 13 years ago, when we made a pact to take over Chicago, and Elisa Russo was going to be our bait."
"What was so bad about then?"
I look at Salvatore in his priest attire, a holy man who once almost fell from the crutches of god.
I smile, but it is not happiness that brings the look to my face, more like shame, embarrassment and guilt.
"I lied."
PART I
The past, pain and perception
Aliyana
13 years ago
The past should never be made in the present
And the present should never throw haze on the future.
Lies, a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive, an intentional untruth, a falsehood.
"What on earth are you devils up to?" Gabriel asks as he sits next to Mero on the carpeted floor. It felt great to be back in Seattle. It wouldn't be much longer until the day arrived when I could finally say I was putting Chicago behind me.
Chicago was what I would describe as a prison, made specifically for the 5 of us. We were meant to only charter a flight first thing tomorrow. But I couldn't bear another night in a city treated as one would a rat. It wasn't the adults that surrounded us who made our stay in the city so unappealing, but the teenagers who would one day control it. I knew better than to tell my father, so did Gabriel, Mero, Michel and Ren when Capo Stagio Russo said that a teenager problem was a teenager problem. His words weren't just words, they were a warning that what happens in his territory stayed quiet.
It was summer break and Papa would only land tomorrow from his trip to East Africa. Which made our early arrival the perfect time to finally release some tension we kept locked up these passing months. A lot was going on right now, and Gabriel and Ren were both out for some serious Russo blood. They were the top crime family in Chicago and also primarily our guardians until we graduated from high school.
It was a rule in the 5th State that a group of boys be sent away to their allies' territory. It was meant as a sign of good faith. But my father sent me a girl to Chicago and our Famiglia. The Catelli's insisted we granted them the same respect, so the Russo's sent Elisa. Who was meant to be their offering but turned out she was my father's daughter. Talk about a messed up family. And mine was right there on the top.
It wasn't just Elisa, who wore the title of an illegitimate daughter but another, not so nice girl named Alice. She was already an adult and sister to Matteo Di Salvo, a much-hated member of the Russo family. Or if I were honest I should rephrase, I hated Matteo Di Salvo the most. The others never really disliked him, they merely just hated what they presumed he stood for.
"Where did you rush off to? Gone to play good boy by your uncle or did you decide to take a detour to a certain redheads house?" Michel asks Gabriel. Michel is comfortable at the bottom of my white comforter, playing with his switchblade he bought off a guy on our way from the airport. Ren and I take the top left of the bed, going through the hundreds of photos scattered on half my bed.
We were deciding, as we always did, which of the photos were best to show our parents. We tried to keep up the appearance of happy kids, for the sake of not starting a war. And also for not looking like we were made of ice. My father said that a made-man need not burn when he walked through fire. I wasn't so sure how someone didn't burn in the fire when a fire was meant to burn.
We were already burnt in the fire many times. The only difference is our scars were on the inside, and the windows which were our eyes were too small to notice.
In reality, we were so used to the bullying and the plots and plans Alec and his crew came up with to try to get rid of us. But cutting Gabriel's car breaks set the record. They played dangerous games, and while we outsmarted them most of the time, we knew that our clock was ticking.
"How long do you think we can keep this shit up?" Ren questions us, lifting a picture with the 5 of us at Pizzeria.
"I say we make a stand, we're leaving that shit hole next year. It will be the perfect time to teach the Russo's a lesson," Gabriel says from the floor. His blue eyes dilated and focused on Ren as I feel his anticipation and hunger for revenge vibrate across the room.
"I don't see Alec ruling Chicago, he will cause an all-out war that the Capo Dei Capi would eventually have to intervene. Cassio and Camelid are henchmen, neither screaming Capo, I doubt either of them has the brain capacity to brush their teeth properly let alone rule a city as big as Chicago. Matteo, however…" Mero voices the same thing we are all thinking. Neither of the Russo boys was fit to handle a city as big and as dangerous as Chicago.
"Matteo is going to be the Capo of the Di Salvo, his family is close with the Moretti's in England and the Di Salvo's have always run L. A with the Gallo clan. I doubt he wants to rule a place filled with Russo's. Chicago is nothing to him, but the land his father dropped him off at," Michel says, getting up from the ground and stretching his lean body. He was getting buff in his late teens. I could see the promise of his athletic legs through his dark wash jeans that he currently wore like they were made to fit every part of his build.