Aida looked at herself in the mirror once more and walked out of the bathroom.

Draco looked up at the sound of his mate opening the door to the bathroom and he stared at her. Rising to his feet slowly he circled his arms around her waist. "Look at me," he whispered. Her blue and green eyes were dull and encased in red—Draco felt his heart break. "I'm sorry, Sweetheart."

The Queen nodded and leaned into his chest, breathing in his scent that she loved so much. "It's okay," she muttered. "It was bound to happen one day."

"Just because it was going to happen, doesn't make it okay."

"I know." Taking a step back she craned her head to look up at him. "The business is mine now."

"The business?" Draco watched Aida raise an eyebrow. "You mean the Mafia?"

"The Mafia, the hotel chains, the company—it's all mine. When I graduated high school, my parents told me that if something happened to them, everything would be mine. I've given a lot of thought to who would run what, I just need to talk to my siblings about it."

"We'll do that later, yeah? Maybe before we leave New York?"

Raising up on her toes to kiss him, Aida sagged under the weight of his comfort. "I love you."

"I know," he whispered in her ear. "I love you too, now let's go get the kids."

The funeral was packed. But when Aida had parents as famous as they were it made sense. Aida swayed from side to side, in hopes to keep a sleeping Cai in her arms, asleep.

Beside her, Draco was doing the same with Percy.

Dropping a red rose on the shared graves, Aida stepped back and shook her hair out of her face. "Come on Maverley," Aida squeezed her daughters hand. "Drop your rose and blow Nonna and Nonno a kiss."

Maverley followed her mother's instructions and then looked up at the woman who changed her life, with big eyes. "Mommy?"

"Yes Princess?"

"Did Nonna and Nonno love me?"

Aida laughed and squatted down. "They loved you and your brothers very much."

Wrapping her small arms around her mother's neck, Maverley hugged her tightly.

"Do you want a moment alone," Draco spoke softly in Aida's ear—his lips touching hers.

Aida shook her head, "no I'm okay."

Glancing over her expression, Draco nodded when he found no sense of hesitation. "Let's go then."

Aida sighed as she looked around the house she had grown up in. The front door opened and she turned slightly to see Alessia, Saffron, and Jock walking through the threshold with their respective partners. "Hi," she dropped her shoulders. Since graduating, Aida was anything but close with her siblings.

Alessia rolled her eyes. "Why did you call us here?"

"I have something I want to talk to you all about." Aida fidgeted with her fingers. "As you know, everything that Maman and Papa owned is mine."

"Here we go again," Alessia snarked. "All you do is sit here and talk about how much you have and how much better you are than us!"

Aida felt herself shrinking back into her shell as her sister yelled at her.

"You know, some of us actually had to work to get to where we are now! Nothing was just handed to us on a silver platter."

Aida wanted to laugh at how ironic her sister sounded. Everything was handed to them on a silver platter, most of them didn't even need to work to be where they are now—it was all given to them, not earned. "Can you just listen to what I have to say for one second please," Aida whispered.

But Alessia continued to ramble on and on.

"Enough!" Aida yelled, her menacing tone in her voice. "I didn't come here to fucking argue. I've known my entire life what I was going to do with the businesses if something happened to our parents, but no ever bothered to ask. Why? Because you all think I'm selfish and undeserving—but that's not the fucking case! Now if you would just fucking sit down and shut up, I could tell you what I was thinking."

Awestruck by their sister's harsh language, the other three siblings quickly took a seat.

"Nothing is finalized yet, but these are my ideas. Saffron and Darius would run the Mafia in my place. Since it is impossible for me to give it over unless I die and I know Darius is in the business, I want everything to be in good hands. Jock, I want you to be the CEO of Ace. Traveling, building new hotels, the whole nine yards—I trust you. Alessia," she turned to her sister. "You've had your heart set on running Jordan's and I want to honor your dream. In all of these cases you would think of me as an owner, sharing weekly reports, but everything else is yours to play with."

"You're joking." Alessia said, her jaw dropping to the floor.

"No," Aida confirmed. "I'm not joking. I'll give you until the end of the week to think about it."

"What are you doing with the properties?"

Her gaze turned to her brother. "All except this one I was thinking about doing short term rental, but if you have any objections to it then we can talk about that too."

"And Millie? Are we just going to forget about our other sister?"

Aida sat down in her chair. "I'm flying down to see her in three days. I already know she wants nothing to do with us, but I'm giving her the Maldives house—she's always loved it more than the rest of us."

They talked amongst themselves, finding it almost too easy to come to a conclusion. In the end, Aida and Draco ended up with six of the fourteen properties in their name, the others were sold.

"What's the verdict?" Draco asked, walking into the hotel room they were occupying.

"We've decided on the houses; we'll get six, seven will be sold and the money split, and one will be given to my other sister."

"Which properties did we get?" Wrapping an arm around her waist, Draco pulled them flush against each other.

"California, Colorado, England, Israel, Singapore, and Switzerland."

He whistled. "Alright, short or long term rental?"

"Short term—3 to 90 days. I think the money we make off the homes should be divided, some to the kids, some to charity. It could be based on the leading issue in that area."

"Give me an example," he twirled her around as they listened to At Last! by Etta James.

"Like the house in California, half the money could go to the wildfires."

"And the one in Colorado?"

Aida pondered and then answered. "Weed."

Draco threw his head back and let out a loud laugh, followed by Aida giggling.

Aida swiveled her head to look at her mate as they drove down the streets of Anniston, Alabama.

"Yes?" Draco asked, able to feel Aida staring at him.

"When we get there I need you to stay in the car with the kids."

"What?" He glanced over at her briefly as they came to a rolling stop. "No."

Aida let out a groan and her head fell back against the headrest. "It's not safe for you to be here," she whispered. "If someone sees you, things could get out of hand and the police could be called. Promise me you'll just stay in the car."

"Alright," he nodded his head. "I promise."

Pressing a quick kiss to his lips, Aida got out of the car and looked up at the Victorian styled home. Her nerves were high as she walked towards the home that housed her estranged sister. Sucking in a breath, Aida rang the doorbell and stepped back.

"Yes?"

Aida turned at the sound of her sister's southern drawl.

"Can I help you?"

"Hi Millie," she dropped her shoulders. "It's Aida."

Millie stared wide-eyed at her youngest sister. "What are you doing here?"

"There was a helicopter crash in Indonesia—our parents were on that plane."

A sob left Millie's mouth as she took in the news her sister was sharing with her.

"The funeral already happened, but I figured you chose not to go when I didn't hear back from you."

"You sent a letter?"

"Yeah. Did you not get it?"

Millie shook her head, "no um Brody checks our mail. He must have seen it and forgot to mention it to me."

"Right," Aida dragged out.

"Do you want to come inside? Brody took the boys out to go fishin." Pushing the door open, Millie guided Aida into the kitchen and poured her a glass of sweet tea.

"Listen," Aida said after she gulped down a glass of sweet tea. "We've split the properties up already—Draco and I took six, we're selling seven and splitting the money, and the other one we wanted to give to you."

Millie's head shot up, "which one?"

"The one in the Maldives. You've always liked it more than any of us."

"Why though? God, after everything I've done to you, why do you still treat me like one of your own?"

"Because you're a DeLuca and we take care of our own."

Draco turned around and stared at his twin sons who were in the backseat gurgling away in their own little language. With a lazy grin on his face he turned back to face the proper direction and began to watch people walk their dogs and say hi to neighbors. Someone rapped on the window causing him to jump out of his gaze. "Afternoon Officer," he tipped his head as he rolled down his window.

"What are you doing here?"

Draco wordlessly fumbled around for his phone, hoping to switch it to video without any noise. "I'm sorry?"

"I asked what you're doing out here. We don't get your kind out here very often and you're scaring some of the neighbors."

"I'm sorry, Sir, I'm just waiting on my wife."

"You're wife, huh?" The officer leaned in and looked to the back, his eyes falling on the little boys. "Are those your kids?"

"I'm sorry, but how is this relevant?"

"Step out of the car."

"What?"

The police officer sneered. "You heard me, step out of the car."

With furrowed brows, Draco stepped out of the car with his hands raised. Draco looked up at the sound of the front door opening, "Sweetheart, I'm alright." His arm shot out to stop her from running forward and that's when the shot went off.

~

nice lil cliffhanger. idk if y'all have read any of natasha preston's books (on wattpad and in bookstores) but istg they always end in a cliffhanger but they're so good i love them

i decided not to do a question of the day with this chapter, merely because of the way it ended. as a poc it's important for white people to know that saying things like "i don't see color" is in fact racist. and posting things on social media because all ur friends are doing it too, is just ignorant and you're forcing yourself to be someone you're not. so much is going on in the world today, that has been happening for years now but no one was ready to talk about it until George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. to all the white people who are reading this, it's important for you to be actively anti-racist, call out family members and friends and teachers, don't just sit by and watch it happen because then you're being a racist. if you as a white person are uncomfortable with what someone is saying, then imagine how the poc in the room feel. i'm going to leave you with this:

"There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you're going to be part of the problem." - Eldridge Cleaver

🕊