A/N: are Italian. I skipped Italian words and translation because most of the readers don't speak Italian anyway.

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"How dare she disrespect me? Her own grandmother!" Abrianna Costello was beyond furious. Though in her early eighties and suffering from acute heart disease and arthritis, the woman had travelled all the way from Sicily to New York with her two sons and daughter-in-law to have a family dinner with the whole of her family. While her two grandsons were present, her granddaughter, Alessia, was missing. As always.

"Relax Mama, she must be busy with something." Luigi, her elder son, tried though he himself didn't believe his words.

Things had happened. Things that shouldn't have had happened and things he had warned the family against and they had lost their old happy and chirpy Alessia as a consequence. Now the woman had become a heartless assassin void of any emotion or compassion.

Leonardo, Luigi's son, glanced sideway at his cousin, Mateo, who looked like he couldn't be less interested in the drama.

Mateo was once a blind follower of his grandmother but the same incident that occurred a few years ago had removed the blindfold wrapped around his young foolish eyes and now he was a true made man of the Mafia who supported his sister.

Their father Alessio and mother Katrina were also supporting their daughter, but Alessia couldn't care less. They weren't there for her when she needed them and now, she didn't want them and their fake love and care.

"Alessio, I want your daughter in my villa in a week's time. Is that clear?" She glared at her younger son, Alessio Adesso, the Boss of the Sicilian Mafia.

By tradition, Luigi, had become the Boss of the Sicilian Mafia when he had come of age. Till then, for a brief period, Abrianna was in charge after the death of her husband. Luigi was a prosperous leader but in her late pregnancy, Luigi's wife and Leonardo's mother, Evelina, was shot. An emergency surgery saved the baby but the mother succumbed to the injuries and Luigi lost the love of his life and the very essence of his existence. So, he gave up his rank, but still staying in the Mafia as the Underboss while his younger brother took charge because he wasn't going to let his little Alessio deal with the big bad world alone.

And now in their sixties, the men still ruled the Mafia together while their sons made them proud and anxious as Capos.

"Mama, Sia isn't a child anymore. She makes her own decisions and choices." The Mafia Boss said firmly. Never was he ever going to impose another one of his decisions on his precious little princess.

Abrianna banged her fist on the table, her wrinkles scrunching up as her face contorted in pain as a shock surged from the point of contact to her shoulder.

"She is a woman of the Sicilian Mafia Family. She doesn't have the freedom to make decisions." She gritted each word out.

Mateo and Leonardo were ready to argue but by the laws of their family, they could not speak while the elders spoke so they gritted their teeth and clenched their fists as they controlled their urge to snap.

"Actually Mama, she does. Times have changed and so have some rules. You were Boss of the Sicilian Mafia for a brief time Mama. Let my daughter be the Boss of her own life."

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"I was shocked to hear Zio (uncle) say what he did!" Leonardo exclaimed as Mateo and he walked down the stairs of the hotel. Mateo's car had been brought out by the valet. He was going back to his apartment while the rest of his family stayed in the hotel. They were taking early morning flights to Chicago where there was going to be a meeting to resolve some issues.

Thankfully, under the watchful eyes of Mateo Adesso, the situation in New York was peaceful and boring so he and his second in command, Adam Smith, were all it needed to take care of all the shipments, paper works and occasional disruptions.

Mateo bid his brother goodbye and set out to his home. Adam was out with a few of their men having drinks. Though he was very close to him, Mateo couldn't have Adam at the family dinner, not because he was thought less than a family but because his grandmother hated Adam because he was closer to her grandson than the many Italians in the Mafia. She was fucked up like that, though she herself had taken him in.

The traffic thinned down as he drove towards the more secluded and secure part of New York, where his posh penthouse apartment was. But at some point, he became aware of the black Sedan tailing him.

Mateo's lips curled down and forehead wrinkled in a grimace. It was past ten in the evening and after an exhausting day of paper works and another draining two hours with his grandmother, all Mateo really wanted was to drive above the speed limit and somehow reach his apartment so that he could crash on the bed not bothering to take off his shoes or suit.

But she wanted to play. Because she had nothing better to do with her life.

His tail-lights blinked signaling Mona Petrov that she had been found out. The crazy woman rolled her eyes and smacked her driver across the head while directing him to close in on her conquest.

Mona Petrov. She was the younger sister of the Boss of the Russian Mafia, Sergey Petrov.

She had no interest in the Mafia at first and was happily living her life in the riches her brother had built with the blood and flesh of his innocent victims as the spoilt brat she was. But then one of her crazy parties was gate-crashed by Mateo and his gang. He was a stupid crazy newly made man of the Mafia then, impulsive and indecisive but to her, he was an Italian masterpiece and she fell in love with him at first sight and got obsessed with him and when she realized her desperate attempts couldn't win him over, she decided she was going to use power to bring him down on his knees in front of her. And hence, she joined the Mafia and haunted Mateo ever since.

Mateo was more level-headed now. He was still impulsive and sometimes even childish but he knew his priorities. He had a job and his people to protect while all Mona ever did was use everyone and anyone to get to him.

"CRASH INTO HIM!!" Mona screeched and forcefully turned the steering wheel so that the driver's side of the car impacted with Mateo's.

As the car crashed into the taillight, Mateo lost control and jumped out of his car as it rotated on the road two times before it came to a stop, crashing on to an electric pole

The woman really was fucking crazy!

"What are you waiting for? Get him!" Mona screamed at her injured driver, grabbing him by his hair and banging his head against the steering wheel while Mateo recovered from the fall, quickly getting to his feet and making a run back into his car when he realized his gun wasn't on him.

Ugh, it was frustrating beyond tolerance because he really wanted to put a bullet through her head and call it self defense at that point. Because Mona didn't have an official position in the Mafia, she was only considered as family and the family was not to be involved in the Mafia.

Barely able to walk, the driver pulled out his gun and shot him in the thigh as a last attempt to catch him so that Mona doesn't take his head. Little did he know that her fucked up mind didn't tolerate anyone other than herself hurting her Mateo so with a scream of anger and frustration, she pulled out her own golden Glock and put a bullet through his head.

Though the bullet on his thigh had knocked him off his feet, Mateo got up and was back in the car and started the engine, driving out of there while Mona stood there in the middle of the road, screaming like the madwoman she was. She quickly fished out her phone and made a call to her younger brother to clean up the mess on the road and to pick her up.

She was angry and disappointed. It was not everyday she could find Mateo Adesso in plain sight and completely defenseless. And she had completely missed her chance!

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You know sometimes you feel like your whole life is running in circles?

Work. Home. Work. Home. Playground. Work. Home. Smoothie Planet. Work. Home.

Except for the occasional five minutes of fun and happy moments, everything is just the same.

I am always hungry, thirsty, sleep deprived, fatigued and sexually frustrated. There is no end to this.

Oh wait, that's what I guess being an adult means.

River sighed as she listened to her inner voice's monologue. The little bitch was getting more and more annoying day by day.

She rested her forehead against the cold metallic counter built in on the wall and closed her eyes.

Thirty three hours and counting.

She had been in the hospital for that long without going home. She wanted to hunt down and strangle whoever told her that residency was going to be the hardest. That looked like a walk in the park compared to this. Now she could relate to her professors and why they hated them as interns and residents. They were just jealous.

"Come on Dr. Johnson, down this and get up!" Jacqueline patted her back and she placed a cup of coffee and a croissant in front of her best friend.

Jacqueline and she had ended up working in the same hospital. She was a nurse and River, an orthopedic surgeon. And both their workloads were kind of the same – too much to handle.

But Jacqueline worked harder and harder every day. She was running away from her feelings. Cole Harris turned out to be a douche-bag who was only after the inheritance Jacqueline's late parents had left her.

She had come to the conclusion that, "Bad boy changing his ways and becoming a better person for you? Cut the crap! It's all just wishful thinking."

"What time is it?" River asked groggily as she dragged the paper cup over to her, pressing it onto her throbbing temple.

"Past one." Jacqueline sipped on her own cup of caffeine dose.

"Mmm, these taste way better than the ones we get during the day!"

River looked up at her to see her nodding her head as she took another bite from her croissant, closing her eyes as she savored its taste.

She sighed as she sat up, propping her head up on an elbow.

"I miss my babies." She pouted. She hadn't seen them in these thirty-three hours and that made her all the crankier and moodier and all of this all the more difficult to tolerate.

"My little babies." River hummed again as she took a bite of her own croissant. She turned to her best friend and nodded, "It's good. The new caterers know what they are doing."

The last ones were so bad, so freaking bad that the two of them had to make a trip to the bakery across the hospital every day to get something to eat. And she had been reluctant to try these out as well, but Jacqueline was on her night shift today and dragged her with her when she saw her best friend striding around the hallways like a zombie.

"Hope you didn't go anywhere near the children's ward. They will need psychological help if you did." That's what she had said to the surgeon as she grabbed her arm near the B-wing.

The day before yesterday was supposed to be River's off day but she was called in for an emergency surgery and because she was supposed to start her twenty-four-hour shift from one in the afternoon yesterday, she didn't see a point in going home so she stayed and all of it just collided and collapsed and exploded and she didn't know what the hell had happened but here she was.

Thirty-three hours.

River rolled my eyes at her own don't-know-what-to-call-itness. She had done a one-thirty-hour shift before. That's been her longest. Of course, she had slept three four hours while on-duty but in those hours, her brain was ready for that shit. They were bringing in patients after patients after a paint factory caught fire. None of the doctors cared about what their specialization was as they ran around from OR to OR trying to sustain the lives of the patients. That was one of the moments that taught River and many others in the hospital the importance of being a doctor.

But today, she was cranky and moody because she had absolutely nothing to do other than watch people sleep peacefully, well not so peacefully considering they were in a hospital.

Her smart watch, An Apple Series 4 gifted by none other than good old Sebastian Shane, beeped and she looked down at it.

(GSW - Gunshot Wound)

Finally! The inner voice sighed in relief. I thought I was going to die of boredom!

"Duty calls!" River hummed as she hopped off the stool, taking a big bite off of her croissant before chucking it and her half-finished cup of coffee in the bin and breaking out in a jog.

She quickly made her way to the OR wing. And she was surprised to see no one in the waiting area. Sheesh, thank god the injury doesn't look life threatening or this might have been a problem with consents and all.

The nurse in charge, forty-three-year-old Wilma Cave, approached her with her clipboard.

"Dr. Erwin assessed him. The bullet ruptured the femoral artery and penetrated about point three inches into the femur." She reported.

"Okay. Is the anesthetist ready?" River asked as she made her way to the dressing room to scrub in for the surgery.

"He says he won't let us do anything until he meets you." She shrugged.

Sleep deprived and having to talk to adamant patients? Not the best combo at one in the morning.

"Why?" River sniffed and said, "Just ask them to knock him out or something."

Wilma gave her a flat look. She was so used to the careless comments that River made. But working with her for over an year, the wise woman had full faith in the young surgeon.

"Well, we don't want to know what happens if we do not listen to someone who is acting like he was pricked by a needle, not shot in the thigh." She gave her a knowing look.

Why are we not smart like smart people? Why are we so dumb and always getting ourselves in trouble?

"I guess I could have a chit chat before he bleeds to death."

Wilma laughed. "Dr. Erwin assessed him." She reminded her.

Of course, Dr. Paul Erwin was called the God of Trauma surgery. He had a freaking hundred percent survival rate.

River did too. Except, Dr. Erwin had done twenty years worth of extra surgery than River.

"I hope he passes out before I get there." She crossed her fingers before making her way over to the pre-Op area.

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