L E O N A R D O

When I woke up I was surprised at the fact that I slept great. And slept through the whole night at that.

I look down feeling a small weight in my chest and see Katara still sleeping on my chest from last night with her hair all sprawled out around her.

I grab my phone that was resting on the side table and see that it's 10:00 am. I need to leave soon and all I can think about it how angry she'll be with me.

My first initial plan was to leave without her knowing, but I realized that when I come back she'd hate me even more than she does now so I decided to tell her everything before I leave and maybe, hopefully she'll understand.

My hand rubs up and down her back in a soothing manner as my hold tightens around her.

Her warmth makes me feel the comfort that I haven't felt in a while and these days that I've gone without her made me realize that I enjoyed the comfort feeling that she gives me and that I shouldn't run from it anymore.

She starts squirming in her sleep and turns to her side off of my chest so I change my position so her back was to my chest.

My mind drifts back to earlier yesterday when I had went to retrieve something important.

When I was 18 my mother pulled me to the side one day and said we needed to talk. She had said, "Son, I'm getting a bit old now and I feel it's time I gift you with this."

"Momma you're still the most youthful woman ever in my eyes but what gift?"

She waves me away at my claim of her being youthful and says, "Oh you don't need to lie to me Leonardo, I've accepted that I'm old, but anyway, when I was a little girl my father gifted me this necklace."

She opens the box to present me the necklace and it was beautiful.

She says, "He always joked around and said he gotten it for me because a magical fairy was in it to help guide me through life and to be there for me when he wasn't going to be there since I was going to be moving to the States with mother while he stayed in Italy for business."

She smiles down at the necklace reminiscing the moment then says, "But my mother told me as I grew older he gifted me it because he wanted me to have something to remind me of home and of him because he wasn't staying in Italy because of business, he owed a debt to these powerful people and since he wouldn't have enough money in time to repay them back, he was a dead man although my mother couldn't tell me that at a young age."

She sniffs and says, "I want you to have it Leo, yes it's silly and girly but I've only had boys. I want you to hold onto this for know so you know I'll always be with you even when I'm physically not. But when the times comes I want you to give this to whomever you fall in love with."

She looks me in the eyes and puts her hand to my cheek and says, "You've always been my tough child and you don't always know how to verbally speak your feelings or show your emotions well but giving this to the girl you'll come to love will show her that you'll love her no matter the distance or circumstances."

A small frown graces my lips and I grumble and say, "No one will ever love me that way momma."

She smiles at me and says, "Hush child don't say that, yes you're difficult but not impossible dear, I promise you, there is a girl out there who will love you with every ounce of her being and she will fight for you son, she will love you until the day she cannot."

She brushes my hair to the side that was starting to grow longer than she liked and asks, "Promise me you won't treat your love the way your father treats me son."

She stares at me with pleading eyes and mortified I say, "I would never momma, I won't be father."

She nods and kisses my forehead and says, "Now go on and put that somewhere safe where you won't lose it."

I made sure to have the necklace with me wherever I went, afraid I'd misplace it or forget it. The beautiful black and white diamonded necklace rested in the boxed case either in a pocket of my jeans or jacket or on display in my room.

My brain snaps out of the memories that were resurfacing and I make myself stop thinking about it refusing to remember anymore.

I've turned into what my mother didn't want me to become and I can't help but feel guilty.

I haven't harmed Katara physically but I have emotionally and I can't help but feel disgusted that I became the man I despised the most in this world.

My thoughts go back to my sick bastard of a dad that my mother loved and I can't help but wonder why she did.

How did she love him?

Yes he loved my mother with his whole heart but that was his problem.

There was no room for him to love me and Luca and our little brother Gavino.

He treated us as if we were dirt in the bottom of his shoes and in the worst ways possible. He put us through the worst types of torture and it was almost as if it was what he looked forward to most of the day.

The day he stopped breathing was the day I could finally breathe.

I remember vividly when he died and I always will, I had enough of his torture.

He grabbed an iron rod, burnt the ends of them and burned Luca over and over again as he had his men from the mafia hold me down while I screamed begging them to harm me instead but they only laughed and gave me a punch for everytime I didn't listen to what they said.

My father got tired of my pleas to leave Luca be so he  started giving me the torture with the iron rod just to shut me up.

I felt useless against him and his men. I had no muscle, no weapon, and no voice down here.

Luckily mom was out with Gavino and he didn't have to endure this pain that we had to endure although I'd rather take Luca's pain than let him go through it as well.

After that night I had enough of it and the anger coursing through my body wouldn't stop.

I needed him gone for good.

I barged out my room and frantically look for him, feeling blinded by my rage and disgust for the pathetic excuse of a father.

I looked through the whole house and see him in the kitchen. Luca was there also and my father looked as if he was going to stab him with a knife.

He was facing the other way from me so he couldn't see me but Luca had fear written all over his as he stuttered out, "P-please don't do this f-father!"

He shouts back, "Shutup you bastard child!! You're mother should've never had you and your piece of shit brothers!" He gently runs the knife down Luca's arm causing blood to spill out and for Luca to grunt in pain.

He smirks evily and says, "God look how weak you are, you are nothing."

Tears roll down Luca's face and the bastard says, "I want to hear you say you're nothing and that you're a worthless piece of shit before I dig this knife into and serve your insides to your dog for dinner."

Luca cries as he says, "I'm worthless and nothing."

He laughs loudly and says, "You and your brother are worthless pieces of shits, and to think he'll be the next leader, he's such a pussy that he cried his first kill. He's going to embarrass my name and you're going to pay for his mistakes!"

I quietly grab a knife from the knife holder that was luckily next to me on my left out the bastards line of sight.

He's going to pay for all the years of torture and trying to turn me into a killing machine and while I kill him, I'm going to enjoy it so much just like he wants me to.

All you could hear was Luca's hard breathing and crying and trying to hold in his fear and tears.

The metal clanked while I pulled it out and my father turned around quickly from hearing a noise and when he saw me he squinted his eyes and charged towards me and in a swift motion, without thinking I slashed his throat and his blood squirted all over my face and Luca's taking away our innocence forever.

I couldn't feel satisfied enough so I jabbed the knife into his chest making him fall to the ground. He was still alive and breathing not satisfying my hunger for him to be dead.

I stab him multiple times out of anger trying to subdue the pain and scream and say, "This is what you wanted right?! A big bad mafia leader son? You wanted me to be a killer? Here you fucking go!"

I didn't realize I was crying while stabbing him until I saw my tears falling onto his unrecognizable body and watching his eyes go dead and his body limp.

My stabbing stopped as I heard a sob and I looked up to see my mother covering her mouth with trembling hands at the scene and covering Gavino's eyes.

She sees my still sobbing form on the floor and runs over to me and holds me despite the blood I'm drenched in and says, "Come here," and pulls me into a tight hug as I cry into her shoulder letting out all the pain and anger I was feeling.

She caresses my back and says, "I've got you son, I've got you, he's gone."

Katara mumbles in her sleep and turns around again cuddling more into me and pulling me out of my painful memories.

My mother curses herself to this day for never knowing the extent of our torture but it wasn't her fault.

He was smart and calculated.

He kept her busy through the day and only harmed us when she wasn't home and when she was she would question why we were in bad shape and he claimed "we got into some fights at school" and his torturing was enough for us to go along with what he said, scared he might do worse.

Its been 10 years and it still haunts me to this day and I can't help but think, have I turned into him?

I shake my head head and rid the thoughts and hug Katara closer to my body and kiss her forehead.

I slowly detach myself from her body careful not to wake her up and go to my pants on the floor.

I go through the pocket and pull out the box and open it as I stare at the jewelry resting in there.

I sigh as I rest it on her dresser and decide to give it to her when I leave. When I leave there is no guarantee that I'll be back. I may even die trying to get them back and if I do then I want Katara to have this and it'll only ever be her I'll want so when she gets the necklace she knows.

Its hard for me to express how I feel and to say it out loud but if she wants me to, then I'll try my damn hardest to show her that I need her.

I turn around hearing her move a lot and go to her side. She wakes up and rubs her eyes adorably and asks, "Why are you up so early?"

I chuckle and say, "It's 10:00 baby."

She only groans in response and shoves her head in my chest.

I say, "Bambina I need to leave soon but I need to tell you something first."

She looks up confused and I say, "I think it's time that we have a proper conversation about everything."

First off, I'd like to thank everyone for there kind words in my last chapter, I'm grateful to have to all and thank you all for being so patient with me! I take the time everyday to read each and every one of your guys comments and I'm always laughing and feeling overall happy so thank you to all you beautiful people for making me feel a lot better. 💞

Tehehehe I hope you all enjoyed the small cliff hanger too and a whole lot more about Leo's past.

What's ur favorite era?

Mines is the 50's because of the music and the 80's because of style 🌙