MERCURYS POV.

"No! I won't agree to that!"

"I wasn't asking for your permission Adaline."

"No! I have to try to make things right, and you won't even let me near her?!"

I clenched my eyes as I came back down the stairs, trying to drown out the shouting.

"The three of you are the last people I would trust with her. Don't act surprised."

   "Angelo, she's still my daughter!"

"Mom, just listen to him." I came into the conversation just as he was about to yell at her again.

    "Mercury-,"

"Mom, I don't feel comfortable with you anymore. And I feel the same way about your family."

   "Mercury, look I know you're upset." She looked straight at me. "But he's not the same as Warren. They're good people. You'd be safe."

   Yeah right.

"I don't trust any of you." I shrugged. "No one has given me a reason to trust any of you. I don't want to trust any of you. Just leave it alone."

    I knew she didn't want to hear those words leave my mouth, but I didn't care.

   She needed to hear the truth.

ANGELOS POV.

   "What happened up there?" I asked as I opened the car door up there.

  "Nothing." She shrugged.

Yeah right.

"Mercury." I warned.

I knew her well enough to know that she was avoiding telling me something.

  "Where's Gino?" The topic was easily changed.

Oh this isn't over.

It didn't take me long to see him.

  He was across the street, flirting with a fucking neighbor.

   I'm going to kill him.

"I'll be back." I shut her door.

    What a dumb bitch.

"Hey. I'm going to have to steal my brother here." I slung an arm around his shoulder. "His husbands mother just flew in and trust me, she's a handful." I winked before pulling him away.

    "What the fuck Angelo?" He fussed at me.

"You were out flirting instead of inside of that damn house? Really?" I shoved him towards the car.

 
    "Hey! I was just trying to find Mercury a godmother!" He attempted you defend himself.

   "Just get in the car you prick." I rolled my eyes.

   I should've been an only child.

"So I went out with this girl last night, smoking hot. All around."

   I was too busy watching Mercury through the rear view again.

 
She's too quiet.

"Ow! What the hell?" He asked after I gave him a sharp jab to the side.

  "Women aren't objects you dick head."

   I was hoping that would at least get Mercury to talk.

   She always loves to teach Gino about feminism.

   "I never said they were-,"

"You're treating them like they are."

"Oh great. First your daughter, now you." He crossed his arms.

   Speaking of which.

I swerved into the next couple of lanes, turning into the parking lot of a gas station.

"Angelo what the hell?!"

"Angelo!"

   Oh now she wants to talk.

I unbuckled my seat belt and got out of the car.

    "What are you-,"

I slammed my door shut and opened Mercurys door.

    "Move over."

"Why do I have to-,"

"Because I said so. Move."

   "This is incredibly stupid." She sighed as she undid her seat belt, moving over to her right.

   "Talk." I demanded after getting in the back of the car, slamming the the door closed.

"What are you-,"

"What the hell happened upstairs?"

"Nothing happened up-,"

"Mercury Lesca." I warned.

God I feel like my mother.

She already knew that I was getting mad if I used both her first and last name in the same sentence.

   Maybe I am my mother, Jesus.

"Violet just said some stuff, ok?"

I can call a child a bitch right? Is there something against that?

"What stuff did she say?"

"It was nothing important." She shrugged.

Of course it wasn't.

"Mercury, I'm not going to get used to this whole 'nothing' thing, so cut it the fuck out and tell me what the hell she said." I snapped.

   Fuck.

I never snap at Mercury.

She sighed before answering. "She said that I wasn't strong enough to keep my mother around, much less even be affiliated with this family."

  She what?

"I know you want to go back and go all psycho again, but I was trying to avoid that then, and I'm trying to avoid that now." She finished.

   Damn.

I hadn't realized I had stayed silent for so long.

   "Can we go home now?"

I was holding myself back from ordering an immediate hit on that fucking family.

  But she doesn't like me doing that.

"Yeah." I got out of the car again.

I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I fussed at her.

     I fucked up.

"Ok, that's it. I'm starving. I'm ordering pizza. Where's my niece?" Gino declared as he walked into my office.

     "She went up to her room as soon as we got back." I grumbled.

I have to talk to her.

"Order whatever. I don't care." I got up from the desk.

     I'll regret that later.

"Mer?" I knocked before opening her door.

   She was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling.

   I do the same thing when I can't focus on just one problem.

  Without a word, I walked over, and laid down next to her.

    Everything was quiet for a bit.

"She's right, isn't she?"

"Who?"

"Violet."

Fuck no.

"She's not even close to being right." I chose the nicer worded answer.

   "You guys are running an underground business that running probably half the country. And what do I do? I cook. I can shell a lobster in thirty seconds, but I couldn't tell you anything about how to plan a raid."

    "Mercury, you are the smartest person I have ever met in my life. If you weren't meant to be in this family, I wouldn't have been given you."

   "I don't know. I just feel like I hold everyone back sometimes. That's probably why mom left to-,"

   "I'm stopping you right there." I looked at her. "Do I lie to you?"

   "I don't think so, no."

"Your mother didn't leave because of you. She left because she's selfish. She stayed with Warren for so long for the same reason. What he did to you was because she couldn't handle herself, not because she couldn't handle you."

     Her eyes held understanding in them.

"Do you think Nick is the same?"

     "I think Nick is just a little more of an idiot than Gino. If he can yell at you, then he's seriously not intellectually gifted. I can't even snap at you without regretting it. Which, by the way, I do apologize for earlier."

    Thats been hanging over me for two hours, oh my god.

"Don't apologize, parents do that sometimes. Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it." She laughed.

    È una bella suono.

"Y-you're doing it again." She began to sober up.

"Hm?"

"You're staring at me. Again."

"Oh sorry. You're just really pretty. And you look like me when you laugh, so now I'm almost sure that we are related."

"DNA test wasn't enough for you?"

I shrugged.

"With the way you two get along, I still think you might be Ginos."