Nevaeh's face dropped, she steeled her spine and clutched her hands tightly, she dug her nails into the palm of her hand.
She looked away from Lucian's face, her eyes filling with tears.
"Why do you ask?" She managed to say.
"I might have answers for you."
She snapped her head towards him, her eyes narrowing, "Did you know them?"
He sighed, "I can't know for sure, that's why I'm asking you."
"So, do you know anything about them?" He asked again.
She stayed silent, staring at him intensely, "This is weird." She whispered.
"I don't know much about them, just that they were crazy rich and didn't want a child, specifically a daughter, that's what the people at the orphanage told me." She shrugged, trying to act like she wasn't bothered.
Lucian sucked in a harsh breath, his fists clenched on his knees.
"Do you remember anything from your childhood?" He tried keeping his voice low.
She did remember a few things.
"Yeah a bit, their was this one time I was stuck on a high tree, and my teddy bear was in my hand." She frowned, trying to remember the rest of what happened.
Lucian, Carly, and Lucas remembered that day as well, Nevaeh and the boys were playing hide and seek and she thought it would be a good idea for her to hide on the tree.
"-And I started calling for someone, I called him santi I think." She clutched her head.
"W-why are you asking me this?"
Lucian stayed silent for a minute, "I know your family."
Nevaeh slumped back, her mouth hanging open.
The office door slammed open, Aiden, Asher, and Conrad piled in.
She didn't even give them a glance, she kept looking at Lucian.
"I-please don't." She wrapped her and around her neck, feeling like she couldn't breath.
"I-I don't want to know why they threw me there!" She spat, her voice angry.
"Please listen to me, they didn't just throw you away, they had too."
"A-are you defending them?" She asked him in disbelief, giving him a look of disgust.
"No! No of course not, I- I don't know how to say this."
"They had too." Carly's shaky voice came from beside her, she was crouching near Nevaeh.
"Oh come on!" She threw her hands in the air in frustration.
"They threw their child away! Do you even know what they did to me? They made my life a living hell!"
"I-I promise you, w-we can explain!" Carly cried, tears streaming down her face.
Nevaeh snapped her head towards her, her eyes narrowed and boiling with anger.
"What the hell do you mean you can explain?!" She dropped her voice to a whisper, grabbing Carly's arm.
Lucian handed her the paper, the dna test.
Nevaeh stared at the paper, her hands shaking terribly as she read the same lines over and over again.
Match, they're a match.
Lucian Santiago is the father.
Nevaeh slowly looked up at him, her wide eyes, similar to his, were blank but full of tears.
"Y-you're my f-father?" Her voice was soft, the word father sounding so foreign to her ears, hell even her tongue.
"I-I didn't know, we didn't know."
Nevaeh ran to him, her small fists hitting his chest repeatedly, "Y-you left me there to die! You l-left me there to rot!" She yelled, her face red and her chest heaving up and down.
"It's all your fault!" He grabbed her arms and breathed in deeply to hold his tears back.
"You should've killed me instead of putting me there! I hate you! I hate you!" She kept hitting him, he held her as she fell down, sobs taking over her body as she cried the pain and suffering she's been burying inside all these years.
She fell to the floor, her father still holding her as he fell with her, "Why? Why did you do this to me?" She cried, she hit his chest defeatedly.
"Why didn't you want me? Was I bad?" She sniffled.
"You were and still are the most beautiful thing that ever happened to us." He held her head, forcing her to look at him.
She looked at him through blurry vision, feeling like her chest was closing in on her, "I was trying to protect you." He whispered.
Nevaeh clenched her jaw, she broke away from his hold and stood up, wiping her tears.
"Protect me?! You threw me to the wolves!" If you wanted to protect me you should've at least made sure the place you were throwing me in was safe!" She yelled.
"We checked, we swear! The sunshine orphanage." Aiden pipped in.
"Sunshine?! More like nightmare orphanage." She scoffed.
"Do you even know what they do to kids there?! Do you know what they did to me?!" She clutched her chest, coughing.
"Please Nevaeh, calm down." Carly stood beside her, her hand on her shoulder.
Nevaeh shrugged her off, glaring at her.
"Give me one reason why I should believe anything you're saying now."
"We're in the mafia." Lucas blurted and everything went silent.
Nevaeh froze, her hand on her chest.
"Shit." Conrad whispered.
"What?" She asked.
"We're not in the mafia, we are the mafia." Asher cleared.
"You were about four or five, and we were at war with the Chinese mafia, you were the most threatened since you were the only girl and the youngest, staying here was like sending you to your death, so we came up with a plan, send you away for a while then when everything calmed down you can come back." Asher explained, walking towards her and crouching down.
Nevaeh took a seat silently, it felt like her legs couldn't hold her weight, her hands were shaking as she stared ahead in shock.
"We searched for you, everywhere, a few weeks passed and you were declared missing in the underworld, everyone stepped in to help find you, but it was like you never existed."
"That was until one day the doorbell rang, we opened it and it was a huge gift box, with a purple ribbon." His hands clenched on his knees.
"We opened the box, and we found a small body, burned, with a note on top of it." Everyone released a shaky breath, Carly let out a sob.
"We couldn't believe what we were seeing, we didn't believe it, we thought they were playing some kind of sick joke on us."
"We did a DNA test, and it matched, we lost hope, we lost everything, nothing mattered anymore, we had a funeral."
"But you're alive and breathing, so they must've cut your skin and planted it there."
Nevaeh touched the back of her thigh and shuddered, she remembered this day.
She cleared her throat, "I remember that day, at the orphanage, a man came and dragged me to a dungeon, he cut my thigh, then my lower back then sewed it back."
She looked at him, more calmly now, "So, you thought I was dead?"
He smiled, wiping her tears before placing his hands on top of hers, "Yes, we searched for you everywhere, but when we were sent that body, we lost hope, we truly thought you were dead, otherwise you would've been here, with us, with your family."
They stayed silent for a moment, "I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything." Conrad whispered, his voice was so calm and soothing, like a summer breeze.
"But please, give us a chance." She looked at him, his eyes begging her to agree, all of them.
She nodded her head, "Okay."
They blew out a sigh of relief, "But I need some time first."
"Of course, take all the time you need." Lucian said,
"Please remember, you're not alone, you have us, we're a family, but now we're complete, with you." He hugged her, and he was surprised she hugged him back.
"Thank you.... Dad."