Surprising as it may be, it was situations like these that makes me wish that I knew exactly what my brothers do. Because going by their wealth and power, it's evident that they are pretty high up in the hierarchy of the mafia? gang? they work for. Also, they must be pretty tight with the boss of the organization, whoever that may be to pull off ruling an entire city. Did they just rule an entire city or was there more?

If I knew then I could possibly be able to predict what a teenage tantrum meant for eighteen-year-olds in a family such as this.

Because that was exactly what this was- a tantrum.

An hour after one Eraldo Costa had rudely interrupted my first lunch back at school by banging on the table and screaming like a madman, I had come to the conclusion that growing up away from the family atleast had the advantage of the fact that I will never end up in a mental institute like Eraldo was obviously going to.

Because somehow I have now ended up standing in the middle of the unnecessarily huge living room of the mansion, subject to attention of all my brothers while Eraldo Costa justified his very unjustified actions with regards to my life in the past hour.

As I zoned back into the monologue my so called brother had been spouting off, the last bits of the sentence caught my attention,

"-girl's school because she is obviously not safe here. Too many boys, too many variables that could escape my attention. I-we can't have her compromised in situations such as these and so-"

And even during this speech I watched in disbelief as all these other big bad men just sat there with serious faces not looking at Eraldo as if he should be promptly shipped off to the nearest luxury mental institution. I could even see some of them -Gabrielé, my poor sweet Gabrielé had obviously finally gone cuckoo after staying with these people, all these years- nodding along as if the airhead had come up with the solution to world hunger.

Finally I decided to speak up.

"I'm sorry. Am I the only sane person here? Because somebody please clarify why Eraldo barged in and destroyed my first day back at school behaving like a deprived heathen-"

A squak of protest.

"- and dragged me all the way here just to monologue nonsense for the past twenty minutes. And why, oh why are you actually nodding, along to his- yes you too Niccoló- well, whatever is coming out of his cake hole."

I folded my eyes and waited in silence as my brothers looked between one another. Finally, my eldest brother stood up and walked towards me slowly, looking at me as if I was a wounded puppy with delusions of a grandiose world.

"Tesoro, we have found you after so long and trust me when I tell you were all so glad to have you here-"

"So glad", Gabrielé piped up from somewhere in the background.

"-but due to recent circumstances we have all decided that you must go to this very nice all girls boarding school in Massachusetts. I promise you will love it there and we'll move into this property we have there whenever you get a break. I know this is all very sudden but the institute is very good, we own it actually and you'll have no-"

The more he spoke, the higher my eyebrows went. What was this dude talking about? I hope I did not inherit the genes to go completely mad as all the other people in this family obviously did.

"What are you talking about? Why would I need to shift to another school? What's wrong with this one? I have friends here-", I would not let them take this away from me, no matter how mentally disturbed, "- I like this school, I like the people and the teachers-", not necessarily true but desperate times called for desperate measures, "Why are you doing this to me?"

Unbidden tears came to my eyes and that was the day I realized my greatest weapon in this household.

As soon as their faces fell a wicked smile bloomed in my mind. And I knew I would get what I wanted.

"Don't cry bambina", Niccoló cried rushing forward to embrace me, "we just want you safe and this school has so many boys", his face twisted in an unnatural way that did not suit his face at all before concern returned to his features," We don't want you getting anything from them."

Did they actually think I still believed boys had cooties?

If their faces and the situation wasn't so tense, I would have actually laughed out loud because this right here was comedic gold. But power in the hand of lunatics such as them made me realize that this wouldn't be too funny when I actually ended up relocated to Evermore All Girls' Academy the very next day.

"Then don't make me leave", I almost stomped before catching myself. Overdramatics wouldn't do me any favours. But the slowly building moisture along my waterline certainly would.

The denial was almost written on all their faces but Declan- Declan- spoke up before anyone else could.

"Okay. Okay we won't send you away honey but you can't talk to the boys. Ever. Again."

The moisture immediately disappeared and the act I was so tightly holding onto flew out of the window because now I was angry. How much of my life would they take away before they were satisfied? How much?

"What the hell", my voice went two octaves higher just like it did everytime I was pissed, "You are boys too as you so kindly put it but you don't see me throwing a tantrum about living with you", okay I totally threw several tantrums but let's just ignore that for now.

"We're your brothers baby", Gabrielé tried to justify but I had had enough.

"I know my friends way more than I know any of you."

The hall went silent and for a second and a tiny bit of regret bloomed before I squashed it immediately. I wouldn't give up my stance. I won't.

"No boyfriends. Ever", Federico finally spoke and I involuntarily shivered as the ice in his voice permeated throughout the room.

"Yes Federico", I nodded automatically. Boyfriends, I could take my time and convince him about the issue later. Surely he wouldn't remain this unreasonable forever? For now small victories were my only achievements.

"You don't understand what I'm saying tesoro, if I ever find out that you and a boy or a girl as a matter of fact are ever involved in a romantic situation, you don't want to know what I'd do to them."

And as I stared at the faces of all my brothers I knew that this was an oath all of them would swear their life upon.

Small victories. Was it really though?

The sadistic shine in Federico's eyes, the cruel one in Gabrielé's, the cold glint in Declan's, the bloodthirsty one in Niccoló's, the savage one in Marcello's, the homicidal flare in Eraldo's and the inhumane one in Ercole's however said otherwise.

And thus came my daily reminder about the circumstances of my existence henceforth.