Sylvie
"Andrea will drop your mother at rehab and meet us at the house later," I look up from my plate as he says those words, "Isn't she your mama as well, why do you keep calling her 'your mom' or like before when you called her 'grace'" I put a bite of my chocolate chip pancake in my mouth.
"She was our mom only until you were born, she changed after that" He said looking at anything other than my eyes in the moment, like he didn't want me to continue the topic, so I dropped it.
I understand their point of view as well, it must've been shit if one of your parents took off one night with one of your siblings. Right now I don't think any of us are in the mood to talk.
I mentally make a not to not bring up mam in front of any of my brothers at home, I don't think any of us are ready to talk about it.
I really just want to disappear, maybe enter a coma again, those 8 days were pure bliss.
I'm snapped out of my thoughts as i hear Aurelio calling my name, "yeah sorry I zoned out for a minute, were you saying something?" I mutter quickly. "Yeah, if you're done, can we leave, the others are waiting at home for us" he says pointing towards my empty plate.
"Yeah" I mutter, before I can start pushing my wheelchair, he gets up and does it for me.
The entire ride home was awkward, both of us didn't know what to tell. The sound of the radio covered the silence.
I look out the window, noticing the line of trees on the sidewalk, the houses, each of different color and aesthetic.
Some with vine draped around them, some plain and simple, some having a little garden on their terrace and some really modern black and white pallet.
I don't even turn to look at him and keep my eyes placed outside the car, until we reached the gates of a mansion.
There were men is black suits and a earpiece covering the periphery of the house, two guards rolled down the gate as Aurelio drove in, "Good morning sir" one of the men greeted as they opened his door. Aurelio gave a quick nod and told something to the guard before walking over and opening my door, "They'll get your stuff, mind if I carry you inside?" He asks, I quickly whispered yes under my breath, loud enough for him to hear and pull me into his arms again.
He gives of a comforting vibe, I guess. I mean he hasn't done anything to hurt me until now, and keeps asking for my consent before doing anything.
I feel like I can trust him, but I don't know about the others yet. But my trust issues get the best of me, maybe they're just pretending, maybe they'll just ignore my existence.
My thoughts are interrupted as I look at the mansion in front of us, how much money do they have?
Now I know where my mom used to get money for drugs.
I snuggle myself into his chest as we enter the house, I don't have the energy to meet the others right now, I need to be alone. I feel him stiffen as he places to down on the couch and i feel his warmth disappear, and a cold breeze makes it's way in.
"Boys, we're home" He announces as I hear multiple footsteps echo around the house, I grip onto Aurelio's sleeve and pull his hand closer to me, as anxiety builds up.
He gives me a look, but doesn't question it moving closer to me, I wanna go to my room and not speak to anyone for a while. But much to my dismay, I see three boys enter the room, all of them take a glance at me.
I try to recall their names, the one wearing a suit without a blazer is definitely Francesco, he was really nice to me when we spoke last time. a small grin spread on his face once I look him in the eyes, a softness clearly radiating through.
next to him might be Luca, he's distant almost, looking everywhere other than my eyes. He's clearly built up a wall of boundaries, I mentally note down to keep my distance from him.
Next is probably Matteo, he looks exactly like Luca, just that he smiles more and has a tiny birth mark on his left ear, it's crazy how similar they look, sometimes it must be hard to differentiate between them.
"Hi, it's nice to meet you again, I don't know if you remember the first time we met," Francesco breaks the silence, "I'm Francesco, but you can call me Frank." He introduces himself politely, bending down on his knees to match my height.
He raises his hand forward for a handshake, and I slowly place my hand in his. He gently brings my hand to his lips and places a gentle kiss on it, "I know who you all are, I remember you," I say pulling my hand back to myself.
Francesco notices my discomfort and pulls back and takes a seat on the couch, "You must be Luca, and you are Matteo, if I'm not wrong" I point towards the twins. Luca doesn't give much of a response, just nods his head and pulls out his phone from his pocket and starts scrolling through it.
"You're right Bambina, it's nice to finally have you home" Matteo says trying to make eye contact with me, his eyes make contact with my arm which is now wrapped around Aurelio. An unrecognizable emotion spreads across his face.
I tug at Aurelio's hand making him turn his attention towards me, rather than giving a death glare to Luca, "Can you please take me to my room, I don't wanna be here" I quietly whisper, even though the others can clearly hear due to the silence in the room, I don't care.
"Sure, Sorellina" he replies, quickly lifting me from the couch as I snuggle into his arms again, the warmth making it's way into my body again.
I don't miss the sadness spread across on all their faces as I leave. Other than Luca, he doesn't really seem like the person to show emotions.
I feel bad, I know they have just found their sister and she's back home, and they want to spend time with me. But I really don't have the energy right now.
Aurelio takes me over to the room in the ground floor, I notice the "S" on the room door, and as assumed, it is my room. I glance over to the to the room beside mine, with an "A" on it, I wonder who's it is.
"That's Andrea's room" he says, opening the door and walking inside.
I also notice that everyone's rooms are also on the ground floor despite having a second floor.
The room is not too grand, just the way I like it, simple but not boring. Enough space around the bed for me to move around in my wheelchair, but also enough space for me to grab onto something incase I fall when I try to walk.
I immediately feel a rush of emotions, everything going on through the day finally hits me. I control the urge to breakdown while he's carrying me. tears pooling up in my eyes, blurring my vision as I try to keep my eyes down.
All the emotions resurface from earlier. My entire life has been a lie and I don't know what to do about it.
I don't want him to see me like this, weak and unable to process emotions properly. But I don't want to be left alone, I want him to stay. I feel safe around him.
Aurelio gently places me on my bed and fluffs up the pillows behind me making sure I'm comfortable, "can you stay with me for a while, I don't entirely want to be alone right now" I manage to say before a tear rolls down my cheek.
"Anything for you" He says taking a seat next to me on my bed and slowly wiping the stray tear on my face, "I know a lot happened in the past few hours, it's a lot to take in, I understand," He takes a deep breathe before continuing, "Just know that we'd never hurt you like your mother did," His eyes flicker between the bruises littered across my arm, I usually don't cover them up since it's only me and my mama at home.
"We really care for you, and were glad you're safe now" My hand subconsciously cover the bruises as the lower myself into the pillows behind me.
I can't stop my tears anymore as I let them flow, a sob escaping my lips as I reach up to my face and wipe away my tears.
I have nothing to say as I stare at his face, tears slowly blurring my vision. His hands wrap around me swiftly as he pulls me closer to him, I melt into his embrace and just cry.
I don't know what to feel, I don't have the words to describe the ache in my chest. So all I do is just cry, I cry until I have no tears left.
Aurelio keeps whispering sweet words of reaffirmation in my ear and keeps drawing circles on my shoulder with his hands.
Once I'm tired enough, he slowly pats my head and lulls me to sleep. I have no energy left in me to fight the sleep, so I just give into the darkness.
Aurelio
I just heard the most awful sound of my life, my sister who was supposed to be happy, and a cheerful person, was crying in my arms. I never want to ever hear her cry.
Anyone who hurts her in the future, is going to die a brutal death by my hands.
I've never felt soo helpless in my life, my sister, the light in my life, she was crying as I just hugged her.
And I couldn't do anything other than just hold her and whisper sweet words to her, I want to kill Grace for what she did to my sister, Sylvie doesn't deserve it.
I had imagined hugging her, after soo many years, she'll finally be in my arms, and I'll hold her and protect her. But the first time I hugged her, she broke down in my arms.
I just hold her sleeping physique in my arms, she looks soo peaceful even though her eyes are swollen from all the crying.
Slowly I trace my fingers over the scars on her hand, I can't look at her arms like this, filled with bruises and cuts, and I don't even want to think about her accident right now. The day I found out that she was in the hospital I wanted to rush down and make sure she was ok. But Andrea had other plans, 'A deal is a deal' he said.
Yesterday he had sent a few people to go check on Sylvie, when the person came back with an image of her applying ointment to her bruises on her hand, he knew it was time for her to come home.
As much as I want to hold her in my arms right now, I need to talk to the Andrea and the boys before she wakes up. So I place her head on a pillow and cover her up with a blanket.
I remember that she sleeps with her bunny, so I quickly go over to her bag and grab that for her and place it next to her.
Making sure to write her and note and keeping her wheelchair at an accessible distance from the bed, I rush downstairs and hear Andrea huffing as he sits on the couch and rubbing his face in frustration.
He's been stressed since he found out about Sylvie's bruises, and the fact that Grace was the one who caused that pain hurt more than anything. Andrea was the closest to her, and it must have hurt a lot to leave her at rehab and come back all by himself.
I offered to accompany him, but he refused and said he'd handle it on his own.
"How's Grace?" I ask, announcing my presence, he straightens up and leans forward, "Ok I guess, she told me she didn't mean to hurt Sylvie, and that she's sorry" He says not once making eye contact with me.
"Tell me you don't believe her" I say staring at him, "Of course not, this has been going on for a year," He pauses, "It's been a year, Leo, our sister was suffering for a year, and we did nothing" Clearly he's frustrated, and so am I. How did we not see it before, we send a person to check on her every 3 months, and we only found out recently.
Francesco walks in with Luca and Matteo trailing behind him, "How's she?" Matteo asks, gaining Andrea's attention, "We heard her cry a while ago, but didn't want to intrude" Francesco adds.
"She was crying?" Andrea's head snaps towards me, "Yeah, I think she needed that release, too much has happened since morning," everyone nods in agreement, "She's sleeping right now, I left her a note to come out once she's awake and ready to have lunch." I finish.
A comfortable silence falls among us and the others sit down, I don't think any of us want to be alone right now, too many emotions going though us, if anyone is left alone, this house might just collapse due to the damage in the walls.
~