„La Famiglia Romano Lullabies for Wolves“
Prolog — “The Night She Arrived”
[ Scene : Unknown Cell · 2:17 a.m. ]
The concrete is slick with blood and filth. One bare bulb hums, casting jaundiced light.
A threadbare blanket, stiff with dried blood.
[ Sound : distant dripping · rat scurries through a puddle ]
Oliver DeLuca
(breathing shallow, voice raw)
Not yet… not yet, piccola.
Her fingers, split and bruised, press on her swollen belly. Beneath the skin, a small, stubborn rhythm fights back.
[ Sound : muffled thunder · rain begins outside ]
Oliver DeLuca
(whispers, forced smile)
You will be sunshine. You will be our light.
She curls against a fresh wave of agony, a scream caught behind her teeth.
[ Scene : Highway · 2:21 a.m. ]
Five black SUVs carve through the downpour. Rain lashes the windshields like whips.
Men inside check weapons. The air is thick with a calm, murderous intent.
[ Sound : magazines clicking shut · safeties disengaged ]
Alessandro DeLuca
(stone voice)
Move. No one left breathing.
Enzo DeLuca
(calm)
We paint the walls with them. For her.
Dante DeLuca
(grit)
For Liv. For the baby.
[ Scene : Cell · 2:36 a.m. ]
Olivia’s world is a red haze of pain. A final, gut-wrenching convulsion.
A new cry pierces the gloom — thin, furious, alive.
[ Sound : newborn wail · Olivia chokes on a sob ]
Oliver DeLuca
(lips trembling, smiling through pain)
Leyla… my angel.
You have his eyes — look. Look at him in your sleep.
She guides the tiny face toward the light she keeps in her memory: Alessandro’s face, flashed in her mind like salvation.
Leyla DeLuca
(tiny sound)
…ahh.
Oliver DeLuca
(faint laugh, urgent whisper)
Listen to me. Listen — I cannot stay. But you… you must live.
Her voice grows urgent, ragged with every heartbeat.
Oliver DeLuca
(to Alessandro, to her sons, to the darkness that took her)
Promise me.
Oliver DeLuca
Keep her in the light.
Oliver DeLuca
Do not let the world teach her our hands. Love her — even for the things I could not fix.
Oliver DeLuca
Protect her. Love her.
Oliver DeLuca
I love you. All of you.
Oliver DeLuca
Take her home.
She presses the sleeping, damp child to her breast. The newborn curls, trusting and miraculous.
[ Sound : soft cooing · carers somewhere far away ]
Oliver DeLuca
(whisper, last thread of strength)
Tell him… tell Alessandro she has his eyes.
Tell them she is ours.
Her hand finds Alessandro’s name in the dark and squeezes — an impossible, final benediction.
[ Scene : The Rescue · 2:49 a.m. ]
Black boots. Rain-splattered doors kicked from hinges. Men move through corridors like a plague of violence.
[ Sound : splintering wood · muffled shouts · suppressed coughs of automatic fire ]
They don't ask questions. They deliver answers in the form of bullets and broken bones. A guard's head snaps back, a dark spray painting the wall behind him. Another is silenced by a blade sliding between his ribs.
Dante DeLuca
(shouting, voice tight with rage)
Clear the left! No prisoners!
Matteo DeLuca
(calm, efficient)
No loose ends. Make it bleed. Sweep, now.
[ Sound : gunfire · sharp, wet impacts · a final gargled scream ]
[ Scene : Cell Door · 3:05 a.m. ]
Nox’s nose lifts — a sharp, predatory whine. He scrabbles at the last locked door, paws smearing blood on the wood.They pry it open. The smell hits them first: a copper tide of fresh blood, stale sweat, and the clean, sharp scent of new life.
[ Sound : lock breaks · a newborn's fierce cry ]
They find Olivia slumped against the wall, a corpse at her feet, its throat a gaping wound. She is a canvas of violence, but in her arms — a tiny, kicking bundle, smeared in her blood.
Enzo DeLuca
(voice cracking)
Ma—
Alessandro DeLuca
(dropping to his knees, hands shaking)
Olivia. Stay with me.
Oliver DeLuca
(weak, serene)
She’s yours.
Oliver DeLuca
She has his eyes — Alessandro’s. The color of sunrise and stubborn stones.
Oliver DeLuca
She is our promise.
Her gaze slides to each of them — a mother’s last inventory: sons, husband, fury, love.
Oliver DeLuca
(breath like wind)
Love her. Love her more than you ever loved me.
Oliver DeLuca
Raise her kinder than we were.
I… I am sorry. But I am proud.
Leyla DeLuca
(soft, almost a question)
…mhh.
Olivia reaches out, a hand slick with her own blood, and clasps Alessandro’s with a force that astonishes them all.
Oliver DeLuca
(final, steady)
Promise me.
Please.
Alessandro DeLuca
(voice breaking)
I promise. I swear it.
She smiles — small, relieved — as if she can finally let go.
[ Sound : faint heartbeat slows · the room exhales ]
Olivia’s hand falls away. Her breath stops. The newborn wails once, bright and small.
Dante DeLuca
(barely a whisper)
Madre di Dio.
Vincent DeLuca
(kneeling, voice raw)
She did it. She held on for her.
Alessandro DeLuca
(holding Leyla to his chest, voice low and absolute)
You are our daughter. I will keep my promise.
[ Scene : Silence after the storm · 3:10 a.m. ]
Outside, thunder rolls and fades. Inside, men who have given orders and taken lives stand numb, guarded by a tiny sound: their child breathing.
They bow their heads — not to power, not to the death they delivered, but to the small life that was won in blood.
[ Sound : Leyla’s soft cooing · Nox settles beside them, a low whine in his throat ]
Chapter One — “The House of Kings”
[ Scene : DeLuca Villa · 7:42 a.m. ]
Five black SUVs turn onto the long drive.
The rain has thinned to mist.
Gravel crunches under tires like bones being ground to silence.
[ Sound : engines fade · doors open · soft footsteps ]
Alessandro steps out first.
Leyla sleeps against his chest — small, warm, breathing proof that Olivia’s fight wasn’t in vain.
Behind him, eleven men move in quiet unison.
Black suits. Cold eyes. Each face cut from the same storm.
Dante DeLuca
(low)
We’re home.
But it doesn’t feel like it.
Enzo DeLuca
(short)
It won’t, for a while.
Leon DeLuca
(half grin, no humor)
Guess ghosts travel light.
Matteo DeLuca
(murmured)
Enough, Leon.
Leon DeLuca
(shrugs)
What? I’m talking. Means I’m alive.
Vincent DeLuca
(softly)
Then talk quieter. She’s sleeping.
Leyla stirs — a soft hum, small hands curl into Alessandro’s shirt.
For a heartbeat, the house itself seems to exhale.
[ Scene : Family Garden · 9:03 a.m. ]
Under the olive trees, the ground is damp and dark.
The coffin rests between two lanterns, the wood gleaming with rain.
Each man stands in a line, black over black.
[ Sound : distant thunder · shovels scrape ]
Alessandro DeLuca
(quiet)
She hated flowers on graves.
Said they die twice.
Dante DeLuca
(hoarse)
She’d call this dramatic.
Leon DeLuca
(half smile)
Yeah. Then she’d make it more dramatic.
Matteo DeLuca
(flat)
She’d want efficiency. We’re failing that.
Vincent DeLuca
(soft)
She’d want peace. We can at least give her that.
Luca DeLuca
(under breath)
She already has it.
Nico DeLuca
(nods)
And left us the reason to keep it.
He glances at Leyla — still asleep in her father’s arms.
Rafael DeLuca
(tight voice)
I’ll never understand how someone so small can hold the world together.
Xander DeLuca
(rough)
She’s one of us. That’s enough.
Vincent DeLuca
(low, eyes on coffin)
She gave everything for her. For us.
We don’t waste that.
Enzo DeLuca
(steady)
No. We don’t.
[ Sound : rain eases · wind through olive leaves ]
Alessandro kneels beside the grave.
He doesn’t speak for a long moment — just breathes.
Alessandro DeLuca
(soft)
Liv…
She’s here.
Safe.
You did it.
Leyla DeLuca
(tiny sound)
…mhh.
Every head lifts, eyes drawn to her — the smallest sound, but it’s like something new bloomed in the air.
Dante DeLuca
(smiles faintly)
Hear that? Even she knows when to make an entrance.
Leon DeLuca
(teasing)
She gets that from me.
Matteo DeLuca
(murmurs)
God help us if that’s true.
[ Sound : faint laughter · shovel scraping stops ]
Each of them steps forward, one by one.
Dante lays his rosary, Enzo a silver bullet, Matteo a small law book, Leon a paper rose he folded in the car.
Vincent places his medical pin — the only symbol of his other life.
Nico and Luca each set a coin, one gold, one silver.
Vincenzo, a lighter engraved with the family crest.
Rafael places his lucky ring.
Xander, a small carved wolf he’d made when he was younger.
Alessandro DeLuca
(rising, voice rough)
You see, Liv?
They remember.
Every one of them.
He presses a kiss to the coffin — a gesture of respect, not surrender.
[ Scene : silence stretches · wind slows ]
Vincent DeLuca
(soft)
She’d hate how quiet we’re being.
Leon DeLuca
(grins slightly)
Then someone say something stupid.
Dante DeLuca
(smirks)
Look in the mirror.
[ Sound : low laughter · thunder rolls once more ]
For the first time since the night began, the sound doesn’t hurt.
[ Scene : Villa Courtyard · later that morning ]
The sky clears. Light pours across the marble.
Inside, the family gathers — heavy eyes, cold coffee, no words that matter yet.
Rafael DeLuca
(staring at Leyla)
She has his eyes.
Vincent DeLuca
(quiet)
And her mother’s calm.
Leon DeLuca
(mocking whisper)
That won’t last. Not with you lot.
Matteo DeLuca
(to Leon)
One joke and you’re out of the will.
Leon DeLuca
(grins)
Please. I’m the favorite.
Leyla stirs again. A tiny laugh. A spark in the ashes.
Every gaze softens — all at once, involuntary.
Even Enzo’s. Even Alessandro’s.
Dante DeLuca
(low)
You hear that?
That’s what home sounds like.
Alessandro DeLuca
(softly)
Yeah.
Let’s keep it that way.
[ Scene : sunlight widens · Nox curls near her cradle ]
The storm has passed.
The De Lucas stand together — thirteen shadows, one light in the center.
[ Sound : Leyla’s gentle cooing · faint heartbeat rhythm beneath silence ]
[ Scene : DeLuca Villa · 2:14 p.m. ]
Rainclouds drift apart.
The villa is quiet again — the kind of quiet that follows both prayer and gunfire.
[ Sound : doors closing · faint echo of footsteps ]
Inside, the air smells of coffee, leather, and candle wax.
Half-empty glasses stand forgotten on the long dining table.
Dante DeLuca
(pouring whiskey)
To her.
And to the poor bastard who thought he could take her.
Matteo DeLuca
(dry)
You mean the one we already buried?
Dante DeLuca
(shrugs)
Then to the next one. There’s always a next one.
Leon DeLuca
(leans back, smirks)
Can we toast without turning it into a war cry, or is that too much to ask?
Vincent DeLuca
(softly)
Let him talk. That’s how he grieves.
Enzo DeLuca
(watching them, voice even)
We all grieve differently. Just don’t forget why we’re still standing.
He glances at the cradle near the fireplace — a small bundle wrapped in cream-colored cloth.
[ Sound : faint baby cooing · Nox sighs beside the cradle ]
Luca DeLuca
(smiling)
She’s dreaming.
Probably of a house that doesn’t smell like gunpowder.
Nico DeLuca
(half-laughs)
Give her a week. She’ll think it’s normal.
Rafael DeLuca
(from the stairs, teasing)
She’ll think Leon’s the normal one.
Leon DeLuca
(mock hurt)
Hey. I’m delightful.
Xander DeLuca
(grins)
You’re loud. There’s a difference.
[ Sound : brief laughter · glass clinks ]
The tension breaks for a heartbeat.
Even Alessandro’s shoulders ease — slightly.
Alessandro DeLuca
(quiet)
Drink, then eat.
We bury rage the same way we bury grief — one meal at a time.
He doesn’t smile, but the corner of his mouth softens.
Enzo DeLuca
(serious again)
Business will ask questions soon.
They’ll test us.
Dante DeLuca
(grips glass)
Let them. I’m ready.
Vincent DeLuca
(low)
Not tonight.
Not with her in the next room.
[ Sound : faint cry from the cradle ]
Alessandro turns first.
The rest follow, instinct more than thought.
He lifts her carefully — a man who once held weapons now holding peace.
Leyla DeLuca
(small yawn)
…ahh.
Alessandro DeLuca
(soft)
You’ve got the timing of a queen.
Dante DeLuca
(quiet smile)
Or a DeLuca. Same thing.
They all laugh, a little — the first real sound of life since dawn.
Matteo DeLuca
(half-smile)
Look at us.
Killers, businessmen, idiots… and she’s the only one running the room.
Leon DeLuca
(leans closer to the cradle)
Yeah. And she doesn’t even pay rent.
Rafael DeLuca
(teasing)
She pays in peace. Worth more than cash.
Rafael DeLuca
[ Scene : sunlight widens · birds outside · faint wind through open doors ]
For a while, no one talks.
They just stay — together.
No orders, no anger, no masks.
Alessandro DeLuca
(low, to the room)
Your mother wanted a home.
Not a kingdom.
We’ll give her that.
Enzo DeLuca
(nods)
We will.
Dante DeLuca
(quiet)
For her.
For her.
He glances at the cradle.
Leyla’s tiny hand has curled around his finger.
He doesn’t move.
[ Sound : steady heartbeat beneath silence ]
The camera would pull back here — wide shot, eleven figures, one light.
A house still breathing after war.
Chapter Two — “Dinner With Ghosts”
[ Scene : DeLuca Villa · 7:46 p.m. ]
The dining room glows gold in the half-light.
Rain taps against tall windows, softer now — like an apology.
[ Sound : fire crackles · cutlery clinks softly ]
The long table is full, but no one’s in a hurry.
For once, nobody’s talking business.
Just the sound of family pretending to be normal.
Leon DeLuca
(leaning back)
So, are we gonna pretend I didn’t cook half of this?
Dante DeLuca
(without looking up)
Half? You reheated bread.
Leon DeLuca
(grins)
Improved it. Culinary genius.
Matteo DeLuca
(dry)
If you improved anything, it’s the risk of food poisoning.
[ Sound : low laughter · chair creaks ]
Vincent DeLuca
(pouring wine)
Quiet, you two. She’s sleeping.
He nods toward the cradle near the fireplace.
Leyla’s there, wrapped in cream blankets, one hand in the air as if claiming the room.
Nico DeLuca
(smiling)
Already acts like she owns the place.
Luca DeLuca
(soft laugh)
She does.
Rafael DeLuca
(leans forward)
Hey, when do I get to hold her again?
Last time, Dante looked at me like I was stealing the crown jewels.
Dante DeLuca
(shrugs)
Maybe don’t drop things you care about, then.
Rafael DeLuca
(mock gasp)
That was one time—
Xander DeLuca
(cuts in)
One time too many.
[ Sound : small giggle · faint cooing from the cradle ]
Leyla DeLuca
(tiny sound)
Heh.
They all freeze, then smile — unplanned, unspoken.
A small laugh in a house built on silence.
Alessandro DeLuca
(from the head of the table)
She laughs when you argue.
Must be her mother’s influence.
Enzo DeLuca
(glances down at his plate)
Or yours. You never lost a debate.
Alessandro DeLuca
(quiet smile)
With her, I did.
Every time.
[ Scene : soft pause · glasses raised ]
Matteo DeLuca
(to the group)
To her.
Everyone (softly)
To her.
[ Sound : glasses clink · fire pops ]
For a moment, the weight lifts.
Even the guards outside can feel it — a different kind of command.
Leon DeLuca
(grins)
So… are we raising her like a DeLuca, or like a saint?
Enzo DeLuca
(flat)
Both.
She’ll know kindness.
And power.
Dante DeLuca
(half-smile)
And sarcasm, apparently.
Vincent DeLuca
(warm)
That’s love, here.
Alessandro DeLuca
(looks at them all)
It’s family.
That’s enough.
[ Sound : faint wind through the open doors · night settling ]
The laughter fades, replaced by quiet comfort.
Outside, the sea hums.
Inside, eleven shadows sit together, anchored by a child’s soft breathing.
[ Scene : camera drifts to cradle · firelight flickers over Leyla’s face ]
She stirs once, smiling in her sleep —
as if she knows the world is hers already.
Alessandro DeLuca
(whisper)
Sleep well, principessa.
Tomorrow we start again.
[ Sound : fire crackles · silence stretches ]
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