"Mummy? Daddy? What's wrong?" A small voice spoke.

They looked to the door to see Rio stood with tears in her eyes and her lip quivering.

Oh fuck.

Franco immediately loosened the hold he had on Charlie's neck. He saw that Charlie, the love of his life, his woman, his wife had bruises littering her neck; caused by him.

He looked back at Rio, then back again at Charlie. He shook his head and stormed out of the bedroom, ignoring Rio's pleas and calls to stop-how heartless.

"Mummy?" Rio mumbled, she cautiously walked towards her mummy. Charlie swooped her up into her arms and stroked her chubby cheeks.

"It's alright, baby." Charlie hummed into her ear, she sat down on the edge of the king sized bed with Rio still in her arms.

"Is Daddy angry with me?" Rio whimpered, she was on a mission to apologise to her Daddy about her naught behaviour but, obviously it never ended up happening.

"Oh my goodness, of course not baby. If anything he is angry with me, so don't you worry your pretty, little head about that." Charlie cradled her daughter, she was the most precious thing in her life.

Of course she didn't want Rio to get hurt or even worse killed, she was her daughter and if anything were to happen to her-her heart would break.

She had to do this for Rio, the more she thought about it the more she understood Franco's intentions. It was for the best.

"Baby, how do you feel about going on an adventure for a while hm?" The mother rubbed her cheek with her daughter's. Rio was intrigued, never had she been on a proper adventure before.

"What kind of adventure?" Rio asked, her big, silver eyes stared up at her Mummy. Rio had always wanted to be Dora The Explorer, now it stood a chance of becoming true.

"You will stay here in Brazil, you can go and explore all the different places and eat anything and everything you want. Won't that be fun?" Charlie spoke in an excited voice, when actually all she wanted to do was cry.

Rio was beyond excited, all she had ever wanted to do was explore. But, little did she know it meant she would be separated from her parents.

"That's s'cool!" Rio squealed, she was wriggling in her mother's arms from all the excitement. "We will have so much fun!"

"Who's we, baby?" Charlie cuddled her daughter more, she didn't want to let her baby go.

"Me, you, Daddy and bubbas, silly Billy!" The little, three year old giggled at her Mummy's silliness. However, the more Rio spoke, the more her mother's heart was breaking.

"Oh my sweet girl." Charlie spoke, her voice breaking-tears threatened to fall from her eyes. "How about you and Frankie go bake some cookies, whilst I go looking for Daddy."

"Otay!" Rio giggled, she jumped out of her Mummy's arms and went running for Frankie. Charlie on the other hand broke down into sobs, how could someone want to harm something so pure and sweet.

Charlie was sobbing for a good twenty minutes, until her breaths slowed down. She stood from her position on the bed and wiped her tears like the bad bitch she is.

She was on a mission, but she needed to find Franco first.

-----

"Fuck no!"

"You've got to be kidding?"

"First Olive, now this!"

Rio's brothers didn't take the news of leaving Rio behind very well. Knives and guns got drawn but, in the end they knew it was for their princesse's safety.

And their princess means everything to them, if something were to happen to Rio-no doubt they would all fall into a state of depression.

"When is it happening?" Frankie questioned darkly, at that moment he hated every inch of his father and Charlie. They gave him something so pure, special and innocent; only to snatch it away from him.

He would get Rio back, no matter the costs.

"Our plane is due to leave in a week, your grandparents will be taking care of Rio until everything has been taken cared of with the Stidda and the rat."

The brothers gave one another unsure looks, they wanted to protest and express their very colourful vocabulary to Franco and Charlie. But, they knew best to never prod the devil with the stick.

"How long?" Luca said, his voice void of emotion. It was like a switch had been flicked inside his brain-the once bubbly, happy brother now emotionless.

Both Franco and Charlie shared uneasy looks with one another, even they couldn't tell them how long they would be living without their baby by their side.

"We don't know." Charlie stated shyly, very shyly. The bond she had begun to build with the brothers had snapped, like Thanos's fingers.

Marcello on the other hand was extremely quiet, he was like a ticking time bomb waiting to blow. One wrong word would send him on a killing frenzy, nobody wanted to face the wrath of Marcello Tobias Esposito.

Nobody.

"Questo è fottutamente ridicolo, lascerò la mia sorellina in un paese straniero!" (This is fucking ludicrous, am I hell leaving my baby sister behind in a foreign country!) Marcello shouted out, jumping from his seat.

Franco's eyes darkened once again, whereas Charlie kept her head down and fiddled with her freshly painted nails.

Their family was breaking and they didn't even know it.

A/N:

I am sorry for the short chapter.

I had a University interview today, so all my focus has been on that.

Lots of love,

Mia. X