It was Saturday morning. Luigi and Lena were sitting in a separate car to their parents making their way to the other side of New York to attend a party hosted by the Bianchis. They had been invited to so many events in recent months hosted by the Bianchis and the Alessandrinis had not attended any of them. Luigi's father had told them that it was time to attend a social event by the Bianchis. The Alessandrinis did not do business with the Bianchis but were treated like how the Bianchis treated their allies and closest friends. All because the Alessandrinis had returned Rose to them.

The car entered through the gate of the mansion. This was no ordinary property. It was acres of land that housed a number of mansions of different sizes. Many beautiful gardens and a beautiful lake too. It was massive.

Rose's grandfather Benigno Bianchi owned this property that housed numerous mansions and beautiful gardens all belonging to different members of her huge family consisting of the uncles and aunts of Rose. The largest mansion that was called the main mansion belonged to Rose's grandfather, Benigno Bianchi who was the head of the Bianchi family. The second largest mansion belonged to Rose's eldest uncle Benito Bianchi who was the first born heir and first in line to lead the Bianchi business empire after Benigno Bianchi was going to retire. Rose resided in the third largest mansion that belonged to her mother, Bianca Bianchi that was next to her eldest uncle's mansion separated by a garden.

The Bianchis were this one happy close family and worked well together. That was what made the Bianchi's successful. They all had roles in the family to play, they were loyal and moved the family business forward together.

Luigi never understood why Rose's father Ryan did not like his wife's family. Ryan had abducted Rose when she was eleven years old and she had been miraculously returned to the Bianchi family a year later.

Rose was now leading a good life. She could go to the private school that was right in the intersection that joined the three territories of the big three Italian American allies in the area; the Bianchis, the Alebertinis and the Trentinis. The three crime families' territories were right next to each other and they were close. So they had built a school right at the border between the three territories. The security around that school matched an army base's security. All Rose's cousins and children of all those who worked in the Bianchi organisation crime organisation went to that school. All the children of the Albertinis and the Trentinis and those who worked for them also attended that school. It was really safe there.

Luigi and Lena got off in front of the main mansion where the party was held, at the home of Benigno Bianchi. Soon Luigi and Lena were welcomed in one of the two banquet halls at the main mansion where the children where having a party while the adults were in a different banquet hall.

There were a few close crime families who were allies with the Bianchis who were invited for this party. When Luigi and Lena entered the party banquet hall where all the children were they walked around to find someone to talk to. Some kids were standing in small circle groups socialising eating and drinking as the servers walked around with trays of refreshments and some kids were sitting around small tables. They were going to dine in that room soon too.

Barbara Bianchi, one of Rose's cousins appeared and greeted them. She then turned to Lena and said "Lena. Come and hang out with us." She took her hand in hers and lead Lena away from Luigi towards a group of girls.

Luigi looked around. He spotted Bernardo Bianchi. The first born heir of the eldest son of Rose's grandfather. Bernardo was one month older than Rose. Sixteen. Just like Luigi. He was standing around a bunch of guys and chatting to them. Luigi decided to go to him and say hello so he walked towards Bernardo and his group.

Luigi got along pretty well with people there. It was common knowledge what his family had done for Rose. Everyone trusted the Alessandrinis and respected them because of what they had done. They did not care that the Alessandrinis were honorary guests and not really part of their alliance connections.

When Luigi reached the group Bernardo received him well and shook hands with him. He said "You must know Luigi that my family is very honoured that the Alessandrinis have accepted our invite today to come and celebrate with the Bianchis on this occasion. I hope our families will get to see more and more of each other in the future."

Luigi smiled politely "Thank you." The Bianchis did not want anything from the Alessanrrinis. They just wanted to give and give. They valued honour. Luigi's father had showed how far he was willing to go to protect the people under his wing but had also shown respect and responsibility towards the family of others too. Lothario Alessandrini had handled Rose's case so well that the Bianchis wanted to make sure the Alessandrinis knew they were almost like family to the Bianchis. The allies of the Bianchis also had so much respect and admiration for what the Alessandrinis were about.

Now, at that party, a group of boys had surrounded Bernardo in a circle talking to him and now Luigi was standing in that circle. All those boys were fond of Luigi because they were all from families who were close to the Bianchis. A couple of those boys were first born heirs just like Luigi and Bernardo. Amerigo Albertini and Tommaso Trentino were two heirs who happened to be Bernardo's close friends too. They were raised with honour and respect just like how Bernardo was so they appreciated a display of honour by a fellow Italian-American family. They saw Luigi as a boy coming from an honourable family following the values they believed in too.

Luigi was warmly welcomed into that group indeed and the boys became busy talking and discussing the current affairs for a long time during the party.

Later on, music came on and the lights were dimmed. The kids were slowly going to the middle of the room to dance. Luigi looked around to spot Lena who was dancing with a group of girls. Bernardo's sister, Barbara Bianchi was in that group also. Luigi was not worried about Lena at all. If anyone dared to look the wrong way at Lena in that room, Luigi was pretty sure that before he needed to do anything, Barbara Bianchi would have taken pretty some serious actions towards the culprit. Barbara was Rose's cousin and was very close to Rose. So she had a special bond with Lena for being an Alessandrini. The rest of the girls in that group were also very nice to Lena. The girls knew Rose's story well. Rose had told them alot about Luigi and Lena.

Four years ago, Rose had been brought to the Alessandrini mansion and was then housed in a safe house nearby while Luigi's father had taken care of business to do with handling the case. During that time, Luigi and Lena had checked on Rose whenever they could have to make sure she had everything she needed and had kept her company too when they could have. Rose had not forgotten the kindness of their family and was always actually very nice to Lena and Luigi when she saw them any time after that incident. She in fact did bring up how she had been treated so well by the Alessandrinis both before and after they had discovered her Bianchi identity. But most importantly she had always appreciated how the Alessandrinis had not handed over her father to the Bianchis to kill. She appreciated that the Alessandrini had cared enough about her father to send Lorenzo Alessandrini into the heart of Bianchi territory with her. They could just have sent her and her father with some men to the house of Bianchi. She knew her mother would have made her father suffer so much if the Alessandrinis had just handed over her father to them on that day she had been returned. Her mother had gone into a fit of rage after she had gotten over her joy and happiness of seeing her daughter again after a year. Rose knew there was no way she could have stopped her mother from killing her father if he had been sent with her. Her mother was very angry.

It had taken days and days of talking by Lorenzo Alessandrini and Rose to convince Rose's mother not to have the intent to send her men to find and kill Ryan, her father. There was a chance that the Alessandrinis could protect him but there was a chance he could have been killed.

Rose had little sympathy for what her father had done and she did not blame her mother at all for wanting to kill her father. But Ryan was her father. As much as she had hated what he had done to their family, he was still her father. She did not want him to die. He had no intention of returning her to the Bianchis. He had taken on the Mcloughins and almost had gotten her killed. But her mother did not blame the Mcloughins. She blamed Ryan for his stupid mistakes namely abducting her and then endangering her by taking on a crime family with no plan or protection whatsoever. If it wasn't for that boy who had saved her she was going to be dead and if it wasn't for the Alessndrinis there was a high likelihood that the mother and daughter were never going to see each other again.

Alessandrinis could protect the father and daughter from being found by anyone in their territories even if Rose and Ryan did not obtain new identities. No one could locate them in that territory because accessing the records of people living in that territory was not that easy and could not happen unless going through those who worked for the Alessandrinis. So the Bianchis could never find her by searching for her once they were settled in the Alessandrini territory. Lothario Alessandrini did not want to take chances with her life and had decided to change her identity and her father's identity. In the process his search was so accurate he had even come across who her mother was. He could just give her a fake passport and that would have been fine. But Lothario Alessandrini wanted to do things properly and give her a proper new identity with new records and erase all the old records of her and her father and as a result coming across her link to the Bianchis.

Rose remembered the incident when she was twelve years old very well and had put in her energy into making most of life. She was the liveliest girl. She counted her blessings. She was alive, her father was alive, her mother was happy, her family loved her. She was content. Of course there was one thing left to do. She wanted to thank that boy who had saved her life. She had no idea who he was but from the combat skills he had shown disarming an adult and killing two men with such ease without any form of struggle she had a pretty good idea he must have been connected to a criminal family. Definitely an Irish-American crime family because they were at a Mcloughlin mansion. He could have been connected to any Irish-American mob. By the judging of his nice clothes and how there was a wedding going on there was a high possibility he was either the son of a McLoughlin or the son of one of the guests. All those guests were pretty high ranking people and were close family or friends of the Mcloughins or their allies most likely. Either way she did not know how she was supposed to thank him. Her mother knew of the story well. She had understood that this boy had saved her life. Bianca Bianchi had made it clear that if Rose wanted to reward this boy one day, then Bianca was going to provide any help towards this reward that Rose wanted to give this boy. It was impossible to reward someone who saved your life. Nothing could make up for it. But she knew her mother did not want to reward him or his family with an alliance. He was most likely related or connected to an Irish-American mob boss. They were their enemies. It was not easy to trust a sworn enemy. That could have endangered their family if they did that. She could never have that on her conscious that because of her way of thanking a boy for saving her life, any of her family members got hurt. Regardless, she was grateful for what he had done. She truly was. She could only pray for his safety and happy life now. There was not much else she could do.

Rose had really moved on from that incident and was living her life without looking back and giving much thought to it. Surprisingly the incident had not really affected her life that much apart from breaking her mother's marriage with her father. Her mother felt nothing but pure hate towards him now. She did not want to hear his name or see him. Whenever her father came to see Rose, Bianca made sure she was somewhere far away in the property. It was as though her father was dead to her mother. This had made Rose think about her own love life. She was only sixteen. But she was in high school and teenage boys were everywhere. Her mother had that conversation with her about boys. Her mother had assured her that not all men were like her father. Some had honour and took care of their family. She encouraged her daughter that she was allowed to love but had made Rose promise to be open about her relationships with her and not hide anything. She had assured her she was going to be reasonable and not reject her suitors with no reason. She totally understood her mother and had no problem making that promise and keeping that promise. In fact she wanted her mother to give her advice on boys when she needed it.

Most of Rose's interactions with teenage boys who were not related to her was at school. All the boys were either Bianchis, sons of allies of Bianchis or were sons of those who worked for and with the Bianchis and allies. Her school was surrounded by security and no one could hurt her. All the boys in her school did treat her with respect.

There was one of those boys, Amerigo Albertini had made it clear how much he loved her and recently he even had asked her out after asking for permission from her mother of course. Her mother had approved and had given him permission to ask her out. Her mother knew Amerigo's father well. They did business together. His family were honourable in every way and had raised him well. Her mother had given her blessing. There was no problem there. But she had said no. She had said she needed time to think. He had said he was willing to wait and had no objections to her taking her time. He had said he was willing to wait a life time for her to say yes. He only wanted her. She wished he did not wait. She was no where near making up her mind. She believed in abstinence and wanted her first kiss to be with the boy she was going to marry. She did not want to go out with a boy and then break up with him for some reason.

Rose had no doubt in her mind that Amerigo was loyal and faithful and obviously he said he loved her enough to wait. His attitude and treatment of her had not changed after she had said no. There was no doubt in her mind he loved her... But seeing how her parents' marriage had broken apart because her father had abducted their child leading to her mother losing her love for him had made her thoughtful. Ryan had betrayed her mother by taking her away. She did not like that. She was just a child. She wanted to see her mother again. Now her mother wanted Ryan to die. Her promise to her mother was the only thing that stopped her from acting to chase her father and have him killed. So she wanted to be sure that she loved Amerigo enough to never walk away from him before she said yes. She needed more time to think.

After he had asked her out and Rose had said no, nothing had changed between Rose and Amerigo. Rose had carried on remaining on good terms with Amerigo who she actually liked hanging out with. She admired him so much. He was so brave and honourable. He had proven that time and time again. They went way back. Since childhood she had known him. He was a close friend of her cousin Bernardo. Her cousin Bernardo who was a first born heir, had two best friends, Tommaso Trentini and Amerigo Albertini. The trio were all sixteen year old first born heirs to their family's Italian-American crime business empires and were very close. She had seen the boys since childhood at their mansion and at parties. Rose was in lessons with Amerigo and socialised with him at breaks and lunch times some days at school. They studied together, talked and joked alot too.

Amerigo had no traits in his personality that put Rose on guard. He was perfect. However there was one thing that she wished Amerigo could adjust slightly. Amerigo was incredibly jealous. He did not tolerate boys who were too friendly with her in his eyes. He did not ever object to Rose and never forced her or implied she better stay away or not talk to other boys. She was allowed to talk to boys. There was no rule against it. But they weren't allowed to come across too friendly or Amerigo was going to slaughter them. Rose was used to this kind of treatment that Amerigo gave to the boys who crossed the line in his view. All her male cousins and their best friends acted the same way protectively around her towards anyone who wronged her including the boys who they saw as guilty of over stepping the boundaries with her. But Amerigo was the most brutal. He had always been the most brutal. No one made the culprits suffer as much as Amerigo did when he caught them.

Amerigo treated Rose with nothing but love and respect. But those boys who dared to be too friendly suffered at his hands big time. She understood that was how their world was and men did not like to see other men take advantage of their women and disrespect them. But she felt bad for the poor souls who Amerigo taught lessons to. He was pretty merciless. All boys were allowed to talk to her but those who over stepped the mark, let's say maybe made a joke that was too much, did not get a second chance. She was used to it but she did not like the idea of others suffering because of her. She wished Amerigo tried to be more merciful and forgiving when it came to those who wronged her and not made them suffer so much.

When the music came on, the boys who were talking with Luigi one by one went to ask some girls to dance. That left him and Bernardo alone in that corner who was drinking from a glass. Luigi had a drink in his hand too. Luigi was not really in the mood to dance. He wanted to dance with Eden but she was not there. Finishing his drink was a good excuse to not go to the dance floor. He could dance with his sister if he could not get a hold of another drink. The guys were either dancing with their siblings or the girls they liked.

Luigi was looking around the room. He noticed Amerigo approaching Rose to ask her to dance seemingly. She walked to the centre of the dance floor with him and started dancing to the music. The floor space around them suddenly looked abit empty. Obviously Amerigo and his girl had alot of respect. People made room for them to dance and stayed well away from their way.

Bernardo saw his line of vision "Did you know that Amerigo obtained my aunt's blessing to ask Rose out. He did ask her out but Rose said no and said she needs time to think..."

Luigi was taking in the new information as he noticed how the two were now dancing. Rose was smiling and seemed happy. Luigi turned to Bernardo and asked "I am just curious, so if she said no... why are they dancing together?"

Bernardo smiled "Nothing has changed between them Luigi. She just does not want to be Amerigo's girlfriend officially yet. She needs time to think. But they are friends like they have always been....

Luigi nodded silently.