As Maya and Salvatore entered the living room Diego and Gianni were playing the Call of Duty, there was a ton of junk food on the table. Diego instantly noticed that someone is entering the room

"What the fuck are you wearing?" he asked referring to the dress she borrowed from Nicole. Okay, so it was a little short so what?

It's not his business, right? Right. But Maya was left speechless by his too direct for her taste language. She noticed that Gianni wasn't looking too happy about her clothing choices either.

"Don't use that language around her" Simon chided appearing out of nowhere in the room with a book in his hands.

"Exactly she's 15 why the fuck is she wearing makeup and a mini dress?!" Gianni yelled clearly taking Diego's side

"Go change Maya," Simon said trying to defuse the situation

"I don't feel like it" did she really said it? Oh, she did. That words left Maya's mouth just now.

"Getting bratty aren't we little sister?" he said darkly and in response, Maya tried to stare into his eyes bravely, she felt like a prey provoking the predator to attack her.

"I can wear whatever I want" where was she getting this

"Wasn't she at Nicole's house? Why is she looking like that" Gianni asked and the attention in the room shifted to Salvatore who remained quiet through the whole exchange until now?

"Maya as I recall I already told you to listen to your brothers and be respectful. Stop talking back. You will go change in a minute first you will explain to your brothers what you were doing today since they seem to be curious"

"But I-"

"Yes?" he asked as a scary, challenging look appeared on his face

"Um so... I've met with a friend from school, we went for a coffee. He showed me how to solve quadratic functions"

"Wait did she just said he?" Gianni asked

"So you lied and said you're going to Nicole while you went out to meet with some dude?" ok when Simon put it like that with his calm voice it sounded bad.

"Who?" Diego asked darkly and Maya realized that revealing Lucas's identity wouldn't be wise.

"Just a friend," she said dumbly not sure how to get out of this one "You probably don't even know him" she added quickly and Diego smiled, he smiled.

"Then you need to introduce us of course"

"Yes Maya, we would love to meet a boy who is stealing our sister's heart and gets her in trouble," Gianni said playfully, but there was a dark glint in his eyes she didn't like. Oh, absolutely not.

"No one is stealing anything" she protested weakly and her cheeks turned red, she clearly wasn't helping her case here. This is when Salvatore interfered

"Have you been aware that this boy is interested in her or are you completely not paying attention to what she's doing at school?" Salvatore's voice was quiet but sharp

"Every time we see her in school she's with Nicole," Gianni said after a moment of silence.

"Diego, make sure this boy stays away from her" Salvatore ordered "Also, all of you should keep a better eye on her, or I will start seeing you as incompetent for the job. If you can't take care of a fifteen-year-old girl how can you take over the family business in the future? Gianni, take her to my office in an hour"

Ah there it is again, the family business mentioned but no details provided. Maya was starting to get tired of this.

As soon as Salvatore finished speaking Maya took it as an occasion to run to her room, she dreaded what will Salvatore want to talk about, but she also didn't want to stay in the same room as two older boys who are clearly upset about her recent choices.
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As Gianni arrived to Maya's room, he didn't even bother knocking. He dragged Maya out of her bedroom her straight towards Salvatore's office. As she tried to release herself from his grasp he just sent her an irritated look and that was enough for her to stop wriggling. Gianni was usually smiling and had a playful attitude she had no idea that it could shift to such anger and impatience, it was scary. She left wordlessly and even before entering Salvatore's office her chin already started wobbling.

"Tell me Maya do you know how our family obtained money and power it has today?" Salvatore asked and watched her carefully as she shook her head. She wasn't even sure how much power and money they have since they weren't telling her anything. She didn't want to say that part out loud, so she kept quiet "Because you see - we trust each other. Our word is something valuable, we keep promises, we never betray each other. With this type of loyalty comes power. When you keep your promises people learn to respect your words, your words mean something"

She couldn't look at him. She knew he was referring to the promise she made about studying with Nicole, she broke that promise by sneaking out and meeting with Lucas.

"Since you came here you had a problem with telling the truth and I have given you time to learn that this will never work in your favor, on the contrary, it will get you in more trouble than it's worth it, but maybe I have been too lenient with you" Salvatore explained and then paused for a moment. "You know Maya, I have been entrusted with raising your older brothers who had a talent for getting in trouble whenever they got a chance, eventually they learned that things go my way, or they don't go at all. You will learn it as well. Fortunately for them, they have been raised by our principles from the beginning and knew which lines to never cross, you don't, and I am mindful of that but dear you need to realize that the trust once lost is not easily rebuilt, and it will take you a lot of time to make your word mean something to me again"

"I'm sorry," she said again this time she was just crying "I didn't mean to break the promise it just... happened" Maya was aware of how ridiculous that sounded, but she had no idea what else could she said. She had no idea how to defend herself at the moment maybe because she was aware that what she did was wrong.

"I know you are sorry and I hope you will learn from this situation, now to help the lesson stick I will not be giving you back I don't know how the punishments at mother's house looked like but you're grounded which means no cellphone, no video games, no television and no activities that aren't related to school"

To answer Salvatore's question - Maya has never been grounded in her life, mother never punished her for anything because she simply put no boundaries on her. Her meeting with a boy wouldn't be a problem since it wasn't forbidden, see how easy it is? Salvatore should've learned a thing or two from her mother's parenting style.

Oh, so Salvatore must have visit Nicole's house where Maya left the phone. Was Nicole in trouble for helping her? Suddenly Maya felt guilty for dragging her cousin into this.

Salvatore continued

"At school, you will be sitting with your brothers, your relationship with Nicole is now put on hold. Lucas on the other hand... you won't be interacting with him at all, indefinitely. Since you need someone to help you with your studies I will find a tutor for you"

Suddenly a stupid idea appeared in Maya's head

"Wouldn't it be easier to just give me away?"

"Pardon?" Salvatore asked and surprised tinted his normally indifferent, cold voice 

"Just leave me. Send me to foster care or whatever it's obvious that I'm nothing but trouble for you"

"Child what are you talking about?"

"Ever since I get here I get in trouble. It must be hard for you" Maya tried again to make him see her point. There was no need to keep her, she was unfit for this house, she didn't understand its rules or the people living in it. She also didn't want to, she wanted to go back to Pittsburg, see her mother, have a movie night with aunt Nina and things like that, she didn't want to be here in the first place so why Salvatore even decided to bother to bring her here?

"Maya, I appreciate your consideration, but I would like you to assume that we have a completely different understanding of what can be considered "hard" for me. I can assure you that no matter what you do your presence here will not become unwanted" was that a spark of amusement in Salvatore's cold eyes?

"Why don't you just ditch me I don't understand," Maya asked in defeat, she didn't understand his reasoning

"I will never ditch you, Maya. You're my sister, my blood and you're stuck with me. Is that clear?" As she didn't answer to that Salvatore sighed tiredly "Maya, since the moment we've met you're trying to push me away, why is that? I will not leave, I will not give up on you, you're not too much so could you please stop giving up on me?"

At first, Maya looked at him surprised not being sure what he meant. Is she giving up on him? How? Was he referring to her running away from him the first day they met? There was something in his voice that was so unlike him when he spoke the last sentence, was it a hint of gentleness?  Was he asking her to give him a chance, to do things his way? Maybe she should?

"I- I how do you..."

"I wouldn't be really good at my job Maya if I didn't have an ability to read people behavior correctly. Sometimes it's the life or death situation. Now let me be clear; you are not leaving, I will not be leaving you either. You are stuck with me Alessio, Diego, Simon and Gianni weather you like it or not. Okay?"

"Okay"

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No matter how heartwarming her conversation with Salvatore was at the end she was forced to give up her laptop, she was also grounded and yes, no phone in sight, no entertaiment. It was a torutre. She was left alone with her thoughts.

Without an access to social media Maya had no choice but to start exploring the library at the house, and it was huge. It had ton of books and Maya never wanted to leave. She absolutely adored the place. Books kept her hidden from reality, and she desperately needed a place to seek refuge, a shelter.

She didn't need any more of bad news.

She was in a bad place mentally. The sudden change of parenting style from almost neglectful to authoritarian has been already challenging but beside that Maya has been trying to deal with her eating habits being controlled which means the only way to deal with stress she developed over the years - restricting or overeating was no longer available. It has left her in a state of mental anguish. She also had trouble with opening up to a therapist.

She was asking Salvatore every day for several weeks now if her mother's state has changed the answer was always negative. With that answer her chances of leaving this house anytime soon we're getting further and further away.

One day when she as routine required about her mom Salvatore stayed silent and then invited her to her office. He rarely maintained any physical contact but this time he put his hand on her shoulder as he was leading her through the door. She felt a power emanating from here and she wanted to borrow some of it to prepare herself for what she's about to hear

"I'm very sorry Maya"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Our mother passed away," Salvatore informed her with a blank look in his eyes.
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Thank you so much for all of your comments. This chapter is loner than the others I hope you like it <3 let me know what you think please I read all of your comments and really enjoy them.