Pain.
That's all that Isabella has experienced for the past 16 years. The pain of the abuse she faces from her boyfriend and step father. The pain of her loneliness at home. The pain of 'not being good enough'.
But she's learnt to tune it out. She's...
"She's battling things her smile will never tell you about."
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Everyone's attention turns away from me, thankfully, when the food gets brought out. A massive plate of spaghetti bolognaise sits in front of me, like a mountain.
I glance up and see my brothers already eating and talking, so I pick up my fork and begin trying to make a dent in the food.
I finish about a quarter of it before I get full, so I resort to playing with it using my fork. I sit there for a while, before I notice that everyone's conversations have come to a halt and they all are looking at me.
"What?" I say, confused on why all eyes are in me.
"Isabella, is that all you're eating? You've barely touched it." A mad Elijah says, almost concerned.
"Yeah, I had a big lunch, is that an issue?" I reply innocently.
In truth, I never ate much at Evan's house. Of course I had food, and I would buy my own with the money I earned, but sometimes I didn't get dinner or lunch because I was doing poorly in training. Then I didn't have breakfast most days, only my treasured iced coffee, because it made me feel sick.
"You have to eat more, at least finish half of." A cold-looking Vincenzo gets my attention.
"I really can't. Definitely not half of it." I shake my head. "You served me a damn mountain, what do you expect me to do?"
"Fine. This won't slide tomorrow." He grumbles.
I quietly exhale a breath I didn't know I was holding, thankful that they wouldn't force me to eat anymore, otherwise I would have thrown up.
After a moment of silence, he speaks up again, holding power over the room.
"Isabella, we have some rules for you while you live here with us."
Rules? Hell no.
I just look at him expectantly, waiting for him to go ahead.
"Rule 1, we expect you to verbally reply to us, so that we know you understand us."
I nod, and he raises an eyebrow at me, before I realise my mistake.
"Ok." I sigh, this could get boring quickly.
"Rule 2, no disrespect to any of your brothers. Rule 3, tell one of us if you are leaving the house. Rule 4, absolutely no dating, no boys."
"Who said I was only attracted to boys?" I smirk quietly, loud enough for them to hear though.
Everyone at the table whips their head around so quickly I'd be shocked if they didn't get whiplash, clearly not expecting me to reply like that.
"Ok, still no dating, especially boys." He adds, and I just scoff with a smile.
