Hey!!!

The Hanging Tree - James Newton Howard & Jenifer Lawrence

Luca's boyfriend: Tyrone. Imagine who you like if you want I'm not fussed.

🏳️‍🌈On 🏳️‍🌈with 🏳️‍🌈the🏳️‍🌈chapter🏳️‍🌈

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✨Emilia POV

"Dad?"

Alessandro spoke with such a shocked and crazed voice. He rubbed his eyes numerous amount of times to see if his eyes were deceiving him. I stifled to believe my sight too. Mostly because I feel like I needed glasses major time.

So this is dad.

The room was silently struck. Nobody could spark as the man pranced around the room. He seemed happy and joyful to be here. Not a single smile; he was smirking like a crazed Cheshire.

The man took a seat not too far away from me. One seat to be exact. The only seat left. Right next to me. I could smell him so close to me, too close for my liking. I was frightened to live an inch on my body. Even my goosebumps that pricked at my skin knew he was bad news.

The sounds he made whilst eating off of someone else's plate were disgusting. Sounded like he hadn't eaten in months. Years almost.

"Mhm in the flesh," he nods to Alessandro licking his fingers of the meat juices. He was moaning and complimented Valentina for her excellent cooking. He must be old news if he knew Valentina. No offence.

Even more, gasps fill the room and everyone inspected him like a piece of art.

I'm scared.

"Blade I'm scared," I whisper to him with a shaky voice. The man stops eating and looks my way choking on his meat. Lamb I think.

He slaps his chest to allow the food to slither down his throat. He doesn't say anything. Just looking at me through webbed eyes as though I was some precious jewel. I definitely stood out the list amongst the people in my dinosaur onesie most certainly drew my unwanted attention from the man.

Blade tries to not acknowledge the man, instead, he puts an arm around my waist and pulls me over to the opposite side of him.

There was a man that occupied the seat next to Blade so he gave him a look for him to move and so he did. We switched places so I was two seats away from the strange man. The man whose seat I was currently located in, looked intimidated and gulped when he sat down in my previous warm seat.

I could still smell him. He smelt of cold and wind. He smelt like cotton too. But rich cotton. His watch was enough for me to take the hint: a powerful rich man just like the rest of them.

"We thought you were-

Elijah was cut off, "dead?" The man asks in a proud and conflicted voice with a hint of irritation.

"Yeah. You died. Six years ago, dad," Axel fills in the deadly silence that put pressure on everyone's lungs except for mine.

"Yeah, I did. So you thought," he snickers under his breath and reaches over the table to snatch Luca's food leaving him whining. Quickly, slaps a hand over his mouth as though he was in trouble. His son was scared of him.

"Luca?! Oh, you're a big boy now ain't ya? Last I saw you, you were ten. How you doing, son?" He asks innocently like he didn't just wake up from the dead.

"Food." He gives a nervous chuckle scratching his neck. The only thing that was stopping him from crying was Tyrone squeezing his knee. I was short enough to see under the table discreetly at them. His lips still trembled and eyelashes battered like he was keeping the tears back.

I love how sensitive he is. It adds to his personality and characteristics as a human.

I was so confused. Who was this and why are they calling him dad? Does that make him my dad too? That can't be. Dad? Maybe he can be my dad too. Maybe he can the parent I always needed since mum.

My eyes were wrenches shut and my face was pressed into Blade's arm. I could feel the tension invading my lungs slowly; it was so hot in my body.

Taking a peek at the man, I could see he was staring right back at me like a mirror. I could see more for the scar that trailed down his neck into a spiral under his collar.

Still staring, he points at me and laughs wickedly. "Hehe, who are you? A little young to be here aren't you?" He breaks a chuckle.

"Shut up," it escapes my mouth before I had time to process what I was doing. Dead. I'm dead.

So I want yellow roses on my headstone and I want the most expensive option for being burnt into ashes, please. Oh and add some gravel and fence on there too and maybe a little bench for the people to cry on when I'm gone.

Thanks.

Again, people's eyes suddenly dart into my soul and expose me. He takes a glass from someone's dinner and downs the beverage and takes another and another. "Nice." He compliments the drink swivelling nothing in his glass.

"I'll ask again. Who. Are. You?" He grits out with a smirk that was more than a friendly gesture. But then something hits him, like a realisation.

"Emilia Noneofyourbusiness Russo," I smile back. Still, he stared at me with knitted brows and moves at hand to my face to strike down my cheek with a frigid callous.

"Just like your mother. Feisty," he retracts his hand when I smack it away from my face. He's probably been scratching his balls with that hand so I don't want to get herpes or whatever. "Dang I miss her, is she okay?" His face portrays sincere curiosity. He didn't know.

I open my mouth to say something but Blade stops me with a signal of opening his eyes widely.

"Well?" He asks me when I didn't answer. It's fine. It's fine. Just keep telling myself.

"She's dead," I look away. His face glows down like the light was drawn from his skin. "Sorry, baby girl. I didn't know," he squeezes my shoulder not too hard. I flinched.

'Baby girl.' It rolled off of his tongue too familiarly. It sounded so... personal. Like he's known me my entire life but I've known him less than twenty minutes.

"How are you doing, Blade?" The man asks him to place a hand on his shoulder but Blade chooses to ignore him.

The man shrugs and stands and burps into his hand, "okay party over you guys can leave now," he gaits over to the door and opens it to allow people to pass through. No one moves.

"Leave.... please." He says as though it's a vast amount of effort to use manners.

They all turn to look at Alessandro for an instruction. "Please leave," Alessandro commands them.

Once the swarm of people have left, it was only Luci, Mia, Cordelia, men and my brothers left in the room with the man.

"That includes you too," he points to Mia, Luci and Cordelia. They shake their heads no.

"I'm happy here thanks," Cordelia hooks her arm around Alessandro's for moral support.

"It wasn't an option goldy locks," he snickers her and used his thumb to point at the door. "It's a family meeting. You ain't family so piss off."

Mia gives Axel a kiss on the cheek then takes Luci by the hand and takes him out of the dining room with Cordelia following behind.

"I'll be in our room," she whispers to him just before she leaves. The way she used the possessive determiner didn't sit right with me. 'Our' just seemed too invasive. Like I had to share. Didn't like sharing things that belonged to me.

Should I leave too? I'm not exactly a part of this family reunion so I'll take my leave here.

My feet walk for the door but it's slammed shut just before I can leave. "No." The man commands me.

"Can you move? I'd like to go eat thank you. Food that doesn't taste like rich plants," I stomp my foot angrily.

"No."

"And who are you?" I question. I knew who he was, but I just didn't want to say it myself. I wanted him to say it first.

"Your dad. Show me some respect."

My dad.

"Pfft, my arse." I open the door again when he left to go sit down at the table again.

Running into the kitchen I hear the door slam behind me and peer into the kitchen that was filled with Mia, her brother, Tyrone and Cordelia. Valentina stood over the stove too with a pot of boiling pasta.

I'd noticed Mia had a plaster strapped to her shoulder where I'd bitten her, I could even see some dry blood on her fingernails but I'm not sure what from.

Cordelia was giving me dirty looks with her eyes scanning me up and down in disgust. Does she want me to bite her too? 'Cause I'll do it if she likes.

Rat. Ogre. Bîtch. Meany. Slap ass. Clown. Wet dog. Soggy bread. Ducks shit. Spiders' blood. Wet sock. Dry turkey. Unseasoned chicken.

Still, I couldn't think properly, thoughts kept raving around in my mind and they weren't stopping. It was hurting me actually.

He's my dad. After all these years of never having a dad, I finally meet him? Wow. I always thought I'd never had a dad and now he's here in the same house as me. Breathing the same air.

Maybe we can be a family; we have a complete family now so maybe we could start acting like one too?

Maybe, just maybe, he's the thing I needed to put me back together.

Moving over, I widen my arms to pull Luci into a hug and he doesn't hesitate to hug me back. He lifts me off the ground and shakes my body violently making me giggle and hunch on when he pokes my ribs. It hurt a little because of my stitches that moved but it didn't hurt that much where I felt like dying all over again.

If only I was eighteen.

"You got new tattoos!" I gently place a fingertip to his neck. He was full of tattoos. His body was like a canvas and he was slowly filling it.

"You like?" It was a vine of roses that were wrapped tightly around his neck like a choker and they just about squeezed in the free spaces on his neck. He's already had some simple tattoos on there before and much as I can remember.

His arms were just swarmed with black and white colour. They looked so beautiful and incredible; I've never seen anything so ethereal in my entire life.

One of my favourite tattoo of his was one of the more simpler and smaller ones that said 'bite me' on his neck. Exactly like a vampire.

Now I want tattoos. Lately, everyone has been getting tattoos. Alessandro got them, Blade got them on his hands and I think Elijah got a few on his arm.

"Like?! I love them," I clap my hands together and squeal. He's just so... mesmerising.

"Aww thanks," his cheeks tinge a rose pink with a blush.

In the corner of my eye, I see Cordelia walking out of the kitchen so I follow her. I'm not done with her yet.

"Where do you think you're going?" I had to suck myself in to squeeze through the small space last Tyrone.

"Upstairs."

"Don't you think you should apologise to all of us? Huh? I'm pretty sure you lied about being pregnant just to get validation from my brother." I don't fail to follow her upstairs in a rush. She wasn't fazed by me following her, instead, she was more concentrated on her mobile.

"So? Can you go away?" She stops right outside Alessandro's bedroom. She looks me up and down then rolls her eyes before shoving her phone in her back pocket.

"No, I can't. I want an apology. You opened my stitches and lied to my brother for six months about being pregnant. Who does that?" I scoff at her.

"Yeah, you have no idea why I did that. We sorted everything out. We're okay now so why are you still mad about something that doesn't concern you?"

"Because you lied. It wasn't just a lie, wasn't it? You lied about being pregnant. Completely taking advantage of my brother knowing he wouldn't be able to say no to you," I squint my eyes at her and move in closer.

"So what? What are you gonna do about it? Hurt me?" She laughs lowly with a sinister grin curling on her lip.

"No, but I can try and help my brothers get away from a witch like you." My brothers needed to get away from a nasty apple like her. She's just a rotten human. No sympathy or empathy despite her degree.

"You know? Things would be way easier if you weren't such a conniving, devious bîtch all the time-

She pushes me back until my back is pressed against the sharp, cool edge of the railings. Fingers poking almost to my eyeball, she pushes me back and back further until my back is leaning over the railing.

One more push and I'd be dead.

That's a good thing right? I could be with my mum once again; she's been waiting for me for a while but I feel like she'd be disappointed in me. My dad just came back from the dead, I'm not sure I want to leave the miserable earth just yet.

I've always said I wanted to die because dying is better than living, but on the brinks of death, dying is my last priority.

Think of all those who I have in my life. I ain't dying today, mother fûcker. And if Cordelia thinks that then I'll kill a bîtch.

"Cordelia move," I grit out quietly taking a peek at the ground below me. Below me rested the entrance foyer. She wouldn't stop pushing me.

"I've had enough of you. Every single day I have to see you is torture. One more push and I could kill you. Maybe I should. I would be able to have your brother all to myself." Her evil laugh echoes through my hearing.

She dug her sharp acrylic nails into my neck until I felt something raging hot trickle down the nape of my neck and into my sweaty collarbones which was blocking me from breathing; she then released me but grabbed my neck again allowing me to squeeze a single gasp of spiky air before pushing me over the railing further and further.

"What?! Are you that selfish that you'd want to kill me?! Oh, Cordelia I always knew you were a bîtch!" I shout at her.

"Imagine what my brothers would think of you then. You think Alessandro want to bang the murderer who killed his baby sister?" I struggle a laugh.

I was so close to falling over that edge to my death. The drop was at least thirty feet in the air and maybe if I just land right I can survive. My reading wasn't helping her either. It's as equally my fault as it is hers that I'm in this predicament. I'm a bîtch and I know it. At least I can admit that I'm a bitch.

I'll just blame my star sign for anything that happens.

My chance of survival was zero to none. I was having my life to end with fear. My eyes kept switching between the ground and Cordelia. She was smirking at me creating a disgusting dimple on her cheek.

My body was slowly folding inwards over the railings as the cool metal cracks my ribs and back and every single vertebrae.

The kitchen door opens back up and I see Tyrone exit and he shuffles over to the dining room where my brothers were currently shouting. He pressed an ear to the door and Luci follows.

"Ty! LUCI!" I scream with all the might that I can force through the tiger pressure on my throat. They look around sceptical for a moment that was when their eyes land on me.

Just as I thought I was going to be safe, Cordelia slaps my face whipping it to the side and pushes me over the edge.

I was screaming for my life as I my sweaty palms grip the frosty railings that were slowly slipping from my touch. I'd missed the top of the railings but instead, my hand were clasped as tightly as they could on the wooden parts just where the metal railing cut off.

I look up and examine how long the distance would be, it must be around seven feet back up to get over the railings.

"SEE!!! This is what you made me do," Cordelia yanks the railings back and forth making a slippery hand slap away from the wood leaving me hanging by one frail arm.

"CORDELIA WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!" Mia comes out of the kitchen in a scurry when she hears the screaming.

I hear another door open and gasps fill the entranceway. My brothers were here. All I could do was pray that they would save me. My body was shaking violently and I struggled to take a breath. If I did I feared I may fall to my ultimate death.

Tears of saltiness stream now my face and redden my cheeks as I scream for help with my legs thrashing in mid-air. My failed attempt to pull myself up with one arm

"Help me!" I scream with my mouth open wide; my mouth was filled with the saltiness from my steaming tears making my mouth dry and pasty.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I hear Axel shout in protest. Many claps of thunder zoom up the stairs that's when I see Blade and Elijah above the railings leaning but they couldn't reach me. Cordelia must've been pushed out of the way because she was groaning and holding her head in her hands as she crawled away.

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!!!" I wrench my eyes shut letting my chin tremble and mouth quiver.

"Lijah I can't reach!!" I hear Blade growl in frustration. "Listen, Mila, I need you to get your other hand on here," I hear a shaky voice.

Again, I try to pull myself up just enough to latch my second hand in again feeling a little safer but the fact I was still dangling over the pinnacle to my death still threatens me.

"Good girl," I hear him support me with his soothing voice.

"I'm gonna die!!!! Help me I'm scared!" My nose runny, my chest heaved up and down creating a radiating mass of body heat flushing and evaporating from my body.

"You're not gonna die," I hear Elijah assure me, "Alessandro, Axel and the twins are gonna be there if you fall," I see the fingertips of a familiar ringed hand come into my vision. But it rushes away with a furious shout.

"We're all here if you fall, Bambina!" I hear a reassuring, panicking echo from Axel. "I'm here too!" The man's voice projects to me too. Like a competition. "And me!" I hear Luci.

"FÛCKING HELP ME!!! DONT JUST STAND THERE! TY!!" His deep voice cowers my ears and plummets down in all of its power to the ground floor.

"Blade, Lijah I'm scared," I feel my fingers slipping but I kick my legs in the air to try and push myself up again to regain my strength.

It felt like someone was stretching out my muscles for miles and miles like elastic and though soon they might snap. My bones were already frail enough and this extended their limits.

"I'm falling! I'm gonna die!" I shake vigorously in my nerves waiting for the moment when I fall.

Fingertips failing to hold me up for my much longer, it felt like my tips were burning to the flame so I let go.

"I'm sorry," I whisper to Blade when I look him in the eye. I was sure I was going to die, my body felt like it was already floating and soaring through the air.