Episode 1
★
[Chicago, Dew Hospital~Trauma ICU]
The corridor reeked of antiseptic as Ivanna walked the grounds with her heart barely hanging in her chest.
Quiet hum of machines from different glass-walled wards reminded her that the heart never breaks clean; it shatters in echoes that only silence can hear.
She moved out of the way when emergency nurses ran past her into a ward to attend to one of the patients.
She paused and take a deep breath, inserting her hands in her tight black jean pockets.
This hospital is full of patients from the construction site accident, and doctors are refusing to perform surgery on anyone of them.
They want long money cheques on their tables before they'd save a life, so every single patient condition still critical since they're poor.
Only the kind nurses are struggling to keep them alive.
The Armando family who owns the constuction site showed no concern about the casualties despite the protest going on.
The protest has been ongoing for a week now, but the Armandos aren't moved, which is why Ivanna and her siblings made a grand plan.
Today, they'll get the money and throw it at the doctors faces.
Ivanna made few more strides, her key pendant necklace dangling from her neck till she arrived at the last ward where her parents are.
The double doors hissed open, flooding the hall with bright lights as the couple came to view.
Mr and Mrs. Cooper.
Jugles of wires and pipes passed into their bodies, mouths and ears, both are barely alive on their coma beds.
They got traumatic brain injury and brutal sepsis which needs surgery within two days, or they die in coma.
Ivanna stood between their beds, missing her mum's grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup so much.
She misses stealing her dad's toast, and she missed their once happy family which is now torn between survival and saving their parents.
Christmas is in less than three months, so whatever it takes, the money has to come today.
She lowered her figure, planting deep kisses on their foreheads.
Mother first, then father.
"We'll be right back with the money later today, no matter what" she assured the comatose couples.
She pasted a note on the door before exiting the ward, her short heels pounding the tiled ground as she rushed out of the filled hospital.
Stepping out of the large gate, she bunched her hair up and tied it in a ponytail, the morning breeze doing nothing to calm her burning nerves.
The voices of the protesting people whizzed into her ears, and she momentarily watched the helpless poor people who're fighting for their loved ones in the hospital.
They're holding cardboards with marker writings like...
→WE WANT ATTENTION!!
→THE ARMANDO FAMILY NEEDS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CASUALTIES!!
→OUR PEOPLE ARE DYING WITH ZERO HOPE OF SURGERY!!
Ivanna's eyes twitched when she sighted a kid close to the road.
He belongs to one of the protesters judging by his faded clothes. He just stood there, about to pass out.
At the same time, a Ferrari drove into the road from the other side, racing towards the hospital road.
"Fûck!" Ivanna gasped, breaking into an unplanned run.
Her adrenaline pumped.
Thanks to her stunts experience, she was able to arrive in time, jumping skillfully to the road where she picked up the child.
The car sped past her like a missile.
By now, the protesting people have stopped their protests, everyone is wide-eyed.
The mother of the child rushed to take the kid from Ivanna.
"Keep an eye on him! There are already enough casualties in the wards!" Ivanna scolded, her breaths coming out in a rushed sequence.
"He has been participating in the protest for his injured father, but he got weak cos the last time we ate something was two days ago. I'll take him home now, thanks for saving him." The mother appreciated.
Ivanna's chest twisted with more pain, more pity, but before she could utter another word, the speeding car reversed, stopping right beside them.
New model, sleek black, and even when the owner hasn't alighted yet, Ivanna could already smell the expensive perfume oozing.
From the backdoor, a lady who looks like a maid came out carrying a black umbrella. She rushed to the front door and opened it, unfolding the umbrella to raise up.
The real owner of the car stepped out, and Ivanna had to take one step back so the car door won't hit her.
The lady is of average height like Ivanna, but her grey eyes are cold, and her poise looks too scary.
Her chin is high, even her shoulders, and her two hands are folded behind.
The mouths of the poor protesters widened, cos everyone in Chicago recognizes this cold ruthless bîtch.
Lissa Armando, the only daughter of the Armando family. The heiress.
There's no rain or sun, but her umbrella maid made sure to cover her head properly with the umbrella.
When her gaze finally settled on Ivanna's, it didn't change. She remained expressionless.
"Nice jumping skills you've got, but the next time you jump in front of my car like that to save someone, I'll crush your brains," she muttered.
"Are you insane?" Ivanna replied, her eyes turning as cold as Lissa's. "Your family construction site collapsed, putting so many workers including my parents in a life-and-death condition in this hospital,"
"Doctors refused to attend to them, and so far, ten workers are dead cos they didn't get surgery! Your family refused to take responsibility, and the patients family have been protesting for a week, the government did nothing cos your family is above the law anyways,"
"Now you nearly crushed a child with your car, and the next thing you do is threaten me? Human lives aren't paper!"
Lissa stayed unaffected for a second, as if she didn't hear her.
But then—suddenly, she took a step closer. Ivann didn't move.
"Only ten people are dead? That's a disappointingly low number," she replied emotionlessly.
Her voice wasn't unnecessarily loud, but it still carried the needed toxicity.
"What!" Ivanna's eyes widened a bit.
"If you feel it's unfair, then get rich like me, I'll give you my time, might even sign you an autograph. And for your first question, am I insane? The answer is obvious, poor thing" Lissa addressed arrogantly.
"Let's go, we have a wedding to attend," she told the umbrella maid, then she got back in her car.
The maid folded the umbrella and ran back into the car with her.
They zoomed off.
Half of the protesting people dropped their cardboards.
Some sat on the ground and started crying, losing hope completely.
Ivanna didn't watch for another wasteful minute, she hopped on a taxi which took her to the small apartment where she lives with her siblings, and she barged in.
House Of Esposito blueprint map was spread on the table when she arrived.
Ginny is already carrying a small backpack containing her small tablet, it matched her petite figure.
Robert is wearing his gloves, his biceps bulging hugely under his t-shirt. A backpack containing their hired guns lay beside his legs.
"Let me take a obvious guess, you went to see mum and dad in the ICU?" He cast Ivanna a quick glance.
"Needed to say goodbye," Ivanna replied dryly, picking her gloves.
"Goodbye? We're not dying, Iva." Ginny raised her lids, drinking from a bottle of cheap mimosa.
"Let's get more than one bag from the slush fund. We can pay for the surgery of everyone in the hospital with it." Ivanna said, wearing a blonde wig to cover her black hair.
She wore spectacles too, and her looks changed completely.
"Someone pissed you off, I can feel it," Robert patted her before picking the weapon backpack.
"I'll tell you both about it after we come back. For now, let's go get the bags and save mum and dad." Ivanna gave him a small smile.
"But...is your blonde wig necessary? You already have a overly pale skin so you look like a doll right now. And the glasses are old-fashioned." Ginny commented.
"Are you gonna write a poem about my disguise?" Ivanna sighed.
"Sawrry!" Ginny grinned, but there's sadness under that grin.
They left the house in their rented car, driving to the Obscure Roses Shop in street 136.
According to the Intel they received, the bosslady of the clan—Donna Felicia Esposito, is a lover of rare roses who gets her roses replacements from this shop yearly.
This year's replacement happens to be today, and it works in their favor.
When they arrived, they could already see special florists in blue vests, face caps and and nose masks, packing roses into a white truck for early delivery to the clan.
There are seven florists in sight, both male and female.
The siblings came out of the car and marched as nonchalantly as possible to the gigantic shop like they're there to buy roses, but the moment they stepped the threshold, Ginny pulled out her tablet, clicking few icons to disconnect the cameras by that door.
They've been prepping for this day since four days ago, so it was easy.
The threshold cameras went off, and Robert followed up when two of the florists showed up.
He got a short handgun out, firing the two on their necks.
Sedating needles hit them instead of bullets, and they went down sleepily like dead weights.
Ivanna removed their vests, caps and masks, she then dragged their bodies to the a huge trashcan by that same door, stacked with rotten roses.
She dumped them inside and covered them up.
When the third florist appeared and saw them, the woman nearly screamed out, but Ivanna was faster.
Stretching on a toe, she spun an extra needle into her neck.
She fell asleep like the other two. Her body was thrown into the trashcan after her vest was equally stolen.
Swiftly, the siblings dressed up in the vests, caps and nose masks, then they entered the inner shop with the others, acting like real florists.
--
[Pulaski Road]
Among the cars driving on the smooth road that cold morning, there's a matte black McLaren that's speeding more than the others.
The smell of opium cigarette wafted out of the car tinted windows despite being closed, and the tyres seemed to be grinding the tar.
Inside the car, Bobby sat on the driver's seat, driving with a long stick of cigarette hanging between his lips.
He's moving his head to a music that's not even playing.
Beside him, there's Leonardo who sat smugly, his mullet hair falling over his neck at the back, and a large bunch of strands fell over his narrowed right eye, pink lips so devilishly irresistible, dark tattoos peeking out of his neck and spreading to his chest and back.
Four set of small earrings dangled from his right ear.
There's a crested silver lighter in his hand, and he's flipping the cover open and close everytime as if learning control with it.
Dangerously handsome? That's the right word.
Leonardo is the first son of the Esposito family, and Bobby is the second. They're the Esposito brothers.
Leonardo has a phone to his ear, but he lowered it, ending his call.
"Your wife is almost done dressing up, Bob." He said, his voice baritone and unintentionally seductive.
He's got an accent.
"I should probably get you a snack for breaking that news" Bobby laughed, screeching the car to a rough stop in front of a snack store.
"Marrying your cheating whore of a wife is a huge flex," Leonardo stated, taking the cigarette from Bobby's lips.
He had a drag, sweeping his hair back intentionally with his palm.
"Killing her means giving her a free ticket to hell which isn't happening. She cheated on me, she has to pay the price by marrying me. I'll become her worse nightmare" Bobby said energetically, getting out of the car.
He took Leonardo's jacket from the backseat and threw it on.
"I'll personally kill anyone who tries to kill her, bro. She doesn't deserve death. Now let's get you some wasabi peas!" He grinned.
"Stronza" Leonardo cussed, sitting on the car trunk and blowing clouds of smokes as Bobby entered the well-stocked store.
He easily spotted wasabi shelf.
He picked two packs and a pack of opium then walked over to the counter and dropped the items.
"Never knew snack stores sold cigarettes,." He said.
The only attendant on the counter looked up, and Bobby smiled at her, his overly white teeth so attractive.
"Your ID?" She asked.
"Save the stress, I'm 26. Ignore the overly young features"
"Your ID," the attendant repeated.
Sighing, Bobby slipped his ID onto the table. The attendant picked it up, checking his age.
"Really 26? Cool" she muttered.
"That's not the most interesting thing on that ID," Bobby whispered darkly, leaning on the counter, so much the attendant could smell his musk.
"I don't understand," the attendant frowned at him.
"Check again, the name part," Bobby replied, his smile wiping off.
The attendant eyes went to the ID again, checking the name...
"Bobby Esposi.... damnit!!!"
She screamed, the ID fell from her, and she followed, landing on the ground and falling back, panic and fear surging as her chest ripped.
"There... the fear of us has always been feasibly entertaining," Bobby's dark smile returned, darker than before. "Imagine being the most notorious crime family in this country, our names appear in every news, but not our pictures cos even the government are scared of us." He chuckled, jumping over the counter.
He landed beside the poor attendant, and the lady started gasping for breaths, shifting back.
She couldn't even form a word.
"Another interesting news? My biggie Leonardo is outside, he'd have gouged out your eyes if you asked him for an ID" Bobby squatted.
The lady coughed nervously, saliva clogged in her throat. Her back met the wall, she coughed again.
"Tell you what? I'm in a big mood. My fiancee Wendy cheated, and I'm getting married to her to sign her into a lifetime of misery. I'm happy today, so you're safe," Bobby continued, picking the payment machine.
He swiped his card by himself, paying for the wasabi peas and cigarettes.
"Live longer, honey," his smile returned, and he jumped over the counter again, leaving the store.
The attendant ran out through the backdoor, and Bobby grinned menacingly as he stepped out, throwing the wasabi pea packs at Leonardo who caught only one, letting the second one fall.
"I'm guessing you killed the attendant?" He said casually as they hopped back in the car.
"She got lucky, alive even after seeing my ID. It's my generous wedding gift" Bobby replied, gassing up the car.
"Tell me Lissa is coming to my miserable wedding, she promised!" He suddenly said.
"She loves chaos, no way she'd miss it," Leonardo flatly said, pushing a pea into his mouth.
He got a low buzz on his phone, indicating an important alert.
He swiped up the screen.
--
[House Of Esposito]
The clan is a fortress draped in luxury where marbles meet menace, and every hallway feels like it's communicating a secret.
The estate sprawled over acres of private land, bordered by wrought-iron bulletproof gate which bore the clan's crest; a dragon curled on a dagger, carved into black stone.
Inside, the air is thick with old money and silent authority. Walls are paneled and polished until they gleam, and outside grounds are cobblestones.
Order is the protocol here.
Everything is so in order that it feels too procedural.
Specially trained male and female guards moved with controlled steps and timetable around the estate, communicating and switching duties with their attached buds.
Professional maids in uniform moved in a straight line of twos and threes, carrying trays and serving the legends around the clan.
Even the maids here are trained, no one's a weakling. No one's useless.
Drivers are exchanging shifts just like guards, and they moved with practiced professionalism around the wide-ass park.
The clan mob gang are everywhere, heavily built men and smart powerful women who'd die for the clan without blinking.
Here, loyalty is power.
Most of them are in suit though, prepared for the wedding of madness that'd be happening at the ballroom.
Bobby Weds Wendy.
A white truck entered the clan under heavy guards attention, and the moment it stopped at the park, vested florists jumped out of it, bringing roses crates out of the trunk and transporting them into the roses sanctuary under supervision.
The crates are over hundred, and it's gonna take exactly fifteen minutes for them to finish transporting, so the siblings took the opportunity.
From under her nose mask, Ivanna signalled at Ginny and Robert.
According to the blueprint they studied, there's a thin vent leeway beside the sanctuary, so after they transported their second crates of roses, they entered the vent.
The other four real florists continued transporting the roses.
Their masks and caps didn't even make the guards suspect that they've decreased by three.
Bobby's car stopped at the park, and as he got out with Leonardo, Leonardo smirked sharply.
"I know that smirk, what's going on?" Bobby asked, sidelining the bowing guards by the terrace.
"Your wedding will experience a crash, so big you'd never forget," Leonardo replied meaningfully, giving the flower truck a wicked glance before proceeding.
"I really hate when you speak in parables, man!" Bobby went after him with a grunt.
--
[Bacardi's Planet]
The building is one of the largest residential suites, called Bacardi's planet cos it's owned by Bacardi—the third child of the crime family.
She's currently in front of her mirror with a scissors to her hair.
She's cutting the strands irregularly, that's how she likes it to be today.
Bacardi is a freak who does the most abnormal things, but she's the sunshine—the golden retriever among the siblings.
She's bubbly and lively.
She jumped on her heels and threw on a very ripped jean, wearing a transparent singlet on top, showcasing her black bra.
She'd be leaving for the wedding like this, free as a bird.
As she walked out of her bedroom to her neon room, chewing gum loudly, she was smiling.
Neon lights showered her face, and disco music pumped her ears.
Multiple male strippers are in the neon room, dancing nakedly on silver poles, all for her.
They're always here, and they never get tired of serving her.
They're her boy toys.
"My whores!!" She laughed, slapping two of them in the arse before stepping away from the suite.
--
[Sandra's Condo]
This place is for the last child of the crime family.
Sandra. The Top Girl.
She's the clean freak who hates blood on herself and is very obsessed with elegant dresses, but at the same time, she kills like a maniac.
Just like Leonardo and Bobby are close as the only male children, Sandra is close with Bacardi too as the only females.
Currently, Sandra is busy with Wendy—the bride.
Wendy is crying from the nose and eyes as Sandra did her makeup.
Even her wedding dress is soiled with the mascara as a result of her tears, but Sandra doesn't care.
Her cup of care is always empty.
She just kept doing her thing with the makeup, and Wendy kept crying.
Suddenly, Wendy stood from the chair and fell on her knees.
She held Sandra's legs.
"Please! You know Bobby is going to show me hell in this marriage! I don't want to enter that wedding hall! He's going to make me beg for death! I admit I made a mistake by cheating on him, but he already killed the monster I cheated with, please help me beg Bobby to let me go!!!"
She bent down and kissed Sandra's toes like a beggar, licked her calves and wet it with her hot tears.
"Please help me!! I'd rather have him kill me than get married to him!!!"
Sandra's leg went up with precision, and when it came down to Wendy's head, it smashed her face to the floor
Wendy's nose peeled completely.
Her forehead bled into her mouth as she cried out again, louder.
"Beg Bobby for you?" Sandra scoffed, lips curving with cruelty. "Why would I beg for a wench? Bobby caught you cheating with another man's dîck in your ànus, so get up and go get your inevitable karma!" Sandra kicked her to the door.
From there, female guards took Wendy, by each side.
"Sandra!! Sandra please!!! Sandra!!!!"
--
[Ballroom]
Important members of the Outfit mob moved with wine glasses held with callused hands.
The needed guards and assigned maids lined the hall.
The cut head of Wendy's cheating partner is by the door, acting as a stepping stone for everyone.
Everyone must step on it before they enter, and the head is already unrecognizable.
Bobby is in front of the hall, waiting for his bride with a evil smile.
Leonardo is now in a suit, and his hair is sleeker, a tequila glass sat in his hand down the hall.
"Leo!" Lissa arrived behind.
He turned slowly, his stripping eyes checking her out from her toes, hips, to her face.
Lissa gave him a hug.
She's his childhood friend, and their friendship is close-knit. Also, her Armando family have a deeply rooted relationship with this clan.
"Thought you changed your mind about coming," Leonardo said, reluctantly taking his eyes off her.
Lissa is overly beautiful.
"A poor thing pissed me earlier, nearly changed my mind, but if I did, Bobby is gonna wail in my ears for the rest of the year, so I had to come, couldn't have missed this wedding of misery anyways," she quipped, clinking her glass with Leonardo's.
Bacardi and Sandra entered the organized hall, their sharp heels clawing the ground till they picked their glasses from the table tower.
The second door was pulled open by maids whose head are deeply down.
The boss of this crime family, the father—Don Anthony entered with his wife—Donna Felicia, beside him, their arms linked.
Don Anthony wore brown shades on his black tux, his hair slick back. He's a solidly built man with slightly big belly, in his early fifties.
He looks crazily vibrant with his caustic smile. He's always smiling, even when killing the enemy.
Donna Felicia is his opposite.
She wore a black backless dress, cleavage out, hair in a tight bun. She's stone-faced with a long elegant neck that belongs to aristocrats.
She's really gorgeous.
As they entered, silence swallowed the hall as if this is a ritual.
Then... Wendy was brought by the female guards.
As she was made to step on her cheating partner's head before entering the hall, she broke into fresh tears again.
From the front, Bobby waved her with two fingers, and her chest tore apart literally.
Leonardo swirled the tequila in his glass fast.
"Anything supping?" Lissa asked when she noticed that move.
Reason; even if Leonardo blinks, it means something.
"Don't be hasty, won't be long now," Leonardo replied, drinking a sip from his tequila.
--
[Slush Fund Vault]
After the siblings slipped into the vent earlier, they came out to a thin corridor, and from there, they followed the direction of their map.
Every turn brought a new risk—a passing maid, a guard's shadow, a mob laughter from the other side.
They hid behind drapes when they sighted another guard,
The closer they got to the vault, the thicker the air got, scenting of looming trouble till they arrived.
The vault was disguised as a private study room with mahogany desk, two leather chairs, and a grand painting of the Padrino(Godfather)
Surprisingly, the painting swung open to reveal a steel door.
Robert cracked it open in sixty heartbeats.
Inside, bundles of cash stacked like bricks filled metal shelves, so fuckin much like it could feed the whole country for years.
"Now!" Ginny pulled out their bags.
They started packing without waiting, their hearts pounding too loud.
Then—a noise.
A low vibration beneath their feet.
Vows...
"I, Bobby Esposito, promise to drag Wendy Marcus to hell and make this wedding your darkest nightmare, through tortures and...."
"The wedding is happening right under us?" Ginny said at alert.
"This vault was built on top of the wedding ballroom,I think" Robert replied, still packing money.
"Why didn't we see that inside the map we studied? Also, isn't this too easy?" Ivanna suddenly said.
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.
"We're in a Mafia clan, a deadly one and shii, and I calculated that we would spend the next fifteen minutes searching for the slush fund vault, but it's not even up to seven minutes and we already found the vault? We opened it without stress?" Ivanna said suspiciously.
Robert's brain snapped.
"No! We need to go now!" He suddenly ordered, suspecting it's not making sense too.
Things aren't adding up anymore.
"The hell?" Ginny muttered.
They grabbed the bags of money they've gathered, and they all went for the door smoothly, but unknown to them, they didn't fully reset the door when they came in earlier.
The floor groaned under the impact of their weight, and a beam snapped. The wooden panel splintered.
Before a scream could form, the three of them crashed straight through the ceiling, plaster dust.
They fell into the wedding hall.
The roses on the alter scattered up like snow.
Their money bags bursted, money rained in the air like cursed confetti.
Ivanna fell directly on Wendy, and in the process, Wendy's neck hooked on one of the fallen ceiling panels.
Her neck got deeply slit, and she died on the spot.
By now, the guards are already pointing their guns forward, even the ones on top of the ballroom railings.
More than two hundred guns including snipers faced the siblings, and poisonous eyes ransacked them.
As for Bobby, his half-wide eyes are on Wendy's dead body on the ground.
Ivanna and her siblings looked up at the same time, and when they saw the bloody lion's den they just fell in, they lost their damn minds.
And Leonardo?
He's staring intensely at the siblings.
He's sitting already, and he has stopped swirling his tequila glass, calm as sin in his tailored suit.
When his unreadable eyes caught Ivanna's, he brought the glass to his lips and held eyes with her as he drank all the tequila till there was no drop left in the glass.
Finally, the scapegoats fell into the tight trap.
Everything seemed to pause after the unexpected crash, but Ivanna's brain didn't stop functioning.
With eagle eyes, she scanned the room, studying the pros and cons for one sharp second.
Her brain sparked a quick one.
At that heated moment that her survival instinct is on the high, she followed her brain.
Her hands scooped money and roses from the ground, and she went in a perfect all-rounder twist, scattering them into the air and blocking the sniper visions with them.
She grabbed Bobby since he's the closest to the closest to her.
Her arm curled his neck, and her gun pressed his head threateningly.
Thankfully, her siblings used the opportunity too.
Robert grabbed Bacardi with the same style, his gun to her head.
Ginny took Sandra, cocking her Beretta M9 to her head too.
The silence in the hall got heavier.
Leonardo smiled venomously, deliberately, but it didn't last, cos his dead look took over again.
How stupidly bold could these idiots be? Such low tactics.
"She's the poor thing from the hospital," Lissa smiled with venom too, glaring at Ivanna in particular.
Then, slowly ... her grey eyes moved to Robert and Ginny.
"Never seen a more foolish trio." She muttered, resting her hand on Leonardo's shoulder.
"Let us go, or we blow their heads off!" Robert threatened.
The room remained silent.
Don Anthony is still on his special round table with Donna Felicia, and the craziest part?
Their backs are on the scene, both drinking as if everything going on isn't their cup of tea.
"Let us go! And we're going with the money!" Ginny added to the threat.
"Y'all can't pretend to be deaf! LET US GO!" Ivanna snapped.
And that was the last straw.
Bacardi was the first to burst into laughter in Robert's grip.
"You're hot, boy, you'll strip for me later," she voiced.
Robert's muscles clenched.
Then Sandra chuckled in Ginny's grip too, the sound so hauntingly dark.
"You look so breakable, little girl. Welcome to your prison.' she said, and Ginny swallowed.
Bobby isn't in the mood to smile any stupid smile, so he made his move first, using his elbow.
He gave Ivanna a deep hook on her stomach, targeting the spleen.
With a stagger, Ivanna let go of him, but she sent her elbow flying to his face too, jumping a bit to raise the hit.
Bobby easily avoided the hit, then he went down on a knee unexpectedly.
He pulled the rug under her.
Ivanna tripped and fell, her gun flying some meters away.
Bobby set his leg on the ground, and her neck met his shoe tip.
She bled from the nose before her body surrendered to unconsciousness.
"Iva!!" Ginny screamed, but she immediately received her own share from Sandra.
Ginny blocked Sandra's punch with her palm, but Sandra was prepared for a plan B.
Her heels went up, hitting Ginny's chin brutally.
A teeth flew off from Ginny's premolars, and she bled from the mouth before dropping unconscious right beside Ivanna's body.
"No!" Robert gritted in horror, but he's in the hands of the weird madwoman Bacardi.
She grabbed him in the most unexpected place—his dîck.
She held it through his pants, pulling till he was forced to pull the trigger.
His bullet grazed Bacardi's arm, and that only made her handle his manhood with a deadlier grip, attaching her nails to the balls.
Robert's brain stopped communicating with his body, and tears left his eyes forcefully.
"Bye!" Bacardi picked a brandy bottle from the table tower, smashing it on his head.
He bled from under his scalp, and blood drained down his shirt before he went down like his siblings.
The snipers and gunner guards withdrew their aims, and the silent hall turned loud with murmurs.
• Insanity! How dare they even enter?
• Grabbing the Esposito siblings to threaten us? Peak stupidity.
• Why would anyone even think they'd survive breaking in here?
"Cheers to a free swoon-worthy show," Lissa raised her glass proudly,
Leonardo stood very tall, raising his glass to hers.
"Now who are these idiots?" Sandra sighed, reclaiming her spot beside Bacardi.
"No idea, but they're bold, and the guy's dîck is huge..." Bacardi winked.
"Stop sexualizing everything, sis." Sandra glared.
"Get the thieves to Gravehood, I'm beheading them myself under the guillotine blade!" Bobby ordered.
Gravehood is the killing spot for sinners in here.
"No one's beheading them yet!" Don Anthony finally stood with Felicia, his voice ringing through the ballroom and causing silence again.
Anthony might be jovial, but the mobsters fear him as much as they fear his smile.
"It's not time to behead yet," Felicia added, voice deep and resonating.
With brisk steps, Bobby stumped to them, breathing hard.
"They killed my wife! The one with the spectacles fell on Wendy! Wendy is dead!" He shouted angrily.
"You mean the woman you wanted to marry into your hell just to punish her?" Anthony deadpanned.
"Wendy cheated on me with a lowly bastard from the mob, and I already promised her a lifetime of misery with that wedding. They ruined my damn plan!" Bobby snarled.
"They're still gonna die, but that's after they attend Sinners Assembly tomorrow for interrogation. They couldn't have entered without a blueprint, and if they got a blueprint, it means someone's backing them up. All of that, they must confess," Felicia said sternly.
"I have no damn patience to wait till tomorrow..." Bobby grumbled impatiently, kicking the tower table and breaking the glasses on top.
Then he faced Leonardo.
"Leo! I need you to support me here! Even if we kill them today, we'll find out who sent them on our own!"
"Leo isn't saying anything cos he knew this break-in would happen," Bacardi spoke up.
"If anyone's gonna plan entry into this clan, it'd definitely be through the roses shop, so Leo had secret cameras installed in a saloon opposite the shop, and every year whenever mother's roses delivery is getting close, he watches the cameras, for any foul play." Sandra explained.
"So I'm guessing Leo knew this attack would happen since these people started planning it," Anthony's eyes lowered to shadows.
"They started planning it four days ago when they hovered around the shop network to hack the threshold cameras. I knew about their weak plans from the beginning," Leonardo said casually, dropping his glass.
His hands went into his pocket, bringing out the silver lighter to start flicking open and close habitually.
"Why didn't you alert everyone about it! We could have avoided Wendy's death! Shit!!" Bobby shouted.
"If I told y'all, it wouldn't be this interesting, would it?" Leonardo looked up, still so casual.
Don Anthony marched to him and swung a heavy blow to his face.
Leonardo didn't move, and the blow did nothing to his face.
No cut. No bruise.
"Did I get Papa Esposito angry?" He raised a slow brow.
"Don't go around playing on everyone's intelligence you crazy thing!" Don Anthony spat angrily.
"Loosen up, it's not as hard as you're making it look, father." Leonardo replied casually again, making Anthony's blood boil.
"You!!" He growled, but he controlled himself cos Felicia stepped in.
"Get the thieves to the holding room, Sinners Assembly happens at 10am tomorrow." She ordered, leaving the room with Anthony.
"Yes, mother." Sandra replied, signalling to the guards.
The siblings bodies were carried out of the room, but they left Wendy's.
No one can touch that one except Bobby himself, and he still looks madly pissed.
Maids started packing the scattered money into bags.
"I've gotten used to your insane fuckery, but you caught me off guard on this one, brother." He muttered.
"More reason to be on guard always?" Leonardo patted him.
"Yu'll never play such game again without involving me." Bobby requested.
"Earn your involvement," Leonardo flatly replied, and Bobby nodded.
"I bet they were sent by Crimson Cave," Bacardi said.
Crimson Cave is a secretive mafia gang whose origin is unknown within Chicago, but one thing's for sure...
They're powerful too, and they're the bloodiest enemy with this clan.
"Crimson Cave didn't send them, they came by themselves I'm sure of it. They're part of the family of the injured people from the construction site accident, and I guess they heard that the slush fund here belonged to my family, reason why they came to steal. Whoever gave them Intel must be a big shot." Lissa replied.
"They'll confess at the Sinners Assembly tomorrow, unless they don't love their parents in their cold hospital beds," Leonardo sighed, returning his lighter.
He left the hall with Lissa hanging beside him like an arm candy.
"They should get married already," Sandra scoffed.
"No wonder Leonardo moved the vault to the top of this ballroom four days ago. As they were planning, he was planning too," Bacardi laughed.
"Always been impressed by that crazy Ghost." Sandra smiled.
They left the room together too, and Bobby sat on the first chair he saw, staring emptily at Wendy's body on the ground.
"Your death means nothing. It won't stop the torment," He promised.
--
[Dew Hospital]
Five more patients are dead, making the casualty count rise to fifteen.
The hospital atmosphere is so grievous, the dead patients families are crying in the corridors.
After what happened with Ivanna and Lissa earlier—after what Lissa said, they realized there's no hope, and they've stopped protesting.
Hayden couldn't even bear to look at them as he entered the hospital, holding a cat—Dusk, in his arm.
On his other arm, he held a largely packed food warmer which he made for the siblings by himself.
Hayden is Ivanna's best friend since college, and he's also tight friends with Robert and Ginny.
He's a animal doctor who owns a small cube-like clinic in his street.
As he entered the Trauma ICU and opened the Cooper couple ward door, the first thing he saw was the note pasted on that door...
★ Will be back in three hours, I and Ginny and Robert went to sort the money problem. Please stay with mum and dad till we'll be back.
That cursive writing belongs to Ivanna. He recognized it.
"They went to sort the money problem? How?" Hayden blinked, knowing the account balance of the three siblings combined won't even buy a fairly used microwave.
"No wonder they weren't at home," He muttered, entering the ward.
At first, he thought it was his eyes, but then he blinked...
The Cooper couple aren't in their beds anymore.
Their beds are empty, and their body wires and pipes are all scattered on the ground as if someone forcefully took them away from this place.
The food warmer fell from him first, then the cat.
His eyes and mouth opened wide.
"Nurses!!!" He dashed out.
Luckily, he met two at the corridor.
"The Cooper couple, where are they!" He demanded breathlessly.
"What do you mean where are they?" The first nurse frowned, peeking into the ward.
Her shock was evident when she saw it's empty.
"Tell me...where the hell are Ivanna's parents!" Hayden demanded again.
"This is a Trauma ICU, and your noise could kill the critical patients!" The second nurse cautioned.
"I do not care!!! Ivanna specially told me to take care of her parents till she'd be back with her siblings and now they're missing? You know they can't be away from the stabilizing machines for even a minute or they'll die! Where are they!!" He grabbed the two nurses by their scrubs.
"Stop it! We didn't possibly eat them! No one knows where they are or who took them! No one cares!" The nurses released themselves from his grip.
A woman came closer from the middle of the corridor—the woman whose son was saved by Ivanna.
"Lissa Armando might be involved in this," she said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Hayden asked with unstable breaths.
The nurses left them.
"The Ivanna lady saved my son from Lissa's car earlier, and she exchanged words with Lissa. If anyone's involved in how her parents disappeared from here, it's definitely Lissa," the woman said.
"What!" Hayden gasped.
--
[Crimson Cave]
It's not exactly a cave, but it's a home of the rogue mafia gang who have been operating in secret for as long as anyone could remember.
The only gang that can't be exterminated by the Outfit, and that's because their origin is unknown.
Everyone knows the Outfit clan is ruled by the Esposito family who originated from Italy, but in this Cave? No one knows their origin.
The Outfit don't even know, and that's their biggest weapon.
They're just as scary, with their Gangleader being a female.
Monika Crimson, the poison witch who excels in poison mastery.
She's sitting on an armchair in a bleakly lit room, her head is slumped back on the backrest.
Eyes are closed, and her fake lashes are too long, paired with her darkly carved eyebrows.
Her permed hair rested on her shoulders, and her v-neck dress slit out her cleavage, her fingers beating the armrest even in her sleep state.
She could hear the bustlings of her gangsters outside that hall, and her ear shells moved to their noise.
It makes her happy.
Her gangsters are her family, and each time their noise fills this cave, she feels more high.
"Leader" a recognized voice called with respect.
Her eyes opened, her chin went up in a tight smile when she saw who.
Bradshaw...her male regent.
Behind him, Moo came in.
Moo is her female regent.
The two are like her seconds in command, they go on the most cumbersome missions for this cave.
They stood in front of her, and she lifted her back from the chair.
"Moona, any news from the underworld hub?" She asked.
Moo stepped forward quickly.
"The Outfit caught thieves who entered the clan just one hour ago. Bobby Esposito dropped a hint about it in the underworld hub," she reported, face so fierce.
"Bradshaw?" Monika faced the tall broad-shouldered male.
"They entered through the rose truck delivering Felicia's roses, but they weren't lucky. They got caught as they fell into the wedding ballroom." Bradshaw completed the report.
Monika grinned, resting back on her chair again.
"Bold of anyone to think they can actually enter that clan and come out alive when everyone in there is bat shit crazy. We're the only ones who can enter and come out alive easily. If I decide to enter right now, I'll enter without even having to go through the roses shop, and I'll kill the Esposito siblings without using bullets." She said.
"Isn't that why you're their ultimate senior who's still alive after several attacks from them? I bet they fear you," Moo replied with a lip lift.
Monika grinned again.
"It's been a while since we stirred up trouble, our hiatus is over, time to get back to work," She stood.
"Gather the gangsters!"
--
[House Of Esposito, Leonardo's Citadel]
While Bacardi owns a Planet and Sandra owns a Condo, Leonardo owns a Citadel.
His building in the clan is called Citadel, his private domain which rose above the rest of the property, all glass and shadow.
Inside, it's minimalist and magnetic—steel and glass.
Everything has purpose here, nothing is accidental.
The Citadel's private elevator requires biometric access, and apart from him, only Lissa and Bobby have their biometrics registered.
His office dominated the top floor with wide windows and a grand shelf of unread books arranged by colour rather than title.
A half-finished drink always sits at the edge of his desk, just like now.
Leonardo dropped his silver lighter beside the unfinished glass of bourbon, and his second hand brought a cigarette to his open lips as he went to the glass wall overlooking the whole of Chicago.
His mind is in disarray, not with worries, but with thoughts about how to handle this case.
After making the thieves confess tomorrow, should he throw them inside the acid bathtub or behead them like Bobby wants?
Or... should he make them kill each other?
He could transport their comatose parents here and make them watch how their children will get killed.
That's wicked, cos it'd speed up their death, but it's making Leonardo's head tick. He loves that idea.
"This, or this?" Lissa's voice spoke behind him, and he turned, smokes waging war around him.
Lissa stood behind his desk, wearing only her black panty and equally black bra. Nothing else.
She's holding up two of his shirts which she got from his office suite.
"That one," Leonardo tilted his head towards the grey shirt.
"Knew it," She threw the second shirt on the couch, wearing the grey one which stopped just below her arse. It barely covered her arse cheeks.
She picked the half-drained bourbon from the table and drank it, shaking the ice as she stood beside him.
"Those fools really thought they could steal my parents money from this clan?" She scoffed. "We kept it in this clan for a reason, we were sure it would be protected, so their move was thoughtless as fûck, and now they're gonna die tomorrow. Aw."
"At least they gave us something to watch," Leonardo replied with a one arm shrug.
"How are you gonna be killing them?" Lissa nudged him.
"Impatience is a bad habit, Issa." He looked at her, and she laughed.
"I'm spending the night here anyways. Mother will be here to attend the assembly tomorrow since it concerns our money," she said, resting her head on his arm.
Leonardo's cigar returned to his mouth, and together, they watched the city view together with the same wicked eyes and thoughts.
--
[7pm, A Road]
It's raining, and Bobby took it as an opportunity to lash out.
The rain started at 6, and though it's a gentle shower, it's still rain.
Bobby's car groaned to a slow halt in the middle of that road, and he staggered out, holding the neck of an alcohol bottle.
The road is silent as it always is. No one else takes the clan road cos so many deaths happens, so people grew scared and left it alone for them.
Crashing the bottle on top of the car, Bobby opened the backdoor where Wendy's body lay lifelessly.
The blood from her neck is dried already, and the runny drops that flowed to her white wedding dress is clotted thickly.
With one swift pull, Bobby pulled her body out of the car, putting her down on the wet road.
The rain was wetting them both as he pulled his belt out of his trousers, folding it in two.
The remembrance of everything he did for Wendy was killing him.
During the clan's last clash with Crimson Cave, Wendy was an orphanage girl whom he saved from death, took her into the clan.
She swore the omerta oath as one of them, and they've been together for five years.
He took care of her and bought her respect with his position in the clan, but what did she pay with?
Her arse was getting fuçked by a mobster inside the clan oldest dusty building.
He killed the mobster already, and he already promised Wendy so much misery. Even death won't stop her punishment.
Angrily, he tore the wedding dress away from her dead body, then he readjusted himself.
He brought the belt down on the corpse so loud and hard merciless.
He began beating her.
He didn't stop, didn't pause at all.
One belt thrash after the other, one hitting sound after the other.
His breaths caught with the pouring shower, and the rage just ate deeper into his meridians.
He kept thrashing the corpse, breaking more than a few bones in her body. Deep welts and dark red marks decorated her skin.
Her skin bled madly, and Bobby laughed out, facing the dark sky.
"You shouldn't have done that, Wendy! You shouldn't have!!"
Then he picked up another belt from his car, starting the corpse-thrashing all-over again.
--
[House Of Esposito, Holding Room]
It was 8pm when Ivanna opened her eyes, and the headache that gripped her reminded her of how her neck was hooked with Bobby's shoe tip.
She coughed, pushing herself to sit up and study where they are.
A small windowless room with a surprisingly bright globe which shone on Ginny and Robert on the other side of the room.
"Robert!" She quickly crawled to them on her knees and palms.
"Ginny!"
The two opened their eyes at a time, and she helped them stand.
"Where are we?" Robert rushed to the door immediately, but the small door has too many chains in and out.
All he could hear is the footsteps of mobsters walking the hall outside.
"Geez, I lost a teeth...my jaw .." Ginny whimpered, touching her mouth.
"This wasn't a good idea after all," Ivanna muttered.
"It's all my fault, as the older idiot here, I should have stopped this plan halfway," Robert said.
"Don't blame yourself, Robert. We were desperate, and that was what implicated us. Now we only have to rely on Hayden to take care of our parents for the next two days cos it's obvious they're going to die. We got no money and we're also trapped..." Ginny cried, sitting on the ground devastatingly.
Ivanna wiped her own tears, consoling herself to be strong.
"No don't say that. Our parents won't die," she said.
"Accept reality, Iva. No one's gonna save us from this hellhole, and we'll probably die too cos ain't no way we're getting out," Ginny sniffled on the bare ground.
"I told you to stop saying that! Our parents ain't dying! I haven't even bought mum the bag I promised yet, I haven't bought dad his favorite designer shoe brand! They're going nowhere!!" Ivanna snapped.
Robert quickly hugged her.
She tried to break it immediately, but Robert held her back, realizing the only thing he could do in this situation is to be a consoler, though he's crying inside too, and it's starting to leak out of his eyes.
"Mum and dad can't die...they just can't..." She muttered.
"They won't," Robert replied for peace to reign.
Ginny kept sitting on the ground, arms wrapped on her knees as she shook with sudden cold.
She's feeling so sick, with fear.
--
[Next Morning]
As the door of the holding room slid open, the siblings stood to their feet, all with black under-eyes as a result of fear, sleeplessness and restlessness throughout the night.
It'd be useless to pull the move they pulled yesterday, so they just gently followed the ushering of the guards out of the room to the hall.
Surprisingly, there's no excessive guards to escort them, just the three guards who came to get them.
And that's to say the three guards are more than enough to humble them if they make any smart move.
The siblings were ushered down the hall of concrete, the silence in the hall is cold.
There's no mobster, no guard, no Esposito sibling or maid in sight.
Are they all waiting somewhere for their arrival?
Where are these guards taking them?
These questions danced in Ivanna's mind, and her heart skipped sudden beats when they left the concrete hall and entered a panelled one.
They walked that one for another five minutes before entering a steel walled corridor.
The more they walked, the higher the siblings dear got.
Are they taking them to slaughter?
They opened an additional steel door, going up a metal staircase which led to another session of the clan.
Here, cobwebs are everywhere as if it has lacked visitation for years, and there are poisonous spiders hanging between the webs.
Ginny almost walked into one, but Robert quickly pulled her to a safe side, and the guards all chuckled at their faces.
"Still boldly saving her from the spiders? Do you even have any idea where y'all fuckin idiots are going?" One of them said.
"Don't talk to us!" Ivanna replied with a furious snap.
"She's the stubborn one," another guard pointed a finger forward, and the rest laughed again.
Stubbornness gets tamed here, and they'd have fun taming her.
They left the staircase and entered a new dimension entirely.
A iron door stood in the middle of solid concrete, and few steps from the door, they could all already hear loud deafening noise from inside.
Dread overtook them again, and they stood close to each other as the door was pushed open with a metal rod.
They entered the Sinners Assembly Quarters, and their chest nearly tore at the crowd of mobsters everywhere.
On the ground floor, on the second floor, on the flat railings, beside the dissected pillars, and some are even sitting on the open roof.
They're much, and their noise increased when the siblings were led inside, laughter included.
There are guards beside the walls, and maids in the center.
A real full house of mafia mob.
The siblings stopped feeling their own heartbeats at this point, but despite that, they didn't let their dread show till they got to the judgment row where they were pushed to their shaky knees.
Then...they saw the Esposito family.
Don Anthony and Donna Felicia sat on magnificent chairs in the exact center, and their eyes are closed in.
Bacardi and Sandra stayed two gaps away from them at the south.
Bacardi smiled creepily when her eyes locked with Robert's.
Bobby and Leonardo stood at another near gap, and Lissa stood between them like their mascot.
She's still wearing Leonardo's shirt from yesterday, but now she wore bum shorts under it.
"You mentioned your mother was coming," Bobby said.
"She'd be late," Lissa replied.
Leonardo cleared his throat, and that was enough for the mob noise to stop as the trial started immediately.
"Robert Cooper, a poor secretary to a underdeveloped plastic company. Ivanna Cooper, a poor stuntwoman who gets used with low payment in action movie productions, Ginny Cooper, a fresh college graduate. Your parents are between life and death at Dew Hospital," a guard read out a summary of their life biography.
The siblings swallowed at the same time, as if their skeletons has just been pulled out of the cupboard.
"I'm gonna ask the same question thrice, and that's because y'all are young fools, and might need time to make up your minds," Donna Felicia spoke.
Ivanna folded her hot palms on her laps, and Ginny felt sweat dripping on her armpits.
Robert shifted on his knees, still feeling the stings from his dîck.
"Where did you all get the blueprint from? Who gave you Intel?" Felicia continued.
"Beware of wrong answers, cos there's an acid tub..." Don Anthony gestured to the right where an oozing steamy acid tub really is.
"And there's a guillotine blade," Anthony gestured to the left where a sharp, brandishing guillotine blade sat like a weapon of doom.
There's blood on the blade, meaning it's in constant use.
Ginny squeezed her thighs together to avoid peeing on herself.
"We bought the blueprint from the underworld hub, and we targeted the money vault cos it belongs to the Armando family, same stupid family who abandoned several brutally injured people in the hospital including our parents!" Ivanna spoke up suddenly.
"You damn harlot! How dare you call the Armandos stupid when your family can't even boast of three square meals a day! Shut up!!" Lissa snapped from where she stood.
"Where did you get the blueprint from? Be reminded that this is the second time I'll be asking." Donna Felicia repeated, her features darkening like coal.
Her neck leaned forward, throat bobbing with venom.
"We got it from the underworld hub like Ivanna said," Robert replied.
"They're still thinking this is a playground," Sandra said.
"Because this is only the first part of the interrogation, when the second part starts with Leonardo's inhumane tortures, they'll learn," Bacardi drummed her fingertips on the table.
"The drama will soon be over when one of them goes down. Leo and Bobby have been unusually quiet, not a good sign." Sandra huffed.
Ginny is already crying, the pee she has been holding finally poured out from the middle of her legs.
"I'll be the one to ask the question for the third and last time," Don Anthony talked, resting his elbows on the mahogany table in front of him.
He's still smiling, but it's a burning one, like a cursed smile.
The quarters turned miasmic, tension and anxiety hung thick in the atmosphere like a poisonous fog.
The siblings could hear each other's heartbeats like drums.
"Where did you get the blueprint from? Say the name," Don Anthony asked for the third time.
The three siblings hesitated, for one long minute.
Then, Ivanna opened her shivering lips...
"We got it from the underworld hub," she repeated the lie for the third time, and hell broke lose.
The brothers lost all patience.
Leonardo and Bobby moved at the same time, their guns kissed each other before they aimed forward with sharp points.
Click.
The gunshot rumbled through the quarters like dry thunder, and their bullets sliced the air.
They both aimed for the same person—Ginny.
The two bullets hit Ginny's chest like bombs, and both Robert and Ivanna felt their hearts evaporating.
Eyes popped, mouths almost ripped apart with screams...
"Ginny!!