Three

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Alexander Nathaniel Rozzi

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Alexander Nathaniel Rozzi

I sat silently watching the room since we had sat down at the table. The only people that were here were the ones we had met earlier, the parents, Madi, Gabe, Liam and Emmeline.

"Gabe, do you mind calling Everleigh down?" Lilliana calls her son.

Not glancing up from his phone, he calls an answer to where she was in the kitchen. "Ezra and Elijah went."

"Okay." She sighs. "Then can you call your twin?"

He rolls his eyes, clearly showing his distaste for the job but went to do this, judging from the lack of surprise on everyone's faces, that was normal. If I had behaved like that when Dad told me to do something, then I would have had my ass beat.

I hear her laughter before I see her. Ella walks through the door with two boys that look about her age. They seemed enamoured with her, not surprising though. Auriella had a way of making people fall in love with her in just one interaction. She was that type of stranger that you always just think about for years after a single exchange. And how outwardly beautiful she was added her appeal. She had chocolate brown curls that reached all the way down her back that always had natural golden highlights from all the time she spent out in the sun. She had a dusting of freckles across her cheeks that highlighted her already luminous eyes, that twinkled with every smile she sent, and that smile was accentuated by the dimples in each of her cheeks. Growing up Auriella was either likened to a doll or literal sunshine, so when she decided she liked the latter name more, the nickname stuck. Now anybody who knows her fairly well calls her that.

I watched her carefully and caught my gaze immediately. Her hand reached to her face ans she pulled her bottom lip with her fingers in a way that looked like she hadn't done it intentionally, but I knew better. Before we were rescued, Ella and I had a list of gestures we could use, so we wouldn't have to talk out loud. We had created our own sign language that only the two of us knew, and over time it had grown, and we could use it for anything. Right now she was gesturing the word for like, she liked the two boys with her, and it was obvious they liked her too. I'm glad she's made friends with some of her brothers.

Rory takes a seat next to me, Ezra taking the seat next to her and Eli taking the one opposite her. Rory was telling them some sort of story, and they seemed to be hanging on to every word she was saying. Emmeline watches the two of us in a way that made me want to pull Ella's chair closer to mine, or just pull her straight onto my lap.

When Gabe walked back into the room with another boy, the tensions seemed to skyrocket between the Taylor siblings. This boy looked the most like Rory, like if I didn't know he was a year and a half older, I would have thought that this was her twin. They shared every single facial feature, besides the fact his face was more masculine and his curly hair was cropped short. He seemed to do a double take when he saw his doppelgänger sitting at the table but acted as if he was unaffected, but I was trained to notice all the small emotions. He didn't say anything, just choosing the seat next to Eli.

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