"I would love to spend some time like this with all of them again."
____
Rose's P.O.V
The next morning I woke up to some strange sounds and sat up groaning as I rubbed my eyes. I looked down at the twins who were fighting with each other. Emir was pulling Elliot's hair and Elliot had ripped half of Emir's T-shirt by now. They were beating each other up as silently as they could, and it made them look like clowns.
My brows furrowed at their actions and I so wanted to get up and beat them both up with my slippers. Their eyes finally fell over me, who was staring at them with narrowed eyes. They both fell silent for a moment, still holding onto each other's clothes.
"Good morning, sweetheart." Elliot said with a sheepish smile. "What are you two doing?" I asked, maintaining my calm posture. "Nothing really. Emir stole my blanket-" "No! You stole it, you dips**t" Emir hit him in the head with his fist and they both continued to fight like kids.
I sighed and got out of bed, picked up a slipper from the ground and walked toward them. The next thing they know is that they were getting beaten up by me as I kept hitting both of them, earning groans and screams from both of them and causing them to grab both my knees to stop me. They both ruined my sleep just for a blanket? They're dead.
"You crazy sh*ts! You didn't let me sleep till midnight, and now you ruin my sleep again, because you can't control your sh*ts? You'd wish you didn't sleep here last night." I kept hitting both of them and they kept grunting and screaming for help.
"What's going on...?" The door burst open and in came all the other boys. "Elijah! Save us. She won't stop, my head hurts, bro!" Emir cried out and I hit his elbow with the slipper, causing him to scream again. They were both wailing by now and I was taking deep breathes to calm myself down.
"Tell these idiots... to stay away from me for the day... I need to calm myself down." I said tiredly to Elijah and threw the slipper at Elliot's head one last time before turning around and heading toward the bathroom, but not before hearing him say, "That's the girl you all fell in love with, right there" while groaning and the other boys snickering.
Everybody was gathered at the dining table and we were having our breakfast. They were all talking and laughing during the meal, but I was solely paying attention to my food, as I was really hungry. El's brothers had been convincing me to stay here today too for the past half an hour, but I'd denied them, saying that I had to go back to see what Robert would say about last night. I don't think he is going to change his mind and let all that humiliation slide, it's not his thing.
____
After college, I went straight back to the mansion and was met up with Robert himself. As soon as I entered, I heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see him there, now just a few inches away from me, his eyes burning with anger. "Why did you come back now? Shouldn't you be with that guy? God knows what you've been doing last night." He spat out, his words laced with venom.
"You were the one who brought me back here, and now you have a problem with me? And.. since when did you believe in God?" As soon as I finished my words, I was replied to with a hard slap landing on my right cheek, causing my head to turn to the side and I closed my eyes. My cheek started burning and I was sure it was all red already, considering my sensitive skin and his strong hand. I looked back up at him and from the corner of my eyes, noticed that the boys had gathered in the hall, watching us.
"That's all you can do?" I scoff, "I expected more." I said in a disappointed tone and he grabbed my collar and pulled me up and close to his face, his eyes sending daggers into mine. "You made a grave mistake by doing what you did last night, Rose. Do you think you can get away with it just like that?" He said and I smirked just to agitate him even more, which worked because his eyes widened with anger and the next thing he did was he punched me, causing me to take a step back. I touched my now throbbing lips and looked at my fingers to see blood on them. That was quite hard. I wiped my lips with the back of my hand and looked back up at him with full confidence, causing his anger to rise even more, if that was possible.
"Stop it, father. Please!" Dylan requested as he took some steps closer but was stopped in his tracks by Robert's raised hand, who was having a staring competition with me at the moment. "None of you will stop me now! I'm going to kill this b**ch today and forever." He was about to punch me again but all of the boys came to stop him and Dylan stood in front of me, while I wasn't fazed at all.
"Stop it! Get it together, father! She's your daughter, your blood, just like us!" Ryan snapped at him but he didn't drop his deadly glare and yanked his arm out of David's hold, taking a deep breath.
"You.. you will regret this, Rose. I'm warning you, don't take my words too lightly." He spat out with venom before turning around and going towards the stairs. I sighed heavily and wiped my lips again harshly as the boys now turned to look at me. "Are you alright, Rose?" Without replying to Ryan's question which sounded too nice for me, I went the same way that Robert did to go up to my room.
____
It had been a while since I had come back and had an argument with Robert and I was reading a book, feeling good because of the peaceful silence. However, soon, faint and hurried footsteps along with some noises disturbed me a bit and I was now curious about what was happening outside. I put the book down on my nightstand and rolled out of bed to check what all the noises were about. I left my room and went downstairs as the voices of the boys' yelling got louder. "Where is Dr. Arson? Why isn't he here yet?" "His phone can't be reached. I tried several times but he isn't answering." I heard Dylan answering Ryan's question in a panicked voice while helping Damien towards the medical room near the stairs which led down to the basement. I also noticed some blood on Damien's back and due to curiosity, decided to follow them.
As soon as I reached the room door, I stopped in my tracks and looked confused at Damien, who was covered with blood, his white shirt almost completely turned red along with his hands and lips and Ryan's hands, too had blood on them, while Dylan was panicking, worried about the situation and David was rummaging through one of the cupboards in there.
Ryan was trying to stop the bleeding by appyling pressure on the wound with a cloth, which was already pretty much soaked with the blood, while asking him how he got hurt this much in a loud tone, and soon after, David came rushing towards them with the first-aid kit and a suturing kit. "I had went to check our nearby compound after getting a message that there had been some complications there, which turned out to be an anonymous attack. Some of our men were killed and the other men started to surround them and we all killed them, except for one for interrogation. But he didn't reveal anything, no matter what we tried, so we killed him, too. However," He grunted in pain and was about to continue but was stopped by them. They were all panicking and worried, causing them trouble in aiding Damien's wound, as all of them were so confused. I walked inside the room and approached him, taking the already soaked cloth out of Ryan's hand as he stepped aside after looking at me.
"Take off your shirt and lie down." I said as I dropped the piece of bloodied cloth on the floor and after putting on surgical gloves, picked up another piece of clean cloth lying there. They were all confused to see me here, but Damien soon obeyed and took off his blood-drenched shirt as I gave him a demanding look. I saw the big knife wound that spread from his left waist to almost his lower abdomen. I soaked the cloth in the clean water bowl that David just put on the table beside me while I asked Dylan to give me the antiseptic liquid. "You could've cleaned his wound for now, but I don't think you've learnt how to aid wounds in the Mafia." I said in a slightly mocking tone and they were all silent. I thoroughly cleaned the wound with the wet cloth and then threw it down on the floor when I was done. The blood was still oozing out of the wound, so I quickly soaked some cotton with the antiseptic liquid and rubbed it around his wound a bit aggressively to remove any possible dirt from it, causing him to hiss.
I opened the suturing kit and took out the anaesthesia bottle to inject it around his wound. After I was done with that, I prepared the needle and thread and began to suture the wound. He was stifling his grunts and hisses the whole time while the others watched uncomfortably, as they kept shifting from their positions. "Where did you learn this?" David asked, curiosity evident in his voice, but I didn't bother answering his question. After I was done suturing, I put some ointment on his wound and rubbed it evenly. Then, I grabbed the huge roll of bandage and told him to sit back up. I then started wrapping the bandage around his waist. After finishing the final task, I finally stood straight again and looked down at his abdomen again while taking off my gloves and throwing them onto the ground, to see if I missed anything, but everything was finely done, so I sighed in relief. I don't know why, but something sharp had stabbed through my heart when I saw him covered in blood, and now, seeing him safe, I felt relieved, even though Damien was my least favourite, or maybe not even my favourite for me to have been troubled to look at his bloodied state.
"Thank you so much for helping, but are you okay now?" I heard Dylan say nicely and came out of my trance to look up at him, who was looking at my bruised lips. I nodded slightly and turned around to leave when a voice stopped me.
"T-thank you." Damien said with a grunt and I tilted my head a bit to the side, seeing him trying to get up from the bed he had been sitting on this whole time. "Don't mention it. I just returned the favour." I replied coldly, trying to sound anything but nice. "What do you mean by that?" David asked confused. "You tried to convince Robert to stop the marriage, I overheard it. That's... what I'm talking about." I replied curtly and left, not wanting to elaborate that not just did I want to return the favour, but also I couldn't see him hurt for some reason that I myself didn't know.
____
I was just informed about the arrival of my grandparents, who I hadn't seen for almost twelve years and from what I knew back then, were nice people, but I didn't trust anyone here. Diana was also nice before. Anyways, I was told they'd be arriving a while before dinner to spend some time with their family. Family. I scoffed at the word.
Soon, I heard some noises downstairs and I guessed they had already arrived. I went downstairs as I was now called by the maid, telling me they wanted to see me. There they were, an old couple, both of them well-dressed, their hair almost grey, the man with honey brown eyes and the woman with sea green eyes. My grandfather looked almost like Robert- well, Robert looked almost like him. Both of their faces lit up in genuine smiles as they saw me.
"Rose, my dear granddaughter. It's been a long time since I last you. Come here, my dear child." Ricardo, my grandfather said happily but I didn't move, causing Ravana, my grandmother to slightly frown. She slowly approached me with a soft look on her face and several emotions in her eyes. I didn't try to stop her when she wrapped her arms softly around me, but I didn't hug her back either. All the boys were watching me, slightly struggling to get out of her grip which she noticed, I guess, as she pulled away soon after. She touched my red, slightly bruised left cheek and stroked it, she must've noticed the finger marks on my cheek because her eyes seemed to show her sadness.
"You've grown into a beautiful tomboy, my child, our only precious tomboy." She said with utter happiness in her voice and I completely froze when her soft lips pressed against my forehead. By now, Ricardo had also approached me and he put his hand on my head with a proud look on his face.
I was frozen in my place and was confused about how to react to these nice gestures and words, and I think they noticed my discomfort, as they both put their hands down. I cleared my throat and took this opportunity to get away from this silent atmosphere, turning around and went towards the kitchen to grab a glass of water while wiping my forehead with the back of my sleeve . I didn't know how to react to such behaviour from them, even though I knew they had always been nice, but who knew they wouldn't have changed even after all these years.
Dinner wasn't like every other day; silent. Instead, the chatter and laughter of all these people echoed throughout the dining hall. The boys seemed to be happy with their grandparents here, and so was Robert, I guess, but I didn't care about it and ate my food silently.
"So, what happened after you left the compound, Damien? How'd you get hurt?" Ricardo asked Damien and he swallowed down the food in his mouth and spoke. "I was driving through the deserted road when suddenly, I heard gunshots and the glass of the window on my side shattered because of a bullet. Fortunately, it passed right by me and didn't cause any harm. I left the car and shot one of the men down, but there were three more. I killed two more but then the last one of them took out his knife and slid it down my abdomen before I shot him down, too." He finished with a frown on his forehead. "But Rose did a great job by suturing his wound before things could go out of hand. Dr. Arson wasn't picking up his phone and we were all so confused about how to cure the wound as quickly as possible, but Rose handled it all very well." Dylan couldn't stop talking about how I saved Damien, which made me quite uncomfortable and I wanted to leave the dining hall.
"Nice, that's great of you, Rose. I'm proud of you. How did you learn to suture wounds?" Said grandmother- Ravana... I didn't even know how to address these people. I felt weird calling them by their names like I did to Robert, but I also felt a weird emotion swirling in my heart when calling them my grandparents. "Rose? Are you alright?"
Dylan asked softly, bringing me out of my trance. I need to stop getting lost in my thoughts all the time and focus on my surroundings. "I learnt it from a friend. He's a medical student." I replied to her question and she smiled proudly at me.
"Great! You are not just beautiful, but you are also wise, brave and have good survival insticts." Ricardo beamed, his eyes sparkling with happiness and proudness as he looked at me and said those words, which didn't seem to settle well with Robert, for he kept playing with his food and fidgeting his other hand's fingers uncomfortably, from what I saw from the corner of my eye.
"Anyways, what happened to Rose's engagement, Robert? I heard it got cancelled yesterday, when all the guests had arrived, why?" At his question, Robert clenched his fist tightly in a ball and finally looked up from his food to land his anger filled gaze directly at me, while I didn't back up and stared back at him. "Well, your granddaughter, who you are so proud of, made Daniel back away from the engagement at the final moment, when all the preparations had been done and guests had arrived, humiliating me in front of everyone in the process." He spat it all out bitterly and not once did he drop his venomous glare from my face.
Ricardo and Ravana, they both looked confused at the reply they just got from their son. "Why? What happened? Is something wrong, Rose?" He asked and I sighed, placing the fork in my hand on the table beside my plate. All the boys were silent and looked at me.
"Why don't you also tell them why I made Daniel cancel the engagement? Stop playing victim and tell them how you wanted to sell me for your own profit." My anger was slowly rising to the peek as I said those words while looking at Robert. Tell them how you didn't let me have a say in this, prepared everything without my knowledge, and tried to force me into the marriage, because I am a da*n girl and I can't and shouldn't make my life choices?!" I slightly raised my voice at the end and due to the rage I felt at those words, pushed the water glass harshly to side, causing it to hit the floor a few feet away and shatter into pieces. I saw Dylan slightly flinch at my action while the other looked back at their food on the table. Both of my grandparents were in shock and didn't utter a word and Robert, he was trying to control himself from getting up and dashing towards me to kill me, from what I could conclude by his looks.
"I didn't expect this, Robert..." Ricardo spoke after a moment of silence. Ravana had that same look of sympathy on her face that she did when she had noticed the finger marks on my cheek. "What wrong did I do, though? I am her father and I can marry her with whomever I want. She has to obey me!" Robert snapped but Ricardo got really angry at this. "That's not how it works! SHE'S NOT YOUR SLAVE!" He shouted at him and I sighed. For the first time here, I was having a peaceful time with food, but not anymore. I got up and walked out of the dining hall to go back up to my room, but not before going to the kitchen and grabbing a pack of chips from the cupboard and a can of soda from the fridge.
After having taken a hot shower and wearing some random clothes I had found in my closet, I was sitting on my bed while reading a book and having the snacks I had brought here earlier with me. It had been a while since the argument downstairs and not a single sound could be heard outside. I guess everybody had gone to sleep by now, which was weird, because it wasn't too late and they usually didn't sleep this early.
I was starting to get tired and sleepy when suddenly, there was a knock on my door and I groaned slightly. These people wouldn't let me rest peacefully. I'm sure they'd come to disturb me on my death bed, too. I told the person to come in and the door opened, revealing my grandmother, Ravana. For some odd reason, I didn't feel annoyed anymore as soon as I saw that it was her and not any of the boys. And for some odd reason, I felt like calling her grandmother instead of her real name. I had felt a positive energy coming out of both of them as soon as I had met them again. I had always did, from the beginning, but I didn't know the feeling would still be there after all that time.
She closed the door and approached me and I sat up straight. "It's okay, dear, sit however you like. May I?" She gestured to my side, asking for permission and I nodded, and so she sat down near me. "So... how's college going? Are you enjoying or not?" She seemed to start a conversation. "College's fine." I replied curtly, not knowing how to the answer the latter question, as I didn't know if I really enjoyed college or not.
She nodded slightly at my response and spoke again. "Do you have any friends? Or maybe, any special person?" She asked while smiling curiously at me. "Yeah. I have friends, two are twins, and two are just brothers." I replied, not sure how to address Elijah. "What about the special person? Have you met any?" She asked, not sounding nosy, but genuinely curious. It seemed that's he wanted me to open up a bit to her and I felt fine with her presence. Usually, I had this gut feeling that something is wrong with a person whenever I was in their presence, but that wasn't the case with her. I didn't feel anything bad about her.
"Yeah, I have one." I finally said it out after contemplating for a few minutes. She beamed at my response, her pretty face lit up in a sweet smile. "Who is it? Can you tell me?" She asked, now facing me completely. I paused for a while and then spoke. "His name is Elijah, the twins who are my friends, he is their older brother." I replied, somewhat liking her reaction. Those eyes which were full of emotions, it was odd for me to encounter any person like her from my bloodline. "God bless you, my child." Her words brought me out of my thoughts that I seemed to be lost in all the time for the past few days. "If he really is the one for you, then I give you my blessings." I was both surprised and confused at her words. I thought she'd be mad like her son that I had got the engagement cancelled, but she wasn't. She seemed to be happy instead.
"Don't worry, dear. Your father, he's just an immature and stupid man, I'm sure Ricardo will bring him to his senses, and if he can't, well then we will do everything to protect you and not let him hurt you again." She said and I looked in her eyes to confirm if she was being serious or not, and it seemed she was. "You have suffered enough, my child. I won't let him lay a hand on you again. If you don't want to marry Daniel, we and your brothers will support you in every way." She told me, smiling again to assure me.
"I don't trust you." I let out the truth. "I don't trust any of you. I don't think Robert can ever come to his senses, I don't think that you're both really nice or genuine, and I don't think any of your grandsons have changed, maybe you're all just putting on a show, who knows?" I replied to her all calmly, not showing even an ounce of anger, but her soft expressions still didn't change.
"Do you hate your brothers?" I paused and got lost in my thoughts. Did I hate them? I did but it all seemed different since the past few weeks. I felt mixed emotions towards them, but no. I didn't love them either. I didn't care about them. They could disappear or die, I couldn't care less.
But... Did I really not care?
"Rose," Her soft voice brought me back to the real world and I looked at her almost smiling face. "Do you hate your brothers?" She again asked and I didn't know how to answer that question.
"I..." I hesitated but quickly regained my confidence and looked back at her. "Maybe I don't, but I don't love them either. Not at all. I didn't help Damien earlier because I loved him and cared for him, he's not worth it. I did it to return the favour, because he had tried to cancel the marriage." I told her and she smiled wider.
"Are you sure? Or is it because seeing him hurt bothered you?" She put me in a dilemma again with that question. I couldn't think properly and I wanted some time alone, but if I told her, it would make her believe that I cared for my brothers who didn't give a sh*t about me. So what if their behaviour had changed drastically and unbelievably after my return, they were still the same people who found joy in my miseries.
"Maybe it did, but that still doesn't mean anything to me. I just did what I felt was right at that moment. And I don't need anyone's help, not yours, not theirs. I will fight my battles on my own, always have, always will." I replied with the same confidence again and she sighed.
"Alright, if you say so. However, you will still have us all by your side, we will still support you. Your brothers may be too stubborn to accept it, but they love you, and will do anything to keep you safe." She slowly got up from the bed and came closer to me, and bent down to my level to plant a kiss on my forehead. She stood back up and after giving me a sweet smile, she turned to walk out of the door.
"I don't love them." She stopped to hear my words but then opened the door and closed it behind her. I sighed and got out of bed to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth before going to sleep.
____
Dylan's P.O.V
We all stood straight and turned out attention to grandmother, who just came out of the room, closing the door behind her and looking back at us all. We were all really upset with what Rose thought of us. My vision was a bit blurry and I wanted to cry. I couldn't prove myself to her. I couldn't be a good brother.
"She needs time." She sighed and patted my shoulder, she must've noticed my glistened eyes, as she said, "Don't worry, she doesn't hate you. She just needs to adjust to everything. It's good that you all are trying to change yourselves for her. You need to do your best to gain her trust again."
•••
[Author's Notes: Hello everybody! I guessed you must've forgotten about this book due to the lack of updates😅 but I'm really very sorry. I just can't gather up enough motivation and words to write these big chapters, but I also don't want to disappoint you all and myself with small chapters. I know that's not an excuse, but....
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I will start working on the next and publish it as soon as possible. I can't make a promise again, because I end up not keeping them when it comes to regularity. However, I'll still try. Thank you all for the support you guys are giving me and this book. I honestly appreciate it so much. Thank you all. Have a nice day/night. Byeee~]