Don’t Poke The Bear

Chapter 16 Mamba/Carmen

POV Mamba/Carmen

My brother Antonio ‘The Beast’ postponed his holiday with Teddy because he was worried about our sisters. He called me to check on little Kitten. She was staying with me since I took her out of the training academy and he was concerned because he hadn’t seen her with his own eyes but he’d heard that she had lost a lot of weight again. He had always been the emotional one out of all of us kids and he was spiralling on the phone as I assured him that everything would be fine. Then he mentioned that he was worried about Wolfie and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He said he had decided to take Teddy away to Italy to his holiday home because he thought that Wolfie was drinking again. I had heard from everyone that her behaviour had been erratic lately, but I had no idea that she was this bad. I was in his office the day she threw a chair at the wall and then she had threw Bunny out of her house. He then said that she had a new assistant because Gill was off on maternity leave and that the new assistant was going around the office telling everyone that he had caught Wolfie asleep at her desk at least twice a week. I knew I couldn’t come right out and ask her so I did what any sister would do.. I waited until she was fast asleep and I broke into her bedroom window and looked for clues. It was only 1am and Wolfie was fast asleep and snoring her head off. There was an empty glass of whiskey by her bed but it was still half full, I wasn’t sure how much she had drank but I had to find out. I creeped across the room in the darkness and I hit a large vase but I managed to catch it before it hit the floor. I gently put it back in its place and went towards her bedroom door. I stopped at her walk in closet and I couldn’t help but go in and try on her new dress that she had sent me a photo of the day before. It was red and suited our dark hair I stood and looked at myself in her mirror and I let out a loud sigh and said “lucky b***h” because I could only wear black because I was a widow and I missed wearing colour, but we were Italian and that was the way it had to be. I put my hand up to my mouth because I had been so loud I peeked out at Wolfie and she was still fast asleep and I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t woke her up. I took off her dress and hung it up and then I seen her beautiful green scarf that I had bought her in Paris and I couldn’t help but scrunch it up and put it in my pocket. I only bought her it because I couldn’t wear green but here it was in her closet with the tags still on it.. so I took it back. I went to her bedroom door and I could hear someone in the next bedroom, it was a man’s voice and he was shouting loud enough that anybody could hear. It sounded like my brother Antonio/The Beast. It was his loud deep voice but there was no reason for him to be there at that time of night. I wanted to go in and confront him, but I didn’t have time. Instead I just rolled my eyes as I went out into the hallway and went down stairs to the kitchen. I went into the drinks cabinet and it was full of red wine which I knew Wolfie didn’t drink. There was only so much there because Antonio would bring it back from Italy with him and all of my brothers love it and Wolfie would serve it to them at their weekly Sunday dinner. I reached into the back and brought out a bottle of whiskey and it was half full. I went into her glass recycle bin and it was full of jam jars and red wine bottles but no Whiskey bottles. I googled how often it was collected and it said that it was due the next day which meant it hadn’t been emptied for two weeks. So in the past two weeks she had only drank a half of a bottle of whiskey.. that didn’t seem that much. She had never been in AA or said that she was trying to be sober and in the past when we were concerned about her drinking it was because she was drinking nearly half a bottle a night because she found it hard to sleep but now she was snoring her head off and it seemed like she wasn’t self medicating any more. I took the bottle and poured it down the sink and I went into my back pack and took out my own bottle and poured non alcoholic whiskey into it and placed it back in the same position and rushed up stairs and into her bedroom. I quietly closed the door and went through her handbag and there was nothing in there then I went through her medicine cabinet and there was nothing there. I went into her closet and took two handbags, three pairs of shoes and a beautiful coat because I knew she wouldn’t miss them, then I took her perfume and some make up because I was on a roll. It was like I was shopping in my very own department store and everything was free!! Well not technically free because I was stealing it from my sister but I was sure she’d be fine about it.

As I went to sneak back out of her bedroom window and I noticed that it was raining hard and I didn’t want to get soaked. I’d just had my hair done and it looked great. So I dropped all her stuff and put on her pyjamas and got into bed next to her. We had always had to share a bed when we were growing up and it was nice to be able to share with her again. When she woke up in the morning she laughed when she noticed that I was there. “What are you doing here? And why are all my bags and shoes all over the floor?” She was always so tidy and proper and I didn’t care about stuff like that, I’m sure my housekeeper secretly hated me. “I was here to steal your stuff but it started to rain so I decided to stay and The Beast is worried about you.” “I’m worried about myself too” “what’s wrong?” “I honestly think there’s something really wrong with me. I’m constantly tired, I’m so stressed out..” She looked so tired and I could feel that she wasn’t herself. “I think you’re suffering from depression” she looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m f*****g miserable, I just want a husband and kids. I’m desperate for a normal life” I made a face at her “why would you want a normal life, it sounds so boring.” she shrugged her shoulders “We’ve never had a normal life before. I think if you were honest with yourself that you want a normal life too” I never let myself think about the life I was missing out on because my husband Ivan had died and I certainly didn’t want marriage and kids with anybody but him but now he was gone I had to let go of my fairytale ending. “We should go on holiday, let’s go somewhere fun” she smiled as she wiped her tears. “Can Teddy come with us, he was disappointed that his holiday with The Beast was postponed” I let out a groan “No Teddy can’t come with us, he’s half the problem with you. It must be exhausting dealing with all his bullshit. Anyway he’d probably love for you to leave him on his own for two weeks so he can go to the pub and the strippers” she laughed but I wasn’t joking. “Let’s go to The Beasts house in Italy. We should take Kitten and all be together. I think we all need to lean on each other right now.. and I suppose Teddy can come too” Her tear strained face broke into a huge smile “thank you for being here, I feel better already” So after that, we all boarded The Beasts private plane and we had the most amazing time together and it was just what we all needed.