The Ones Who Saved Us

Chapter 44

Avalee's POV

It was just me and Alessandro in the car as we drove home after my therapy session. He had insisted on taking me this morning even though it would mean separating me from Teddy and Eden, preventing me from keeping a close eye on them while they were in proximity of those people.

For the entire duration of the therapy session, I couldn't stop worrying about them, and Anna had quickly picked up on it through my short responses and the amount of times I zoned out, failing to keep the conversation flowing. I had so much I wanted to talk about with her today, but my brain's intrusive thoughts made it impossible to focus for longer than a few minutes at a time. When Anna realized that today would be unproductive, she ended the session early with the promise that we would continue this when I felt better, assuming that this was simply a case of extreme sleep deprivation.

Unfortunately, Alessandro forced me into the driver's seat as we headed home, knowing that I had slept properly last night. He had made sure of it the minute Teddy and I returned after our trip to the kitchen, keeping an arm tightly wrapped around me and letting me know that no one would dare touch me as long as he was there.

Teddy was another story, though. When I woke up, he was sitting on the floor playing a game on his phone, his eyes red and exhaustion present in every sluggish movement. I didn't have a chance to speak with him though because by the time I had fully woken up, Alessandro had already whisked me out the door for therapy. The minute I arrived home, I planned on cornering my little brother and getting him to speak to me. Or at the very least, show him that we were safe with the protection of our older brothers.

Lacking a sense of direction, I relied on Alessandro to guide me through the roads, but when he told me to pull the car into an unfamiliar park, I turned to Alessandro with a harsh glare. "Stop playing games with me. I want to go home."

"Yes, you told me," he said with a small smile, "but I want to talk with you, like we do after every single one of your therapy sessions."

I crossed my arms over my chest and averted my gaze from him. "I want to get back home to Teddy and Eden."

"I didn't tell you? Shit," Alessandro muttered. I narrowed my eyes at my brother, daring him to annoy me any further. "Aves, they're out with Leo at the Museum of Natural History. He's been with them the entire day."

"What the fuck, Alessandro?" I yelled, punching his arm. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Must've slipped my mind," he said, rubbing the area of his arm where I hit him.

"Well, I've been worrying about them all fucking day. Would've been nice to know."

"Sorry, tesoro," Alessandro said. "Now c'mon. Let's get some fresh air."

I followed my brother out of the car, and the two of us made our way to the walking path that lined the perimeter of the large field. "Where's Papa and Elijah?"

"At work," Alessandro answered. "They took Giancarlo and our uncles with them as well."

"You let them there? How can you trust them? What if they—"

"Aves, calm down," Alessandro said, wrapping an arm around me. "I promise you there's nothing to worry about. All of our important documents and other information, we moved it to a second location the minute Nikolai made you bug our offices."

Leaning into my older brother, I said, "I still don't trust them."

"That makes two of us."

We continued walking around the field until Alessandro's phone rang, and he told me to wait for him in the car. A few minutes passed before my brother returned with a solemn expression on his face. "That was Leo," he said. He turned to me, lacing his fingers with mine. "Aves, you were right to be worried about Eden. She doesn't flinch like you and Teddy did, but she's scared of something."