Being called his first name by his own daughter hurt Franco more than words could actually describe.

In that moment he realised his daughter was not the sweet, innocent girl he left behind in Brazil all those years ago.

She was a strong, young lady.

A strong, young lady that he, his wife and son's had left behind. A strong, young lady that had pushed and fought to become the person she is today-without the help of her family.

"Rio, baby my how much you have grown." Franco reached out to his daughter to which Carson protectively stepped in front of his girlfriend.

Franco flinched at the action, furthermore making him wince in pain due to the freshly stitched bullet wound in his chest.

They all stood there for a couple of minutes or so until Franco's pain had lessened.

"Are you going to let us in or what?" Rio raised her eyebrows at her father and folded her arms. "It's very rude to keep guests standing for a long time, especially those that have travelled many hours to see you."

Franco tried to stop himself from smirking, she was definitely his daughter alright. Her mannerisms proved that very much so.

"Come this way, we've all been waiting to see you Principessa." Franco stepped aside letting his guests enter his recovery room.

As soon as Rio stepped through the door-she was met with a sight she never thought she'd see again in her life.

Her mother and brothers were all slumped in chairs surrounding Franco's recovery bed with very nervous expressions plastered across their faces.

Never in her life has she seen her family look so broken and vulnerable.

Sucks to suck I guess...

Upon hearing their footsteps, the Esposito mother and brother's looked up from their hands only to widen their eyes.

With disbelief on their faces they all rushed out of their seats to greet the young girl, as if they hadn't abandoned her many years prior.

"Lady bug?"

"Angel eyes?"

"Rugrat?"

"Riri?"

Before they could have her within their grasps, Carson stepped in front of Rio once again.

This angered the Esposito brothers.

"Move." Luca, the second-oldest brother commanded darkly. Never in his life had anyone forbid him from doing anything-he wasn't about to let a little bitch stopping him from seeing his sister.

"I don't fucking think so."Carson stated, he stepped towards him to which Rio rolled her eyes at their interaction-this was going how she expected it to.

She took her time analysing every single person in the room, minus Carson. Everyone in the room had changed, her brothers looking more masculine and mature and her mother looking older with a mature essence to her.

She was becoming overwhelmed, but didn't let her emotions show.

"Can we just skip the pleasantries and get to the point of why we are actually here please?" She motioned with her fingers. "Because if I remember correctly, it was you all who left me without a family in the first place so I don't see why I am all of a sudden a part of the family now."

Everyone looked to Riri with softened expressions, she was breaking. It took her too long to get over what happened over a decade ago and she wouldn't let herself spiral into another depression again.

She was done with that shit.

"Rio, baby..." Charlotte spoke up, but before she could finish her sentence Rio cut in.

"I'm not your baby nor am I your Principessa." Rio snapped. "So get that into that fucking thick skull of yours."

Things were becoming heated and they hadn't even been there five minutes, Carson knew he had to get Rio out of that room or else shit would hit the fan.

"Right, I don't think us visiting at this time is beneficial for any of us." He spoke confidently and held onto Rio's hand to calm her down. "Why don't we all arrange to meet tomorrow for breakfast, when we have all been well rested and had time to cool down?"

And that would be a breakfast to remember, they all just didn't know that yet.

Author's Note:

I'm so sorry for the short chapters, I am really struggling to manage my time with uni, my story and socialising etc.

I promise from not this Monday but the next I will write longer chapters.

Also!! Thank you so much for 96k reads; it actually makes me so emotional that you all enjoy reading my book. Never in my life did I think this book would get this many reads and votes, so thank you guys I wouldn't be where I am today without you all.

On another note I would really like people to make me some templates for this book as I am getting bored of the original template, so I think we need to spice things up as I can't create covers for shit LOL.

Anyways, if you have any plots, quotes or scenes you would like me to include in my book then please comment them in the comments section or just message me privately-either way will do.

I just really want my readers to have an involvement within the creation of my book and to know that you would still be interested as the story of Rio's life progresses.

I love you all.

Mia. X