I try not to think about how fucked up that is as Zane moves us into a small seating area off the dining room. There’s a floor to ceiling bookshelf on one side of the room and a leather sofa and two chairs centered around a small wooden table on the other. Two huge windows make the room feel bigger than it is.
Zane navigates us to the sofa while Xander takes the chair across from us.
“Would you like anything to drink?” Xander asks.
“Water,” I croak. I’m not sure what’s going on. He called me his sister, but that can’t be right. Matteo never talked about me having any other siblings.
Xander disappears from the room and returns with a glass of water a moment later. He hands it to me, and I take a sip before placing it on the table in front of me.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but I’ll tell you what I know first, and then you can ask me anything that you want to okay?” Though Xander’s voice still toes the line on menacing, there is a softness to it.
“When Ivan brought you here last time, you looked so familiar to me, but in a way that didn’t make sense. You looked a lot like my mother, and I couldn’t figure out why. I asked your age for a reason. My mother supposedly died twenty-two years ago, so when you told me you were twenty-one, I didn’t think it could be true. Still, something in my gut told me to keep digging, thinking we might be related in a different way. Distant cousins at the very least. Instead, I found out that our mother didn’t die when I thought she did. She left when she discovered she was pregnant with you.”
I try to swallow, but the salvia in my mouth feels like concrete. A sense of Deja vu sets in. I’ve been here before, rescued from Christian, then being told I have some long-lost relatives. It didn’t work out for me last time, so no surprise that I’m not happy about this new development. For now, I keep my thoughts to myself and listen instead of speaking.
“Our mother had you without any prenatal care, and by herself. There is no record of you ever being born, and you were never given a birth certificate. Police found you in a hotel room crying when you were about two, our mother dead from a drug overdose.”
My hand tightens in Zane’s, and I feel like I’m going to be sick. I have two brothers, maybe more I haven’t met yet. All of them seem to be part of the mafia. On top of that, I have a father who is part of the mafia but not the same family.
My mother had an affair, ran away, and gave birth to me, god knows where, before deciding, later on, it was too hard to love and care for me. At this point, I truly do feel as broken as I look. Unwanted and unloved. It’s the story of my life.
I don’t even realize I’m crying until I feel the wetness against my cheeks. I look from the ground and over to Zane, hoping he didn’t know. He knows everything about me, surely, he knew about this. Still, a tiny piece of me hopes he didn’t know. When our eyes clash, I know instantly that he did, and like a plane, I nosedive right into the ground.
“I didn’t know until a few days ago,” Zane whispers, trying to reassure me. It’s like I’m being cornered, all my fears and worries bombarding me at once.
“There’s more,” Xander says in a monotone voice.
“What more could there be?” I whisper though I had hoped the words would come out stronger. I feel weak and broken inside. It’s strange because I knew most of the story. It’s harsh to know I spent my entire life in foster care when I had family, a family that is wealthy, and that I could’ve been living with. Even if they are ruthless criminals, family is family, right?
“After you left, I sent your toothbrush in for a DNA sample. You just looked too similar to my mother for me to let it go. The test result confirmed my suspicions, that we are related but even more shocking, turns out you aren’t just our half-sister, but our full-blooded sister…” Red hot rage pulses through my veins in an instant.
“So, wait… both of your parents are my parents? Which means…”
“Matteo was lying to you the whole time,” Xander says before I can. “You are not related to him.”
“Why would he lie to me?” I growl, asking no one in particular. “Not that I am disappointed about having no connection to him.” Matter of fact, I’m a little relieved.
“Because he’s a fucking prick,” Zane replies.
“Actually, he might not have known he was lying. I think our mother did have an affair with him, but she was pregnant at the time, so he doesn’t know you’re not his daughter. He assumed, and since our mother was trying to escape our father, it makes sense.”
I’m sinking in all the secrets I’ve been told, drowning a slow and painful death. I start to shiver, my thoughts swirl as I think of all the things I did, how I betrayed Zane. Yes, I did it to save him, but I didn’t have to butter up to Matteo. I didn’t have to… guilt makes my chest cave in. I can’t breathe. I try and suck air into my lungs, but it feels like I’m choking.
“This is a lot to take in,” I whisper just as the sound of a knock fills the room. Everyone looks up to the door, where a man with a stethoscope around his neck and a bag in his hand stands.
“Ah, Doc, please, come in,” Xander greets, and the doctor steps in. “I need you to check her out. Make sure she is fine,” he orders.
The doctor nods and approaches me. For the next few minutes, he gives me a good checkup. Feeling for breaks, taking my vitals, and asking me a bunch of questions, all under the watchful eyes of Zane and Xander.
At the end, he tells me what I expected. Besides a bump on my head and a few bruises on my body, I’m fine. He leaves a few minutes later, and I am once more alone with Zane and my brand new brother.
The doctor was a brief distraction, but now I’m hit with the reality of my new life once more.
“Can you give us a little bit,” Zane says, turning me in his arms.
Xander nods and walks out of the room. As soon as he’s gone, Zane pulls me onto his lap and wraps his arms around me. He holds all my broken pieces together, holds me together.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Zane,” I sob into his shirt, feeling so torn and tattered.
“Don’t be sorry, baby… You did what you thought was right, and that’s how we both made it out of that situation alive. Matteo will pay for deceiving us, pay for trying to rip us apart. Pay for hurting you. You’re mine, Dove. Mine to protect, to cherish, to keep. Mine until I breathe my last breath.”
“I’m just confused. I don’t know what to think, what to feel. First Matteo tells me I’m his daughter, now I’m suddenly Xander’s sister… I just don’t know how to take any of this.”
“Let’s go upstairs so we can talk.”
Pulling away, I look him in the eyes, those dark eyes of his still give nothing away, but I know deep in their depths there is love and adoration for me that can never be rivaled by another.
“I’m sorry I hurt you… I never meant to push you away. Matteo told me if I didn’t get you to leave, he would kill you, and I couldn’t let you die.” More tears fall, blurring my vision completely now, and I know I’m on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack.
“Shhh, you can make it up to me. Like I told you, Dove. I will never leave you. You could stab me in the heart, shoot me in the head, lie, or cheat, and I still wouldn’t leave. Your crazy matches my crazy, and I’m never going to give you up.”