broken beyond repair

2

Plus, Gabriel went out to bars and stayed away from the house the whole weekend, so it was some alone time to myself.

The point was that I was ready for school to be over.

I mean, it will be a pretty standard weekend, but at least it's some alone time, right?

Oh, how wrong I was about that.

*Alessandro POV*

I was angry; no, I was livid. I couldn't see anything but red.

This whole time our sister has been right under our noses?

Well, a few states away, but still in the United States?

We thought she had been taken at least across seas.

I called the boys to tell them that I was going to see this target instead of them.

They simply nodded their heads and walked out. However, before they did, I saw something flash across their faces. They were too open with their emotions.

*Time Skip to Friday*

Today was the perfect day until it wasn't. Who knew that your life could be turned upside down in one day?

I was on my way to science when

"Emma Lopez, I repeat Emma Lopez to the front office, please."

I just rolled my eyes and sighed, knowing that I did nothing wrong but was probably still going to get in trouble.

Once I reached the office, the atmosphere was heavy, somber almost.

I glanced at the principal and the man to his right, a tall guy who just radiated power and dominance.

I shrunk away from him, and hurt came into his eyes, but he quickly hid it.

"Well, what's up?" I asked impatiently.

"Ms. Lopez, I am sorry to inform you that your foster father, Gabriel, has passed away."

Being the great actor that I was, I let a tear roll down my cheek. To be frankly honest, I don't give a rat's ass about what happened to him.

Instead of asking about his funeral, I just asked, "So back to the orphanage now?"

This is where the scary man from earlier interrupted.

"Well, actually, you're coming home with me, niña (child)."

I just stared at him like he grew two heads, confused about why he was taking me and mad that he called me a child.

Yeah, I know 4 languages, but that's something else to get into later.

"And why would you want me?" I question politely

"Well, because we are your biological family."

And then everything went black.

***

I sat back up just to see my older brother's concerned faces and the principal staring at me.

Older brother? The word felt foreign, even in my mind.

"How long was I out for?"

"Just a few minutes," my brother replied.

"Oh, that reminds me, what's your name, anyway, Tall Dude?"

He chuckled at the nickname before saying, "My name is Alessandro Lopez hermanita."

I frowned at the endearing nickname before realizing...

Oh shit. I had been so busy wondering who would adopt me that I forgot that the Ramirez brothers are my real family.

I slowly started to back out of the room but came back in as I realized, if I'm going to get abused, at least they'll have the proper needs to fix me back up.

Plus I'm not stupid and would love to live with rich dudes. Their idea of "starving" would probably be half a pizza a day. That would be more than I had eaten these past couple of weeks.

I snapped out of my haze and took a sip of the water handed to me, then asked.

"So, where do you live anyways?"

Alessandro replied, "Chicago."

And that's when I spit my water all over his expensive suit that probably cost more than my life.

Ignoring the suit, I just stuttered out, "Chi-Chicago?"

He just nodded his head as if analyzing my every move.

Putting on a fake smile, I said,

"Alrighty, then, let me say bye to my friends and grab my stuff."

Knowing Spanish at my new house would be necessary, so I decided not to tell my brothers that I understood them, so I could eavesdrop.

After saying bye to my friends, I walked back to Alessandro.

"Ready to get your stuff?"

"Yup!" I replied with a fake smile, not excited for him to see my current living situation.

We soon reached, and I sprinted inside, grabbing the few things that I had. I was about to leave my tiny room when something caught my eye. My little elephant, Ellie, whom I had for as long as I could remember, I could never leave her behind.

Back in the central part of the apartment, Alessandro was looking around.

"Hey, I'm done now. Can we go?" I asked.

"Sure," He looked around one last time, and when his eyes landed on my elephant, his eyes softened.

I waited for him to say something, but he didn't. Instead, he just motioned for me to follow him, which I did.

I got into the car, and he told me to just sleep since we had some time before we reached the airport. The last thing I heard before falling asleep was

"Yeah... I need you all to come home immediately... NO, it's not about her... just come ok?... it's a surprise".