Her Five Protectors

TWENTY-FOUR

Vincenzo arrives a while later along with Ariana. A grim expression is covering her face and Athena is too scared to face her. She avoids connecting her gaze with her.

"Let's go." They both follow Vincenzo towards back to his car.

Minutes of silence later, finally Ariana decides to speak.

"Vincenzo! I won't ask for anything else. Just let me join the school back. Instead of this you can punish me any way you see fit but please don't take my freedom from me." She says.

"We will talk about this later." He simply dismisses the matter. Athena silently listens to both of them and feels like it is preferable that she stays quiet.

She fumbles with the end of her dress and glances out of the window to see that they have reach the mansion. She quickly skips out by gently closing the door, closely hearing Ariana who forcefully slams the door shut.

She saunters inside. Athena glances towards Vincenzo to find him staring at Ariana's back with disapproval in his eyes.

"Athena! You must be tired. Why don't you take some rest? One more thing, Luciano is taking you out in evening." Athena furrows her eyebrows at Vincenzo's words but still she nods her head. There are many questions in her mind but she is too afraid and anxious to ask for answers.

She enters inside her room and sits down on the bed. After few minutes of sitting there quietly, she finally decides to take a nap. After the short nap, she wakes up near evening time. She walks downstairs in the kitchen and makes a cup of tea for herself.

When she is done pouring the tea in a cup, Ariana enters in the room.

"Hey you! Give me this." Ariana finds it a little weird talking to Athena. She feels like she is talking to her reflection in the mirror.

Athena hesitanly hands the cup to her. Ariana takes a sip of it and grimaces.

"This is shit! Just like you." Declining the urge to throw the hot burning liquid at top of Athena's head, she just throw it down on the floor. Athena frowns but doesn't say anything. She quickly gets down on the floor to pick the broken sharp pieces up.

Ariana just stares at her annoyed. She just wanted to get a reaction from her but her cousin is a pretty hard nut to break. When her tactics didn't work, she just walk out of there.

Athena frowns to herself thinking that she shouldn't be making Ariana more angry at her. The faint scars that Athena had noticed on Ariana made her realize that Ariana had endured pain in the past and she is trying to overcome this trauma. Athena just wants to help but she doesn't know how to say this.

"Madame! What are you doing?" Rachael and Vanessa rushes inside after seeing as Athena is about to clean the floor. Rachael immediately takes the mop from her and Vanessa offers to make a tea for Athena. Athena tries to resist their help but it is of no use. Both Rachael and Vanessa are stubborn.

"Athena!" Athena was sipping on her tea and listening to Vanessa's parents highschool love story when all of a sudden, Alexander enters inside. She gently places the cup down and looks towards him.

"Luciano is waiting for you!" He informs her. Athena almost forget how time was speeding away.

"Thank you." She whispers to her friends without stuttering in her words and moves towards the living room following Alexander closely. Luciano is surely waiting for her all dressed in his three piece black suit.

"Athena!" He smiles at her.

"Have a good time." Romeo comes out of thin air and gives Athena a small hug.

"Thank you." She whispers unsure.

Luciano leads her outside towards his car.

"Where are we going?" She asks as he helps her in buckling her seatbelt. Two black cars of guards follows behind them as Luciano pulls out of the gates of mansion.

"Patience Athena! It's a surprise...." He tells her and expertly drives through the busy roads. Complete 45 minutes later, he finally stops the car. Confused Athena watches as he got out first and makes his way towards her side. He grabs Athena's hand and gently tugs her out of the car.

Athena finds herself on the edge of cliff. She gasps looking at the sun that was setting down. They both sits down on the ground but Athena just stares. It feels like everything paused for a moment. The evening sun casts long shadows on the ground. The slanting rays of the sun gives a warm orange tinge to the sky.

"How does it look?" Luciano's voice fills in her ears. Without looking in his direction, Athena responses.

"Beautiful...."

"Right! It is those one of the thing that you have been seeing first time in your life." Athena is slightly uncomfortable at the mention. She fiddles with her fingers watching as the sun finally dips below the horizon.

"I know what's going on your mind, Athena!" He says.

"You wanted to enjoy such things. This outside world intrigue you and you want more and more of it." He speaks. Athena slowly nods her head and curls her knees to her chest, watching the first star finally entering the scene.

"But Athena, there is a ugly truth hidden behind this world." This catches Athena's attention. She looks towards him confused.

"The truth is that it isn't that beautiful that it looks. There is danger at every step. It's not safe for someone to be living alone." It is understandable where Luciano is trying to point. Without mentioning he was calling her vulnerable and naive and without doubt it was true. Her running away like that wasn't much safer. The outside world might be alluring and eye catching but it is equally ugly. Who knows what would have happen to her that day if her cousins haven't found her.

"We will take you everywhere you wish. We will get you everything you want. We will let you get everything back that you missed once. Somethings that everyone deserves but you never get to see." Luciano promises her with a sigh and looks up at the sky to see it cover with many twinkling stars.

Then there was just a silence between them. Athena lays her head over Lucanio's shoulder. It is surprising for both of them but none of them seem to mind.

"Will you protect me from bad guys?" Athena doesn't understand why she felt the sudden need to ask this.

"Always! Families are supposed to protect each other." He answers and places a small affectionate kiss on top of her head. The small action is enough to make her shoulders feel light. Atleast she is safe.

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