Capo Dei Capi (Secrets of the Famiglia Part 1)

The Bratva agreed to peace with my parent’s marriage on one condition - the first child, which the Famiglia hoped would be a boy, would be given to my mother's family at age 5 to raise as Bratva so they could continue the Vasiliev bloodline.

See, the thing about my mother’s family and the Bratva, was their women, unlike the Famiglia, were very important. Without a Vasiliev heir born from the womb of a Vasiliev female, my mother’s family would have a hole in their armor.

It was their law that the eldest child, male or female, be raised to take over. A female would not only produce and heir but rule the Vasiliev family one day.

The laws are sacred in the 5th State. We are bound by those traditions. Some of them fall on all of us.

One of those traditions shared amongst the leaders of the 5th State was common. Sending your sons into allies territory to finish out their schooling years. It proved the strength of the alliance. It meant that your allies were in charge of the safety of your future. If they fucked up, it would be war. So, they took it very fucking seriously.

The Russo’s took seriously to a whole new level.

Then again, we broke tradition when they sent me to Chicago and Elisa here. The first girls to make the exchange.

But even with us, the tradition proved successful, and for so long has been honored.

Our scars would not be of the visible kind unless you knew the horrors that hid in the depth of our eyes. Only then you would see and understand the meaning of the term 'deep-rooted wounds.' They are still that, wounds, not fully healed, but bearable.

symbol of

laugh at how absurd it all seems in the brighter mornings now that

do it. They agreed to allow her to attend school with the Bratva's kids, but the Bratva retaliated by killing my Papa’s sister. Still, Papa refused and declared war.

when he did to me the same thing he wanted to

case, sending me away was for my own safety, and

together as is the way of our

in the time as a lot of allies chose to not stand with my parents. Things were terrible during that time.

of the Famiglia declared an end

of the 5th State. And my father wasn't the Consigliere then, so his war was only extended as far as the Mafia men he called his people.

heart and

had a chance to meet, who remained nameless was

my mother and father in ways that made them crazy.

mother was gunned down. He never told me the entire story, but he did say my mother was the message that

however, am the only

I’ve never met my sister. I was the last of my mother's children to be born. The story of their horror, just a scary bedtime story growing up, told to me by my siblings and