One day, six hours, fourteen minutes and five seconds...four seconds...three seconds...
"Are you just going to keep staring at your phone or actually come here and help hang this up?" Jack's breathless voice cuts through my thoughts.
"Nah, you seem to be just fine on your own," I reply, sparing him a single glance before I return my attention to my phone and continue my countdown.
"Lazy ass," he grumbles, his words muffled by the nails he's holding between his lips.
"Although I would consider helping you if you say the magic words first," I say with a smug look throwing my legs up on the coffee table.
"Go to hell," he bites back before going back to struggling to fix the photo frame on the wall all by himself.
"Feet off the table, amor," Noah says as soon as he enters the living room, making me drop my feet back to the ground with a 'thug!'.
"A little help would be appreciated here," Jack calls out from the step ladder, hearing Noah's voice.
"You could have helped him out, you know?" Noah tells me in a whisper so that it doesn't reach Jack's ears, patting the top of my head he makes his way to Jack's aid.
"He didn't say please," I defend, my eyes still glued to my phone screen.
"Can you look at me while talking to me, Astoria," he admonishes causing me to immediately tear my eyes from my phone and offer him a sleepy smile.
"She has had her eyes glued to that thing since morning," Jack tattles, earning an eye roll from me.
"Oh like you have your eyes glued to your phone...every minute of every day?" I retort.
"Well I'm not the one getting scolded for it," comes his swift reply which marks the start of our never-ending bickering contest.
"Can the two of you ever not get into a fight about the most ridiculous things?" Noah cuts in cutting both Jack and me off mid-fight.
"He started it!"
"She started it!" We both say simultaneously making Noah sigh.
"Jack you're eighteen now..." Noah cuts himself off sighing yet again as though the topic is already a lost cause.
He then turns to face me with a little more hope in his eyes while Jack goes back to working on fixing the frame straight.
"Astoria, you're going to be fifteen in--"
"One day, six hours, twelve minutes and fifty-five seconds... fifty-four seconds..." I cut him off focussing my attention back on the timer on my phone.
"That's what you've been so caught up with? The countdown to your birthday," Noah asks, sounding it out to be more of a statement than a question.
I shrug in response before going back to fixating my gaze back to my phone screen counting as the second's tick by into minutes.
"You still don't want a celebration, do you?" Noah asks clearly a bit less enthusiastic about my choice of spending my birthday.
"Oh I will be celebrating alright," I say, peeling my gaze off my phone for a brief moment I lift my eyes to meet his to find a confused yet tiny bit of hopefulness in his gaze.
"I just don't want to be surrounded by more than a dozen strangers, wearing something I otherwise I wouldn't be caught dead in and having Jack stepping on my toes 'cause he's a lousy dancer," I list off ignoring Jack's scoff at the end bit.
"You're a weird little human, did you know that?" Liam says making his presence known from the doorway.
"She's a Halloween baby, what more did you expect?" Jack remarks only to be swatted upside his head by Noah eating an unintended chuckle from me to be sobered up by his glaring eyes.
"He's not wrong though, a werewolf cake...really?" Liam looks at me with a look that is a mixture of disbelief and wonder.
"You can never go wrong with werewolves," I shrug and return my gaze to my phone.
"What's with you and your phone all of a sudden?" Liam asks, but I don't bother answering knowing that one of the other two will do it for me.
"She is counting down the time until her birthday," Noah tells him while passing Jack the fake webs and bats to he hung above the frames.
"But aren't you supposed to be in a meeting to debrief with dad and Xavier in about..." He looks down to examine his watch. "Now?" He adds quickly causing my eyes to at once.
Spring to my feet, I scurry out of the room paying no mind to Jack's remarks that earn him another smack from Noah and rush towards Xavier's study in anxiety-fueled strides.
I take in a deep breath before I enter knowing what awaits me on the other side of this door and metal preparing myself for it.
Exhaling softly I push open the door only to have my heart skip a beat. "Glad you could join us Astoria," Xavier says, visibly displeased by my late arrival.
"Sorry about that, time just flew by," I acknowledge with a sleepy smile. "Did I miss anything?" I add while trying my best to stop my cheeks from turning an even darker shade of crimson.
"I was just filling in the Genovese's on whatever you've already told us about...the incident," Xavier says beckoning me to the chair beside Sandro which causes me excitement and worries me at the same time.
'Does he know about us?'
'Did Sandro tell him?...No he wouldn't do that without discussing it with me first'
As paranoia courses my veins, I don't let it show on the outside and put up a neutral front.
"Hey," I whisper so softly that I myself could hear it.
"Hi," he replies accompanied by one of his infamous charming smilies that have the potential to uplift my day without fail.
'Don't you dare start blushing now Tori...don't just don't' I keep changing in my head as a remainder finding it extremely hard to keep up my façade.
"I was so relieved to hear you came out of that fine and even happier to see you well for myself now."
His mum says giving me a much-needed distraction from the slowly building up volcano of hormones that keep reminding me of how deep Sandor's eyes are or how incredibly well does the ink of his tattoos reflects against his skin tone.
'Dammit! I'm doing it again!'
Pulling myself out of my thoughts again, I offer Mrs.Genovese a small smile unsure of the response I'm supposed to give her.
'What do you say to something like that? Perhaps "thank you"?'
"Moving on, I need the two of you to take a moment to think and give us a complete detailed sequence of events that took place since Astoria left the hospital," Xavier says pulling me out of an awkward pause.
Alessandro and I exchange a look, while I stress over the number of details I need to exclude simultaneously trying not to blush when reminiscing them.
With one small breath, I being explaining everything, starting from the time I regained consciousness in that shitty cold cell in great detail.
Alessandro joins in soon after while the rest just sit there and listening, chiming in with any questions of clarification wherever they see fit.
Between the first twenty to thirty-five minutes dad joins the group and by the time we are done with our side of the story, it's well past lunchtime.
"That is pretty much it, Xavier, Noah, and Jason got to me by then and the rest went on to get him," I conclude my side of the story and Alessandro doesn't add anything more just nods in agreement.
"Well, then I think we are done here," Mr. Genovese says.
"Hold on," I interject just as the Genovese's are preparing to leave their seats.
A questioning brow is raised by almost everyone in the room except Alessandro who seemed to already know what I'm about to say.
"That was our side of the story, I want to hear yours," I say, with an audible undertone of sternness to my voice.
My statement seems to take most of them by surprise, but being the impassive creatures they are the expression doesn't hold face too long.
Clearing his throat Xavier asks, "what do you want to know?"
"What happened to her at the end?" I ask the first question of my mental 'need-to-know' list.
"Dead, along with the rest of her little group of friends," Mr. Genovese answers promptly only to regret the decision shortly when he's at the receiving end of dad's, Xavier's, and Alessandro's glare for his bluntness.
But I for one am not that surprised or disgusted by this information which concerns me slightly, but I push that to the back of my mind and try to get to my next question after taking in a short breath.
"What was in that microchip that was in that box, that's so important?" As I ask this question I make sure to observe everyone's reaction and right enough not only do I get a reaction from Xavier and dad, I catch a glimpse of hesitation surface in the eyes of the Genovese's as well.
'So Alessandro does know what is in that box, after all'
'Why didn't he tell me so back when we were being held, hostage?'
I have a lot of questions flood my mind in an instant and right then I'm forced to wonder if being with Alessandro and telling the rest of the family this is really a good idea.
'Why would he hide such a thing from me?'
I had so desperately wished that I was wrong about this, but not only has my family been secretive, so has Alessandro.
'Is it really such a big deal?'
'He might have had his reasons'
The love-stricken girl in me defends, but I logical part doesn't agree. And as I ponder over this I realize that none of them has tried answering my question yet.
"Dad? Will you at least be honest with me?" I ask turning to face him directly.
And even though I know that emotional manipulation isn't right, this might just be my last chance at getting at the truth before they bury it so deep I will not be able to dig it back up.
It takes a few moments before I give him the most betrayed look I can muster, knowing well that this will hit home.
And here's the thing I've learned about my father, with his expressions and silence goes way further than words. He knows how to shield himself from words, but emotions? That's where I need to hit the nail.
"It contains detailed plans of our warehouse...not just here but all over the globe--"
"Dad," Xavier cuts him off in a controlled tone, taking me by surprise.
But dad is quick to dismiss him, "she'll find out about this sooner or later and I rather it come from me than our enemies or worse yet the cops," dad justifies.
"Wait, so where do the Genovese's come into this?" I question with courage I didn't know I had as all the eyes of the room continue to focus on me.
"We've been alliances and business partners for over a few decades now. So a good thirty percent of those plans include the warehouses we own in partnership," Mr. Genovese takes the opportunity of explaining.
"Although I wouldn't say that's the reason Alessandro was held hostage with you," he adds with an undeniable undertone of suggestion making my blood run cold all of a sudden and my eyes snap in Alessandro's direction, as my heart starts to race.
"But it's not just warehouse plans, is it?" Alessandro remarks before dad and Xavier can catch on to Mr. Genovese's hint.
"No," Xavier acknowledges.
"It also contains evidence linking both our families to over a dozen drug rings and weapon trade going on worldwide," he adds, evidently unhappy to share this information.
"And that's all the information you're getting on this topic," Xavier asserts, stopping anyone from giving me any more information than I have already been given.
"Well then I can't wait until the end of one day, three hours, eighteen minutes and...nine seconds," I reply glancing at my phone that's tucked into my sweatpants pocket.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dad asks, voicing the confusion that has settled over the room.
"I'll be fifteen in exactly one day, three hours and seventeen minutes, and you can let me in on the family secret...just like you did with Jason, Liam, and Jack," I say and watch as the color drains off their faces.
Author's Note:
Hey, my lovely readers...long time no see huh?
So, yeah I'm sorry this took so long. To be honest I wasn't sure myself how I wanted this chapter to go so I was stuck writing and rewriting this whole thing for a good few weeks.
But alas, I hope you enjoyed this, I still feel like this isn't my best work but I really wanted to update today...so yeah.
Thanks for reading!
And pleases do:
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~Kia