Care For Me ✔️

F I F T Y - T W O

"He was what." Damon paled, his voice a mere whisper; though his words were not a question, more disbelief.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Uncle Luciano asked, concern lacing his tone.

"I didn't think it was a conversation to be had over the phone." Zac shrugged, their worry somewhat pissing him off. Where was their worry half an hour ago?

"What's the treatment?" Francesco asked, he wasn't surprised about Zac's confession; deep down he had an idea.

"He's on the strongest antidepressants." Grey answered.

"Yeah, if he fucking takes them." Ace added, glaring at his now pale cousins.

"What do you mean?" Ezra asked, his eyes filled with distress.

"As if you fucking care." Killian spat, his voice filled with venom shocking everyone at the table; including his brothers.

"Welcome to the dark side twinny." Kaden grinned, he'd never seen his brother so pissed.

"Of course I fucking care." He angrily responded.

"Could've fooled me." Alex added. "None of you cared when you were belittling him less than an hour ago."

"What did you mean, Ace?" Marie asked softly, staring at her grandson with pleading eyes.

  "He means, Leo doesn't want to take the medication." Callan answered. "Not that I blame him."

  "And why haven't you just forced him to take this medicine? And, how does him being depressed allow him to be ignorant?" Adamo asked, receiving a look of disbelief from everyone in the room; including his own youngest sons.

  "Are you that fucking dense?" Carter chuckled darkly. "Do you understand depression, uncle?" Spitting the word uncle with a hint of disgust.

  "Of course I do, it just makes you sad. Tell him to man up and snap out of it." Adamo scoffed.

  "Man up? Snap out of it? Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Alex slammed his hands on the table, his eyes darkening profusely as he focused his cold glare into his uncle. "I can't fucking stand people like you." Alex spat.

"People like me?" Adamo scoffed, standing from his chair as he stared at his nephew. "What do you mean by that, Alex?"

"He means you're an insufferable prick." Carter concluded with a smirk, Ace nodding in agreement, a matching smirk to that of his brothers.

"Enough!" Grey intervened, trying to diffuse the situation at hand. "Callan, take our brothers and leave the room."

Callan nodded at Grey, dragging a protesting Carter out by the arm, the rest of his siblings following in tow; before they followed in Carter's footsteps and punched someone.

"Now, I'm going to start from the beginning; I want no interruptions or I'll kick every single one of you out of my house. I need you all to listen and be empathetic as you do." Zac stated, exhaling audibly; resisting the urge to kick the shit out of his uncle.

Each of his family members nodded their heads at Zac's statement. Waiting for him to fill them in on Leo's health; and he did. He filled them in from the beginning; when Zac first noticed a change in Leo's behaviour, telling them about how the light gradually left his eyes. How he became introvert and stopped communicating with them, his lack of interest in the things he once loved. The slight anger issues, the way he bottled up his emotions until one day he'd just break. Then, he told them about the hospital— the panic attack; how the doctors had to sedate him, and finally how the doctor came to the diagnosis.