I don't want to let her back into my life...my heart, it will only break again when God decides to be cruel to us and rip her from our lives once more. It's clear as day that something has happened to our princess, you can see it in her eyes, the life that was once there has disappeared, there's no sparkle. Today has only confirmed my suspicions and I know what I have to do in order to protect my angel.
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T H E O D O R A
We finally made it back to the house, that car journey was painful, it was tense and awkward. Although I'm not surprised about that since I had my little meltdown at the mall. Why couldn't I just have walked away? Just stuck with my brothers? I just had to turn around and see him.
We unloaded all of the bags, I only carried a small handful that weighed practically nothing since my brothers took care of the rest, they didn't want me carrying any in fact. I wasn't exactly sure how I should feel at the moment, I think if I let myself feel anything at all it would be too much, too much sadness, too much pain and I don't believe I could survive it all this time.
We took all of the bags up to my room and thankfully the guys left me to unpack, it allowed me some time to myself. I could feel the pressure of Dante's intense gaze on me. I know he won't let what happened today go, he'll probably tell Luca and then I'll be screwed. I'll have to come up with some logical explanation, one they have to believe.
I could feel myself becoming anxious the more I thought about it so I decided to distract myself. I unpacked all of the shopping bags and arranged everything into small piles, categorizing each item. Leo had gone completely overboard with clothes, I had so much I don't know when I'll get to where everything. After some meticulous organizing, I finally filled my closet, it looked amazing! I was quite proud of how neat it looked. I also took the time to organize all of my new school books, copies, and other materials we bought.
My schoolbag was ready and organized to go for Monday, my desk was neatly organized and I had all of my stationary arranged for doing my homework. Everything extra we bought like some new art supplies and books I put away on the bookcase. It felt good to have at least one thing in my life I could control, I thought to myself as I stood back and admired the pristine room in front of me.
I looked at the clock on my nightstand to see it was almost time for dinner, I thought it was best to have a shower first, I had only noticed I got rather dirty and sweaty from cleaning and organizing everything. I grabbed some clean sweats and a hoody from my closet and started the shower. I leaned against the countertop, my back to the mirror, and waited for the water to heat up. It took only a minute or two before the room was steamy, I stripped out of my dirty clothes and unwrapped my ribs and other bandages and plasters I had on, and stepped into one of my favorite places in the house, my shower.
I know it's strange to have the shower as a favorite place but it is the one place I can just be me, be me without feeling scared of judgment or rejection, to let out all of my emotions but still come out feeling fresh and revitalized. I simply like the aura of peace it surrounds me with. I stood still for a couple of minutes letting the water flow over my body, soothing all of my aches and pains, washing away the long day.
Once I was finished I wrapped the soft, fluffy towel around my small frame and dried off. I took a peek at myself in the mirror and was disappointed to see the same frail, gaunt, damaged girl looking back. Everything hurt twice as much from all the walking around today. My ankle that was only beginning to heal feels worse as well as my forearm and ribs. Today I noticed it hurt a lot more when I breathed, the bruises still look the same so that's something, at least they aren't worse. My arm was still red and sore and now it was turning slightly green, I'm pretty sure it's infected which is just perfect, notice the sarcasm?
I only had two painkillers left and a few bandages, I'll need to stock up. The guys might have a first aid kit around the house I could use. My lower back was also tender but it wasn't as bad as the rest. On the bright side the cuts on my feet feel fine from when I dropped the glass, they stung for a while but I'm used to that type of pain. I finished up in the bathroom feeling a lot worse than when I went in. I checked the time once more and it was now dinner time so I made my way down to the dining room.
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D A N T E
Once we left Theo in her room to sort out her new school materials and clothes I knew I had to speak with Luca, and everyone else in fact this was serious now. She was left shaking and crying because someone had terrified her that much that she had a breakdown.
That isn't the only thing, I still need to talk to them about her nightmare, I was awake that night since I couldn't sleep, I was laying on my bed staring at the ceiling when I heard a scream...Theodora. I jumped out of bed as if my life depended on it and ran straight for her room, I slowed my steps just as I was outside her door. I could hear some shuffling inside and then...nothing, it was quiet. I slowly opened the door and poked my head in, there on the bed was Theo wrapped up in her quilt, her back facing the door. I knew she was pretending to be asleep, she used to always have nightmares when she was little but never wanted anyone to see her like that, scared. I walked over and took a seat on the edge of her bed, I could still see some fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. It hurt me so much to see her hurting, to see her upset.
I knew what I had to do.
I motioned to Christian and Leo to follow me, they shared a look of confusion before complying. I knew Luca would be in his study working, I needed everyone to be there so we're all on the same page. As we approached Luca's office the door was slightly ajar, I could hear him angrily speaking on the phone. I knocked twice and he yanked open the door.
"Non ti sto pagando per sederti sul culo tutto il giorno, quindi fallo o altrimenti!" he hung up and beckoned us in, Matteo was already in the room, sitting on the couch at the far end, a glass of scotch in hand.
(I'm not paying you to sit on your ass all day so get it done or else!)
"Everything good?" Christian asked warily, the anger was radiated off our eldest brother in waves.
"Yeah man just people being fucking lazy" He spoke as he sat down pouring himself a glass of bourbon.
"To what do I owe this family meeting boys" he asked and knocked back his drink
"Well actually we need Gabriel here as well, Christian can you call him and ask him to come here now"
"Yeah" Christian dialed Gabriel's number and let him know what was going on.
I look straight into Luca's eyes, I needed him to know this was serious,
"It's about Theodora" He noticeably stiffened
"What about her?" I don't doubt he has noticed some things himself.
"There was an incident today at the mall" Not only was Luca staring intensively at me but so were Christian and Leonardo since they didn't know what happened today, they only saw the aftermath.
Just then Gabriel burst through the door, "What's going on" He immidietly sensed the tension in the room and took a seat in the other armchair beside me. Once he was seated I continued on.
"We were heading to the food court when I noticed that Theo wasn't behind us anymore, I told the other two to go on and we'll meet them there. She was only around the corner but when I took one look at her I noticed something was wrong. I went up and I-I grabbed her wrist, she flinched back but once she saw it was me she broke down. She was crying, hysterical, she was talking about someone saying he was here, he was just here. I looked around but didn't see anyone suspisous. I asked her multiple times who it was she saw but...she just stayed quiet, it was as if her mind had shut down."
Everyone had the same expression I had when I first found Theo, confused, concerned, and enraged at whoever had upset her to that extent.
"Have you noticed any other odd behaviors regarding Theo , Leo, Dante or Christian?" We each looked at each other, I decided to go first.
"She had a nightmare the other night" I ran a hand through my hair, slouching back in my seat.
"I couldn't sleep and I was just laying on my bed when I heard a scream, I knew it was Theo so I ran towards her room, I went in and she was pretending to be asleep but she was still shaking a little and there were fresh tears on her cheeks. Whatever it was about it really scared her."
"I mean it's no secret how jumpy she is and how she flinches and tenses all the time" Leo chimed in.
"It's true I mean I walked in to Leo's room and she was trying to wake him up, I told her she had to shout and since she didn't realize I was there she jumped" Everything was slowly starting to piece itself together.
"Luca you don't think Maria's boyfriend did something do you?" Matteo spoke up
"I don't know Matteo but I have someone doing a little digging into Theodora's life and Maria's and how she managed to keep her hidden from us for so long" Luca looked beyond stressed, I could sympathise with him on that, I felt the same.
"For now let's just keep an eye on her, discretely okay?"
We nodded in unison.
"Right, everyone get ready for dinner, I suspect our little princess will be down soon" With that Luca and the rest of us stood up, heading for the dining room.
Something happened and we need to find out what....
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A/N
Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this part, I really enjoyed doing the two POVs in one part so let me know if you liked it too and whos pov would you like to see next? Do you think they're any closer to discover Theo's secret? how do you think Theo will manage with all of her injuries? do you think they're getting any better or worse?
I'd love to hear what you beautiful readers think so feel free to engage in the comments and vote if you enjoyed this!
P.s I used google translate for the Italian, sadly I never studied it so if there are any errors please let me know in the comments!
Until next time, Love
A.O