The Ones Who Failed Us

Chapter 10

"What were you thinking, huh?" Alessandro yelled. "Getting suspended on the first day of school for a fight? This is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable, Avalee."

Alessandro had just arrived home, and we were now in his office on the third floor along with Elijah, Raphael, and Cara to discuss my "disobedience", as my brothers like to put it. I had no intent on telling anyone of the cause of the fight, but I had to rely on Raphael and Cara not to spill my secrets.

I just shrugged my shoulders and boldly answered, "What do you want me to say? I don't regret what I did, and I would do it again if given the chance."

My eldest brother slammed his fists on the table, causing me to jump, and shouted, "Is it really that hard to give me a simple explanation of why Elijah had to come pick you up from school? This is the second fight you've gotten in since being in our care. Do you know how bad this makes us look?"

Oh, so they don't really care about what happened. They're just worried about their problematic sister tarnishing their perfect reputation. "Well, if you're so worried about making yourself look bad, then why did you take Teddy and I in? I have a criminal record, for God's sake! Did you really think I would be the perfect sister you hoped for? I'm not the same four-year-old who did everything you asked me to do, Alessandro. I've changed, and it's time that you realize that," I yelled.

"Tesoro, that's not what he means," Elijah interrupted. "We don't expect you to be perfect, but you sent a sixteen-year-old girl to the hospital. That's not okay, and you're lucky that you didn't get suspended for more than a week." Turning to Alessandro, he said, "Why don't you calm down before you say something you'll regret?"

Alessandro took a deep breath and said, "Elijah's right. I'm sorry about what I said. My reputation isn't what I'm worried about. It's you. Can you please tell me what caused the fight? I just want to work through this so that if this happens again, we'll have a better solution rather than resorting to violence."

There was no way I could explain what happened. It would just lead to more questions, and I didn't want to deal with that. "Lauren Davis was targeting her all day. She pushed her in P.E., and then stopped her while we were leaving school," Cara interrupted. Snitch.

After a moment of silence, Elijah spoke up, "Remember what we talked about last week? You promised that you would come to one of your brothers if you ever needed help. Why didn't you go to the twins? They could've helped you with the whole Lauren situation to you."

I laughed dryly and retorted, "Like they would've helped me."

This caught Alessandro's attention and he looked up towards me. "What do you mean by that?" he asked dangerously low. I looked down, knowing the answer would result in more questions, questions that could put us all in danger. When he realized that I wasn't going to answer, Alessandro turned to Raphael and Cara and said, "You two were with her the whole day. What do you know?"

"Nothing, sir," Raphael lied. "I just saw Emilio introduce Lauren as his girlfriend to Ava. From then on, Lauren had been trying to provoke Ava all day."

Alessandro got up from his chair and walked towards Raphael. In Italian, he said, "And why should I believe you? Didn't I give you strict orders when I sent you to Georgia not to get close to Ava, and then you did exactly what I told you not to and lied about it? The only reason you're still here is because you're just two kids who made a few mistakes. Your loyalty and your parents' loyalty to my family has saved you, but one more mistake, and you will regret it. Understand?"

"Yes, sir," Raphael and Cara answered timidly in Italian.

Loyalty? Regret it? What are my brothers involved with?