Chapter 9: Weird
(A/N I want to add a trigger warning for self harming in this chapter.)
Dane's POV
It's been three days since the ball. Aniyah has been acting weird lately and I want to know what's going on. Ever since the ball she's been more on guard and avoiding me and the others. I can understand her avoiding her biological family but not Daxton and the rest of the gang. I know something happened at the ball but I can't figure out what. Since I can't figure it out I called in reinforcements. Right now Aniyah is at the gym for her daily workout which is now 3 extra hours and the rest of us are in her father's conference room.
"Dane you called this meeting so why are we all here?" Allessandro asked.
"We're here to talk about Aniyah. Something is going on and I want to know what. Ever since the ball she's been acting weird. She's always on edge and she's working out more than normal. All of these things are classic signs that something or someone is bothering her. I know it's not any of us because she's not talking to you (the biologicals) because she doesn't really trust you and she's avoiding us (the gang and Daxton) like the plague. I looked into the security cameras of the ball, which by the way were way too easy to hack and I found nothing. That could mean one of two things. 1. Someone deleted the footage so that we couldn't see or 2. Aniyah deleted the footage so we couldn't see. And based on her track record I'm going with number two."
After sitting in silence for a couple minutes, Nicolo finally spoke up.
"How about this? We give her a couple days. If it gets worse then we confront her on it but if not then we let it go for now."
Everyone nodded in agreement so we left the room and went our separate ways.
~ 1 week later
Aniyah's POV
It's been a week and a half since the mafia ball. I've been doing my best to ignore everyone. I can't put them in danger.
I know that it's bad but I can't really help it. I've been over exerting myself in the gym and haven't really been eating unless it's dinner. I'm actually kind of surprised that no one has noticed.
After my workout in the gym I decided to take a nap. After sleeping for a while I woke up drenched in sweat and hyperventilating. I walked to the bathroom and fell onto the floor. Memories and voices kept coming into my head. In the corner of my eye I could see something glistening. I looked to my right to see a blade that had fallen off of my fallen razer blade.
I picked up the blade and stared at it for a while. I looked from my arm to the blade and back to my arm. Somewhere in between the blade had made contact with my arm. I could feel the relief swarming in and couldn't help but to make another cut, then another and another. By the time I was done there were a total of 6 cuts on my left arm and 4 on my right.
After the relief left I felt guilty. I promised I would never cut again. It was a hard journey to stop in the first place. After I cleaned my cuts I grabbed all the razor blades and sharp objects in my bathroom and bedroom except for my knives that I never use unless I'm torturing or have a job. I put all the objects into a bag and sat the bag behind the door.
I looked at the time and realized that I was late to dinner. The house was kind of warm but I threw on a black sweatshirt with black biker shorts and headed downstairs to dinner. I sat down at my seat and soon dinner was brought in.
As normal dinner was quiet other than the normal of everyone telling their day until it got to me.
"I just worked out and worked on some documents for my company," I said, moving my food around with my fork. I couldn't look them in the eyes after what I had just done.
After dinner everyone went their separate ways. I was laying in my room when Jake and Rafael burst into the room.
"Hey. Aniyah, do you want to watch a movie with us? It's everyone except Allessandro, Nicolo, Daxton and Leonardo," Jake said somewhat excitedly.
"No. I'm cool but you can go."
Jake's POV
As Aniyah was talking she wouldn't look up from her lap. She likes to look people in their eyes when she's talking to them to show respect because she expects the same in return. The only time she doesn't look someone in the eye is when she feels guilty or when she broke a promise.
No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no! Please don't tell me she did it.
I walked over to Aniyah and sat beside her. She still wouldn't look me in the eye. Before she could ask what I was doing I moved her sweatshirt up. There I could see the bandages on her arm with small traces of blood on it.
"What the hell Aniyah? What did you do? How could you do this again?"
To say I was livid was an understatement. Rafael looked at what I was looking at before his face started to become red too.
"Rafael go get the others but don't get Allessandro, Nicolo, Daxton and your dad. GO!"
"Jake, please. Don't do this! You can't tell them. They'll be disappointed and I promise I tried not to. I didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late."
"Jake. What's up? Why aren't we watching the mov-" Dane started.
He looked from me to Aniyah and me again. I nodded my head and moved out of the way. He rushed to her side and she began to break down crying. She's only ever done that two times since I've met her. The first was after Milo was killed and we were explaining everything to Daxton, then when she finally accepted the fact that she was raped, and this is the third time.
Rafael's POV
I stood there watching my little sister cry and didn't know what to do. I know I act like a prick but it was only because I don't know what I'll do if she leaves again. After she calmed down we all stood there not knowing what to do.
Dane picked Aniyah up and carried her to the love seat in the lounging area of her room. The rest of us walked over and sat in the remaining seats.
I understand why someone would cut because I do too. But it seems like she hasn't been doing this in a while otherwise Mateo and Daxton would have warned us. All I want to know is what made my baby sister feel like she needed to cut again?
Aniyah's POV
After I finally calmed down, I sat up in Dane's lap. I got up and walked over to the door and grabbed the bag. I gave it to Dane who looked inside and smiled at me.
"If you know it's wrong and you're already making corrections to fix the problem, why did you do it?" he asked.
I took a deep breath and explained what had happened. I explained how I dreamed of the day Milo died, how it made me feel, how the actual cutting happened and how I felt guilty about it. I explained how Jake had found me and everything up until now.
By the end he looked proud but still a bit upset.
"I'm glad you opened up piccolo diavolo. But why have you been avoiding us for the past week and a half?" Rafael asked.
"Get the others and meet me downstairs. I'll explain there," I said and walked off.
About ten minutes later everyone was downstairs with me sitting between Rafael and Dane.
"I know I have a few things to explain but here goes. Today I did something that I regret but know that I'm sorry and it won't happen again. I... I had a moment of bad judgement and relapsed. I made some cuts BUT I talked about my feelings and what happened with others. We've taken the necessary precautions and everything should be fine."
I let out a sigh of relief that I finished and looked up to see Nicolo, Allessandro, Leonardo, and Daxton with unshed tears in their eyes.
"Why? What happened for you to do this," Leonardo asked.
I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself down.
"The day of the ball after my dance with Vladimir I left for the restroom. When I was getting ready to leave to go back to the ball someone grabbed me and dragged me to an empty room. I tried to fight them off but they were stronger than me. That person was Donovan."
I looked around the room and everyone had their jaws and fist clenched. I took a deep breath and continued.
"He was telling me about how I was brave to let another person care for me especially after what happened with Milo. He told me that he would stop at nothing to get me back and kill anyone who gets in the way, including Vladimir. He told me to enjoy my time with you because it wouldn't last long. I couldn't handle it. So I've been ignoring you all and working out to be stronger when he comes to get me."
No one said a thing. I felt arms around me and knew that it was Leonardo. I relaxed for a second before Donovan's voice came back to me. I can't let more people get hurt because they think it's a good idea to care about me. With those thoughts I pulled back.
"No. Stop. You all deserve to live a good life. Stop worrying about me and be happy. If you want to live stop caring because those who are dumb enough to end up in a grave six feet under," I said and walked off to my room before any of them could say anything.