The Shadows

Chapter Twenty-Three

A week had passed, and Annabella was finally back to her normal self again. Her brothers were shocked about how she had changed for that week, but relished in it, knowing that it would not be happening again for a while.

Adrinao and her dad had called Annabella to their office because they had to tell her something. She was slowly making her way towards the office. She knocked on the door to let them know she had arrived, even though she didn't need to because they had cameras everywhere in the house. When they had acknowledged that she was outside the door, they told her to open the door and gestured for her to sit down.

Her father was sitting in a seat that he had pulled up to the side of Adriano's desk. They both stared at her for a moment, causing her to get nervous. When her father noticed, his eyes softened.

"You're not in trouble, Princess. We just wanted to talk to you about the ball we are holding in honor of you being found-" He said to her but when she had heard 'ball' and 'honor of me' in the same and freaked out. Annabella had never been good with doing girly stuff such as dressing up and attending galas or balls.

"Do what? You are holding a ball in my honor! Why would you do that?" She asked hysterically. Annabella thought they both had noticed her obvious dislike of those types of things.

"Okay, like Dad was saying, we are holding a ball in a week in honor of you. We will have many of our close work partners and employees there. You can go dress shopping tomorrow with Isabella and take your brothers since they need to get their tuxes," Adriano explained. He made her freak out sound like she was a burden. She was hurt, which was weird, but she just shook it off and put on her cold facade. If he wanted to treat this as a business deal, then so would she.

"Okay Adriano, what time is the ball? Also where is it being held?" Annabella questioned him in a cold voice that could make grown men cry. Both her Dad and Adriano were taken back from her switch in attitude. She means not everyone can switch it like her.

After they told me everything about the ball, I went to my room to watch television. She was in the middle of an episode when someone knocked at her door. Sh eyelled for them to come in and she was greeted by her twin. He looked at the television, then at her before shaking his head.

"Why did you look at the television like that?" Annabella asked him after a moment. He looked astonished. Then he just stood up and told her that he was coming to get her for dinner. She nodded.

Annabella got up to follow him out of the room for dinner. Lately, she had been getting closer to her brothers. This was a big risk for multiple reasons. First off, they were the Italian Mafia. The group of people who literally had a bounty on her head. Secondly, she had many targets on her head from her Shadow persona. Lastly, she could not have any weaknesses. Weaknesses were equal to pain and sorrow.

When they had finally reached the dining room, Annabella could hear the triplets arguing and Alessandro trying to calm them down. Looking in, she saw her Dad and Adriano sitting downat the table as stoic as ever to whatever bomb that had been dropped on the others to make them react that way. Her guess was that all of her brothers hated balls as well. Annabella and Armani walked into the chaos and found their seats as all protests went quiet. She got very awkward in the silence so she just had to say something.

"What caused you guys to react that way? And why did you quieten down when I got in here?" Annabella questioned, trying to break the awkward tension that had enveloped the dining room. Alessandro was the one to answer her.

"We just got told we had to go to the ball being held in your honor." He said, brutally honest. Annabella felt a pang in her heart at the revelation, but ignored it. She decided to play with their feelings for a moment.

"So you don't want to go to the ball? Is it because it is for me?" Annabella asked them, while making her lips tremble and her eyes well up with unshed tears. All of her brothers started rushing to assure her that it wasn't like that. She couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing. They looked at her like she had betrayed them and grumbled while sitting back down. She looked around and saw Adriano looking at her already. Even though his face was neutral, she could see the amusement in his eyes from what she had just done. Annabella smiled at him, and he did something she would have never expected him to do.

He smiled right back at her.