"I've lost all hope, Sofia," Marco murmured dejectedly, rubbing a hand over his forehead as he drooped over the counter. Sofia's throat tightening to see his stare on the glass of bourbon and ice. "It's a failed battle,"

Hearing him of all people say that forced an acidic taste to infiltrate her mouth, her fingers tightening around the glass before she put it down beside her. Steeling herself to grab his face and maybe slap some sense into him. But before she could even indulge in such insolence, he continued speaking.

"It's funny," He chuckled humorlessly. "Salvatore helped me through hell, through Haruhi's deception, and every shit storm that hit me when I tried to build myself from the ground up. Without fail. And I promised him, I promised to help him through his troubles, and I can't even stick to one promise while he has done everything for me. I was the one who insisted to become his heir so I could keep that promise, but I have done nothing but disappoint him," Marco swallowed thickly before straightening, pulling at his tie.

"I was...I think I was eleven-years-old when I was first brought into the Regnante Estate. Granted, dad was the boss at that time and Salvatore was just...sixteen was it? It's all gotten kind of blurry, but the very first person I saw in that estate was the Regnante heir. Salvatore Emilio Regnante and I can still remember the confusion and irritation when he kept enforcing that I call him 'Salvatore' and that I was my own person. He shattered the entire foundation my life had been built on and rebuilt me from the ground up. I can still remember how devoted I had been to him. Following him around like a lost puppy, some people would even say that it's still the same even now." He laughed breathlessly at the memories.

His words forced Sofia's eyebrows to crease, leaving the woman standing frozen against the counter. Who was Haruhi? He devoted his life to Salvatore? He shattered the entire foundation on which his life was built? There were so many questions wresting on the tip of Sofia's tongue, but she couldn't manage to get them across.

"The guys told me how they had found me. I was actually sure I would die with the extensive damage I had sustained. But then again, Mafia doctors have a certain sort of magic in their fingers. Salvatore got a lot of shit from dad and Major and Uncle Vincent and mom for dragging this stranger into the Mafia headquarters without a thought about safety. And he had stood his ground, saying that he would take all responsibility if something went wrong." He shook his head with a chuckle. "Even at sixteen, he was a Mafia Boss in the making and wouldn't even bow out to dad,"

"I think I had multiple wounds, broken ribs, concussion, what not...and when I woke up, the first person I saw was this dark-haired and tall figure who held himself different from those around him. Whose eyes, despite their beautiful icy color, were warm, and just one look from him sent shivers down my spine – it still does today – but I remember how much I had struggled not to bow in submission to him every time he addressed me. It had only...felt right to submit to such a powerful entity."

"And that entity was the first person to treat me like a human,"

"He and the guys have me a name, they gave me a room, fed me and looked after me. All of them there for my every need and I followed Salvatore around like a shadow. He introduced me to all sorts of things like books and the internet and phones and technology – it's all gotten a bit fuzzy now, but I remember that warmth I felt every time I learned something new. It wasn't the new-found knowledge which filled me with joy, it was Salvatore's smile at my progress that made me want to do more of it, do more to make him beam with pride at me. I used to learn new things to make Salvatore smile, but then I actually began finding things interesting and then did it for my own gain."

"I even slept in his room, that's how much I used to be around that guy," Marco scoffed at the memory, taking a sip of the bourbon with a vacant stare at the marble counter. "I didn't know, but Salvatore had never had to share his room and wasn't a huge fan of letting people stay in his room longer than needed, but he let me stay with him and sleep in his bed without a single complaint. For many years, if I remember correctly. He knew that the warmth of another person kept the nightmares at bay and was willing to sacrifice his own comfort for me. I crave the warmth and affection humans provide so he made it a habit to give me hugs and kiss my temple and let me sleep in his room. And...I've never told this to anyone – but he felt more of a father figure than a friend or brother."

Marco chuckled breathlessly, his lower lip trembling as he rubbed a trembling hand against his forehead, tears blurring his vision as his voice thickened.

"I adored Salvatore so much that I was jealous of all of his friends. I was jealous of mom and dad and Major and Serafina and Piero. I wanted him to keep his attention on me. I was a very demanding child, he tells me. I was so jealous of Stephan and the close bond he had with Salvatore that once – I guess Salvatore understood how I felt – because I had tried to sabotage Stephan. I don't remember what I had done. If it was tripping him down the stairs or letting the hounds loose on him, or something like that. Salvatore knew, obviously he did, he has this uncanny knack of knowing and sat me down and talked to me and told me that it was wrong to try and hurt the people who were close to him and he assured me that there was no one who could take my place in his heart and that I had nothing to fear,"

"The very next week Salvatore was kidnapped." Marco sniffled, scrubbing at his face. "I had said that he was trying to teach me a lesson because I had upset him sometime before. That it was just a-just a façade. A ruse to get me to right my wrongs, but when dad told me that wasn't the case and that he was actually kidnapped. I lost it. I cried for nights on end, helplessly searched for him, refused to go to school. I was hysterical. Constantly begging for Salvatore to come back home. I drove mom and dad up the wall."

"We had no idea where he was for four whole months. It wasn't until Stephen got wind about it did we actually manage to find him. He somehow managed to override Salvatore's phone system since he had upgraded it once and turned it on from the estate and turned on the GPS locator. Dad took a team with him and brought Salvatore back, but the boy they brought back wasn't my brother, he was someone else."

"Salvatore had multiple broken bones that had mended awkwardly and had to be broken again to heal properly. He had concussions to the extent that he didn't recognize us for the first half of the day. He couldn't tolerate the dark, was terrified of small spaces, had nightmares and just lost his gentle heart in that dark basement for all those months." Marco sniffled. "He wouldn't let me near him. He wouldn't let anyone near him beside Stephan. I couldn't get within a five feet radius without him screaming. Neither could mom or dad or Serafina. He cried every time we tried to approach him. He was so scared, Sofia and I can still hear his screams. We were convinced he was dying."

"It took him...I think it took him a year to allow us close to him, and when he did, I never left his side. Not when he became cold and cut off and unaffectionate, I was there. Until he went off to Stanford."

"I think it was around that time when I met Haruhi," Marco chuckled bitterly. "I was obsessed with the Japanese culture: anime, origami, sushi, Japanese, Jujutsu, Aikido, and whatnot,"

"I had gotten fluent in Japanese and heard that a girl from the Yakuza had transferred to our school and I instantly sought her out. I gave her a proper Japanese welcome and she was impressed, to say the least," He shook his head at himself, Sofia's stomach folding in on itself. "Her grasp on Italian was nonexistent and her English was good enough for small talk, so I would be the translator for her and the others,"

"We spent literal twenty-four-seven with each other, so it was no surprise that we began dating," Marco closed his eyes, picturing the lean porcelain-skinned girl with ink-black hair and almond-shaped dark eyes, her pink lips pulled into a grin. "I think I had fallen in love with her because a couple of months down the line she called me crying in the middle of the night and told me she had to go back to Japan because her father was unable to secure a deal with the Mafioso."

"I was a stupid fifteen-year-old kid smitten with this foreigner and I pestered my father to strike the deal with the Yakuza. I wouldn't listen to reason, I wouldn't listen to anything they had to say and forced him into getting a deal with the Kudo Mafia. And I threatened to tell Salvatore about this. Dad knew that he could deal with me well enough, he could silence me, but Salvatore had no ounce of fear in him for anyone. Salvatore would force his hand or get it done himself. It upset dad that I was threatening him with Salvatore, and I was guilty, but I was in love and stupid,"

"The Kudo Yakuza got their deal with the Regnante Mafia and I was overjoyed to learn that Haruhi would stay." Marco chuckled bitterly, his grip tightening on his glass. "When I finally went to her to congratulate her, she stepped out into her true colors. She told me that she had just seduced naïve old me to get me to secure a deal for her father, and now that they had the deal, she had no need for me,"

Sofia gasped at the words, her pulse thundering and she wondered what would happen next.

"I was upset, and the thing with me is, when I can't deal with my emotions, I call Salvatore to vent to him. And he listened to me in silence before he finally asked one simple question, 'Haruhi used you'. It sounded more like a statement rather than the question at that time, and maybe it had been a confirmation, but two days later, it's all over the news-"

"-Mass murder of the Yakuza," Sofia gasped, remembering the one time she had heard her mother tusk her tongue and say how savage their end was.

"Yes," He nodded. "I don't have any proof but I had a feeling it was Salvatore. Salvatore murdered the Yakuza without dad's say so, because he knew that Haruhi had hurt me. And this was his retaliation,"

"Salvatore had done that for me." He cleared his throat. "And I suppressed the fear down, realizing that Salvatore Regnante would go so far as to annihilate an entire syndicate for me. I never asked him about it. It was all swept under the rug,"

"Then he graduated and passed his bar exam and took over the Mafia, and the first thing he did was eradicate the Mirko Cartel and banned human trafficking in Italy – for me – and then ended ties with the Cipriano Mafia because they bought slaves like they had bought me, and-"

"-What?" Sofia finally interjected, confusion etched into the fold of her eyebrows, watching with a held breath as Marco lifted his bloodshot eyes to her.

"I was a slave," He stated nonchalantly as Sofia choked on her air, coughing up a lung in the process. "I have no idea who my real family is, or was, or if they're alive. I was trafficked away from my birthplace when I was three, sold to the Mirko Cartel before being bought by the Cipriano underground boxing ring. They're the ones who left me to die in a back alley when Salvatore and the guys found me,"

"And now...now with this whole Vendetta with the Leone Mafia where Jayson caused a huge misunderstanding between Salvatore and Nicole, ending with her kidnapping. Then Luca's mugging and Serafina's accident, the attack on mom and dad, the murder of Nicole's mother. Then Nicole's kidnapping, the heavy metal poisoning, Salvatore getting shot in the heart, and Serafina's coma, but no that I look at everything. Objectively speaking. Logically speaking, there is a minuscule chance that Salvatore will survive."

"And looking at everything realistically, Sofia," Marco's voice trembled as he held up his glass in a toast. "I would be losing my brother," His voice cracked and the tears streamed down before he tipped the glass back and downed the remaining contents in a single gulp.

Sofia's mind was reeling with all the information he had dumped on her. Her throat straining to get an iota of consolation out but knew that this was no place for empty words.

Instead, she walked around the counter and hugged his hunched figure.

"Marco," She finally found her voice, the name tasting weird on her tongue after learning that this wasn't the name he was born with, but instead had chosen for himself. "What can I do to make things better for you?"

"Just say that it's okay," Marco sniffled and buried his face into his arms. "I just need to hear you say it, please,"

Sofia's heart swelled at the words, feeling heat rush to her cheeks and found herself placing a kiss on his nape before resting her head on top of his and squeezing him tighter.

"It's all going to be okay, Marco, I know it."