Broken Ties

🌵- Fractured Ties -🌵

'I miss you, kid, I really do'

Giovanni Adonis Vassiliou
Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Vassiliou family mansion
3/2/2026, 7:03 AM

Contains: Physical abuse, rape, anorexia, domestic abuse, physical violence, child marriage, and drug abuse

I'm in my office on my laptop, doing some work until my door bursts open, my middle son, Elijah, rushing in.

"Some guy is at the front door, and he asked for you," Elijah tells me, grabbing a pen off my desk, "and I need to get a bunch of ingredients for second period."

I nod as I stand, "Okay, I'm going to go deal with that, you need to go get ready for school, and I'll have one of your uncles drop the ingredients off, just send me a list," I instruct.

He sighs but nods, leaving. I grab my phone, checking the front door camera, and see a man I don't recognise and my grandfather. My mother's father. Fucking hell, I am not in the mood for this.

I know what this jackass wants. He called me last week to tell me he's setting my 15-year-old baby sister, whom I have custody of, in an arranged marriage with an 18-year-old. I, obviously, told him to go fuck himself, and he threatened to fight me for custody if I disagreed.

I go downstairs, opening the door to see the two men. "Giovanni Vassiliou?" the random man asks. I nod, and he hands me a file. "You've been served. Angelo Gallo is filing for legal custody of your sister, Charlotte Vassiliou."

I sigh, taking the file, I turn to my grandfather, "You are beyond stupid if you think there is any universe where I let you take Charlotte."

He smirks, "You've left her in that school for ten years; clearly, you don't care about her," he tells me.

Ten years ago, when my twins and Charlotte were five, Charlotte stabbed my youngest son, Issac, who is Elijah's younger twin brother, and so my parents sent her to a school in North Dakota for troubled kids. They died two years later, and for the safety of everyone, my wife and I decided she should stay at the school, but it's not like she's abused or her needs aren't met.

"I left her there because she needed help," I reply, keeping my voice steady.

I'm not going to act like I don't resent Charlotte for what she did; my son spent six months in the hospital fighting multiple infections and wouldn't speak for seven years after, but she's my baby sister, so I obviously still care about her.

"You left her in a school with a known history of accusations of abuse and rape, you left her there because you thought she deserved punishment for what she did to your son, and you know it!" my grandfather yells.

I scoff, "That's bullshit, every single one of those accusations was proven false," I tell him. I would never put Charlotte into an environment knowing it was abusive; she's a fucking child, regardless of her past... transgressions.

My grandfather's smirk returns, "You think the school doesn't have the connections to make those accusations go away?" he asks.

The strange man interrupts before I can respond.

"Mr Vassiliou, Mr Gallo," he says, calm and professional. "I am just here to serve you with the official notice. Any arguments will need to be handled in family court. You have thirty days to respond to the petition."

He says before walking away. My grandfather smirks at me, "Oh boy, just give up, we all know you don't care about her," he tells me. "Let me marry her off, then she'll be none of our problem, and we'll make money off it too."

I shake my head, shocked someone could even think like that. "She is a child, I don't care what she did, there is no universe where I allow her to marry a 19-year-old!"