The Mafia Prince

Bella

I think I have always been in love with Cyrus named after the sun. we were neighbors, our parents worked together, we were brought up in the same community with the same ways and the same rules, the Mafia world.

His dad was the capo of the Italian mafia and I was the daughter of his consigliere. his father’s right hand man and the confidant of the Italian mafia, so I guess in some way we were the mafias royalty.

As a child I loved going to their house. They had this big amazing pool and a vast playground at the back of their house that we would run and run our little legs on. They had all the new toys and they liked having me around. Their mother had two sons and so she called me her daughter making me feel like a part of their family whenever I went around.

I was an only child, my mother wanted more kids but that wasn’t in the cards for them. Since I was always by our house on my own I loved sneaking out and going over to their house. I knew all the guards and the workers at their house. Growing up it was a second home to me.

Cyrus was older than me. He was older than me and his younger brother Cullen. Cullen and I were born in the same year but different months, so were age mates. Cyrus was four years older than us. As young kids, he was always a big brother to us, taking care of us and tolerating us even when were little punks. He had too much patience and love for us and I developed a crush on him ever since.

Everyone liked making fun of Bella’s cute crush on Cyrus. It was the family’s favorite line “Bella’s crush on Cyrus is so cute” they would say. It was a childish crush and I believe everyone thought it would dissolve by itself over time so no harm in it, Is it? Everyone knew the rules of our society, our marriages where business arrangements between our families, carefully made to benefit the society and make us stronger.

The lucky ones fell in love in their marriages and a few even got married to people they were in love with. I believed that lucky one to be me, I was royalty after all, but I never knew that being royalty placed you at a disadvantage because those were the ones sacrificed for the good of the society. We had great value and hence would always have great use and greater bonds to make to strengthen our world.

Only one person ever explained his dislike for my ‘little crush’ on Cyrus and that is Cullen. He always got mad when I would make a fool of myself to get Cyrus’s attention, and openly burst out at one of the families wedding when one the speaker tried making fun of my cute crush on Cyrus, telling them it wasn’t cute at all and they should all stop saying that.

Well, that certainly raised some eyebrows and a few gossiping that maybe Cullen had his own crush on me. I knew they were wrong because when the eight year old me went to ask him, he was mortified and blatantly refused. He told me that I was their little sister and they both saw me as one that’s why he hated people saying I had a crush on Cyrus.

It made me sad to know that Cyrus only saw me as his little sister but I never lost hope that his feelings for me where going to change one day, he was going to fall in love with me and we were going to get married and have children. I wish I could kick the young Bella, how dumb was I?.

Cyrus was cool about my little crush and after Cullen’s outburst he started calling me his little sister and patting my head like a little child. This cemented what Cullen had said to me and broke my heart. I was sad, I hid in my house for a few days eating ice cream but my crush on Cyrus never wavered and I never gave up hope.

When we were ten Cyrus turned fourteen and forever changed. He was pledged into the familiar and swore a blood oath; he was the youngest member to be pledged into the family. I heard rumors that he was attacked at school and that he murdered two people, those are just gossip though, I don’t believe Cyrus would do such a thing.

It was eating at me I had to ask my best friend Cullen and he told me there were just rumors, his brother wouldn’t do such a thing and besides we were just kids. But ever since he turned fourteen he changed. He wasn’t the fun, caring and loving brother we had always known. He got strict about his things and his space, wouldn’t spend time with us even when we begged and never smiled and laughed as much anymore. I missed my Cyrus.

It was on his fourteenth birthday when I heard about his marriage proposal to the daughter of the Irish mafia king. I knew we had problems with the Irish mafia so, I was more than confused why he would want to marry their daughter. I asked my mother and she explained that this will unify our two families and make us stronger against our enemies like the Bratva and the Chinese who had become a menace to our business. But he is only a boy, I argued, and mom told me the marriage won’t be until the girl turns eighteen. I didn’t understand my mom at the time, though I got to understand her over the years.

At fourteen Cyrus had discovered boobs I had nothing to show for it. And he never looked twice at me again, I become the annoying little sister vying for attention while listening to Cyrus sex caped with the girls from school clubs he frequented and girls outside our circles. Not that the girls in the circle were safe from the gossip for some were being fondled in the dark and the kissing the touching whisper, uuh! He was clever though to leave them intact because he knew what the punishments would be.

Cullen and I were inseparable, always causing mischief and mayhem everywhere and he was my best friend. That didn’t last long either although it was better with Cullen than what cyrus had turned out to be. When we were fifteen Cullen started hanging out with his brother and their crew god knows doing what, so, we didn’t spend as much time as we did although he always made sure to give me enough. So when I would go to their house the boys weren’t there and I would entertain myself or talk to their mom and the cook and almost all the time end up snoozing in Cullen’s bedroom.