EVELYN'S POV
You bitch!
I am sure you were out whoring with a boy, weren't you?
Where is our food, you ungrateful bitch??
What else can be expected from such a slut!!
No wonder no one is your friend!!!
You are a mistake!
No one loves you!!
You don't deserve to be loved!!
You don't deserve anything!!
We hate you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I woke up with a scream and started heavily panting due to my nightmare. Jake and Amanda's words were continuously ringing in my head on a loop.
I was gasping for air, but to my dismay I couldn't breath. I was loosing my focus and couldn't see anything.
Suddenly, I felt hands on me and flinching hard at the contact, I shuffled backwards and tried to make myself as small and invisible as possible.
"Please don't hurt me!!"
"I am sorry!!"
"Please it hurts too much!!"
"Please don't touch me!!"
I kept sobbing loudly muttering these words, wanting to get their hands away from me. My hands were on my ears and I was rocking my body back and forth to come back to reality.
All of a sudden, all the hands withdrew back and a pair of arms engulfed me tightly.
I started thrashing trying to get away from them.
"Shh, shh. It is me bambina. I am here. No one will ever hurt you Eve. You are safe with me. Shh shh." a voice reached my ears.
The person who was hugging me, kept muttering sweet nothings in my ear and kept trying to get me to calm down.
Suddenly, it was like a switch flipped in my head and I recognized the scent immediately. I hastily wrapped my arms around him as well and kept sobbing on his shoulder.
He did not break the hug for a long time and kept consoling me.
'It felt good to have someone by my side for the first time..'
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DOMENICO'S POV
I was in my room plotting all the ways I was going to hurt those who hurt my sister. I was going to make them beg for their death.
They would beg for me to kill them, but I wouldn't grant them this liberty. I was going to make their life a living hell. They would regret ever laying a hand on my sister.
I smirked at the thought of torturing them for the rest of their lives.
'My own personal punching bag for whenever I need to take out my frustration.'
As much as I would like to hurt Amanda too for what she did, I won't. We were always taught by mom and dad that no matter what, we wouldn't ever lay a hand on a woman.
But no worries, my mom is no less. She is in fact the scariest one out of all of us when someone pisses her off. And Amanda just made it to the top of her list. My mom is enough for showing the bitch her place.
A loud scream cut off my thoughts. As soon as I heard it, it took me a moment to register that it belonged to my sister.
Sprinting to her room, I came across the most heartbreaking sight I ever had to witness.
There was my sister, curled up on the bed, trying her best to make herself invisible by going as far away from us as possible. She had her hands on her ears like someone was continuously saying something to her which she didn't want to hear. Her body was rocking back and forth and her sobs filled the room.
All of my family members had tears in their eyes seeing her condition. Mom and a few of my younger brothers were crying.
Ezra and Ethan tried to reach out to her but she flinched furiously and coiled herself even more into the corner. She started whimpering and started pleading for us to not hurt her.
'How can someone do this to such an innocent soul??'
I couldn't see my sister like this.
So, I made my way towards her, and instead of touching her, I simply hugged her tight. She started thrashing in my arms and I'll admit there was nothing more heartbreaking than that, but I did not let her go and started muttering sweet words in her ear.
"Shh, shh. It is me bambina. I am here. No one will ever hurt you Eve. You are safe with me. Shh shh." I whispered in her ear to soothe her.
I am usually not the one to say good things to console others... This is mostly Carlos' job. He is good at consoling and soothing others.
But this is my sister.. I can do anything for her. This is the very least I could do..
As if suddenly able to recognize me, Evelyn stopped thrashing and hugged me back tightly and started crying loudly on my shoulder.
On of my hand was in her hair and other one was on her back rubbing it continuously to calm her.
After the longest 10 minutes of my life, she finally stopped crying and looked up at me with teary eyes.
The rest of my family came near us but still maintained a little distance to not make her uncomfortable.
"Are you okay Eve?" Ethan asked tenderly sniffling a little.
She merely nodded at him and kept looking at us with teary eyes as if fearing that we'll judge her.
"I am glad you are okay now baby. I was so scared looking at you like that." mom said with a cracked voice.
"Can you tell us what happened bambina?" Xander asked her softly.
'Xander and soft?? Looks like I am not the only one who has a different side for her!!'
"N-night-mare" she stuttered out.
"It's okay tesoro. You are okay now. They are not here anymore. You are safe with us." dad said gently.
While they were all consoling her, I noticed her continuously rubbing and scratching her wrists.
At first I couldn't understand why she was doing that, but it all made sense after some time.
And it looks like I was not the only one who noticed her doing that. Ales was also constantly looking at her wrists. We both shared a look and he nodded lightly.
My hands were still wrapped around her so Ales made his way towards us and looked into her eyes to convey to her that he'll not harm her.
Very gently, he pried her hands off of her wrists and placed them in his own, still maintaining the eye contact.
"You want to cut." He said and it came out as a statement rather than a question.
Evelyn looked down as if she was embarrassed that someone figured her out easily.
Everyone looked at her for confirmation with a shocked look on their face and they got the answer when she looked down.
"I know this is very hard sweetheart. I know hard you are trying to keep your promise of not hurting yourself, and I am very proud of you. We all are. We are here for you bambina. You don't need physical pain to forget the mental pain anymore. We are here for you now." Ales said as gently as he could.
"Yes shorty. You are the strongest person I've ever met. I know you are having a strong urge to hurt yourself, but I also know that you can defeat it. You have us now Eve." I consoled kissing her forehead.
"My tesoro is so strong. I am proud of you Evelyn. You are a true Romano tesoro." dad smiled at her.
All of us kept telling her good things and after some time, she was able to control the urge.
"Thank you" she muttered lowly.
We all looked at her confused as to why she was thanking us.
Seeing our confusion, she spoke.
"No one has ever been there for me in all these years. I was always alone and had to deal with these panic attacks and nightmares on my own. But, this time you all were there and I was able to get back from it very fast. Usually I pass out due to exhaustion after an attack passes, but I didn't this time. Your words somehow consoled me and my urge to cut diminished. So basically this is the first time I've felt like I also have someone to take care of me when I am at my lowest. So thank you for being there for me and helping me." she explained grimly and slightly smiled at the end.
All of our faces softened after she finished speaking.
"You never have to thank us for being there for you sunshine. We are always going to be there for you. You are stuck with us now." Ezra said joking at the end.
She smiled at him and got out of my arms.
"Thank you for bringing me back from my panicked state." she said turning towards me.
"Do you really think you need to thank me for that shorty?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
Before she could reply, my little shit of a brother spoke up.
"Aww, is Nico being a softy for his little sister??" Matteo cooed mocking me.
Everyone chuckled including Evelyn while I just glared at him.
"Umm, do you know who Jack was talking about?" she asked no one in particular after some time.
All of us stiffened hearing his name but stopped ourselves from hurling some curse words at him for what he did.
Dad cleared his throat and explained the whole story to her while Ezra and Ethan were also listening carefully as they were not there before. He told her how he wanted our companies instead of mafia as she doesn't know about it yet.
We all had discussed if we should tell her about our mafia but agreed not to as she was in a fragile place right now.
I disagreed with them and believed that we should tell her the truth, but they all convinced me not to.
The triplets were completely shocked hearing the whole thing.
'Can't blame them though!!
We all were too!!'
After some time we all decided to watch some movies and have family time.
So, mom made us some snacks and along with us some chips and candies, we sat down in the cinema room and decided to have a Harry Potter marathon.
I was not at all interested in watching movies, but I still sat there because I didn't want to spoil her mood.
Between the movie, dad suddenly called out for Evelyn.
"Don't take me wrong tesoro, but do you want to see a therapist?? It might help you get better." he asked looking at her hesitantly.
Evelyn stiffened a little hearing him and after a very uncomfortable silence of a few minutes, she spoke.
"Do you really think so?" she asked in a low voice.
"Yes, we all do baby. We are not forcing you in any way, but it might be a good thing for you." mom smiled at her.
All of us nodded at her showing her our support.
'Even I think she should take therapy.
It will help her get better!!'
She looked at all of us and nodded.
"I am proud of you bambina. I promise we'll arrange the best therapist for you." Ales gave her a small smile.
"Any thing you want in particular bambina?" Carlos asked her.
"Can you make sure she is a woman?? I am just not very comfortable with being with a man alone." she said squirming a little.
'How can she even think we'll let her be with a male??
Of course there is going to be no male therapist!!'
'No boy other than family is going to get close to her ever!!
She is not having a boyfriend till she is 80, no 90. No questions asked!!'
"Of course bambina. You don't need to worry about that. It goes without saying." Carlos nodded.
She let out a sigh of relief and looked back at the screen.
And just like that, we continued our rest of the day laughing and smiling, forgetting about the impending issues we were yet to face.
______________________________________________________________________________
SO HOW WAS THE CHAPTER GUYS??
I THINK I LIKE DOM EVEN MORE NOW!!
ANYWAY, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS ABOUT TO COME??
WILL THE ROMANOS GET THEIR REVENGE??
OR WILL JACK AND ALEXEI WIN IN GETTING WHAT THEY WANT??
KEEP READING TO FIND OUT!!!
DON'T FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT!!
IT MEANS A LOT TO ME!!!
LOVE<3
NEHAL