INT CASANOVA & MARCHETTI ESTATE
Isabella Casanova a frilly little girl dressed in pink. Her black hair is curly and her green eyes are surrounded by dark lashes. She currently is skipping around the garden of her home. Her mother is inside cooking with her grandmother, and her father is upstairs with her grandfather discussing business and darker things.
Isabella, though usually going by her nickname Bell, is an only child and naturally imaginative.
So as she's playing around the garden she doesn't expect to see a young boy standing near the gate of her home.
She stops, walking up the the gate. The boy is crouched down near a tree, he looks as though he's studying the little ants that climb it.
"Who are you?" She asks innocently.
He turns. His head full of brown curls and his eyes nearly the color of caramel. He breaks into a smile.
"I'm Alessandro Marchetti, what about you?"
Bell looks at him for a moment as if she's not sure she should be talking to him.
"I'm Isabella Casanova…. But why are you out here… playing with bugs?"
Alessandro shrugs. "Because, my house is over there." He says pointing to the huge estate across the street.
Bell nods.
He continues. "My Dad is working, and my mama is knitting, I was bored, so I wanted to explore."
Bell stands shyly for a moment. "Well…. Do you want to play?"
Alessandro looks up from where he's sitting in the dirt. "Okay! What are we gonna play?"
Bell taps her chin. "Hmm, well I have to think first."
Alessandro stands up, wiping the dirt from his knees. "Um how about Pirates? Or cops and robbers?"
Bell scrunches her face up at that. "No I don't want to be a pirate. I want to be a princess, you can be the prince."
Alessandro shrugs his shoulders and nods. "Okay."
Bell walks to the gate and stands on her tip toes struggling to open it, she eventually gets it and allows Alessandro into the huge yard.
He falls into step beside her. "How old are you?" He asks. Bell looks over. "I'm five."
Alessandro breaks out into a smile. "Oh I'm five too!" He holds up his hand as if to emphasize the number.
And from there the Marchetti's and the Casanova's paths became intertwined.
The Marchetti family had been in New York City for nearly twenty years now. The head of there family was Giuliano Marchetti, Alessandro's grandfather. He had come to America in his thirties with his wife, Donatella Marchetti.
They settled in New York City, and Giuliano a smart man, a determined man grinded, every hour of every day. And from there he became involved in the shadows, fingers intertwined with the mafia. It was only the beginning. He built his kingdom from the ground, and accumulated power and wealth. Giuliano Marchetti was a man you couldn't forget. And he was a man you didn't want to cross.
He and his wife bore three children. The first of them being a son, Elio Marchetti, another son named Lorenzo Marchetti, and the last being their daughter Vittoria Marchetti. But among them, the child he knew took after him, the child he knew would achieve greatness was Lorenzo. And he did just that.
Lorenzo was the only of his siblings to have a child. His wife was Liliana Marchetti whom he'd met in college, and their son was Alessandro.
....
The Casanova family had resided in New York longer than the Marchetti family, and they had deep ties into Italy. Giovanni Casanova. The Patriarch of the Casanova's. He was known for his strategic mind and quiet dominance— He was less ruthless than most, and he too was a mafia don.
But he was a great man, he adored his wife, Elena Casanova. And from their love came two children, both boys. Carlos and Massimo Casanova.
He had raised the boys to know love, to know strength, to know courage. And there were times he had to show them the harsh realities of the world. Cruelty, Corruption, Unforgiveness.
Both had married. Carlos married Bianca. Massimo married Sofia, and together they had Isabella.
From that day on the Marchetti's and the Casanova's were now connected. On many levels. The roots that dug underground into the mafia, the two children that would become deeply entwined, and the business world, where they would form an alliance.
....
And Isabella and Alessandro, they played together that afternoon in the garden. Bell ran around as a princess and commanded little Alessandro to run around and follow her.
They didn't know it then, but that afternoon would echo through the rest of their lives.