Stepbrother | ✔︎

2 | raconteur

"Is everything okay?" Maria plastered a smile on her face. Orabella's eyes moved over to Vincenzo who still stared at her very intensively.

"I want to go home," she stated. She noticed how her mother froze for a second before she look over at Vincenzo, then, Angelo. He nodded his head and gave her a wink.

"You don't really have a home anymore, Orabella," her mother spoke. That was when Orabella really wanted to break down and cry. She had completely forgotten that her father's house was gone-she lost it. Her heart ached and the constant stage of fear she was in didn't help at all.

Orabella stormed out of the office doors and headed towards the front door. A guard was in front of it, and by the looks of him, she wasn't going to get through. She angrily stomped up the stairs and back into her room where she slammed the door.

She threw herself against the door and slid down it as her hands palmed her head. Tears began to make their way out of her eyes and her sobs echoed throughout the entire room. She wished her dad was here to comfort her like he always did. She wished her mother wasn't such a stupid piece of nothing.

A soft knock on the door could be heard. Orabella quickly wiped her tears with her shirt before she pulled the door open. Her mother was there with a sad smile on her face. The moment Orabella saw her, she began to close the door, but her mother had already slithered into the room.

"Look, Orabella. I know you are scared and confused but this was the only way I could convince him to let you stay." Her mother blurted out before she ran her hand through her hair. She looked down at the doorknob and locked it.

"What is all of this? Why can't I leave? Who are these people? Why did you bring me here?" Orabella asked as she teared up again. She hated her sensitive heart, it always felt the need to make her cry at the smallest things.

"It's all going to make sense soon. Just remember that Vincenzo is a scary man. You are his step sister, maybe that'll help him not be too cruel." Maria looked around the room nervously.

"Be too cruel? What are you talking about?"

"Bella, just be kind to your step brother. Do whatever he says. I know you must hate me because I would hate me. This is all going to be for the best, okay?" Maria asked before she walked towards the door and left behind a very confused Orabella.

"This isn't normal," Orabella whispered, meaning for it to be for herself, but her mother heard.

She gave her another sad smile and opened up the door. "Come on, I'll give you a tour of the place."

Orabella followed her mother out of the room. "This is Vincenzo's floor," her mother stated the moment they walked out of the room before she continued, "no one is allowed on this floor, except for Vincenzo himself."

"If no one is allowed on this floor then why am I living on it? And why can you be on it?" Orabella asked as she looked down the hallway.

"To show you a tour of it, and you are living on it because you are his sister. Plus, this is only a three-story house, where else would you live?" Maria asked and Orabella narrowed her eyes at her mother's retreating form.

"I don't know, maybe on one of the two other floors." She sarcastically muttered quietly. Her mother gladly didn't hear as she continued walking with a smile on her face.