Finding Ximena

0.27

Amertio lightly played with his sister's hair as the room filled with silence.

"So let's have a short recap" Fernando mumbled "Your abuse started on the fifteenth of November?"

"Her birthday is on the fifteenth of November" Amersio trailed off as he tried to take his sister from his older brother who had been hogging her since he got her.

They all silently agreed awkwardly gritting their teeth in anger.

"Were Lucas, Ridge and um bad man ever nice to you?" Alverio asked quietly.

She hummed "Yes I did say they were my best friends. They had praised me and always told me how privileged and protected I was"

"But you weren't" one of her brothers mumbled angrily.

"I was" she paused "for a while"

"Oh yeah?" Alva snapped "Let me guess your princess room had a window right?"

She felt taken aback and she shook her head, ashamed for defending them.

"That's what I thought" he mumbled.

She bit her lip as tears blurred her vision.

"Shit I'm sorry" he apologised as he noticed her tears.

Without warning, he grabbed her and shushed her effortlessly.

"So did they ever touch you," Avarez asked, wincing "sexually"

"N-No" she whispered.

"After they hit you for the first time what exactly happened the next day?" Esmeralda questioned.

"Beat me more, starved me," she explained "t-then Lucas explained to me that a slut was a bad word"

The room went quiet for a while.

"If I showed you a picture would you recognize him?" Fernando asked, referring to 'bad man' as she labelled him.

She nodded meekly and he immediately whipped out his phone. He scrolled through it for a while before flashing it in front of her face. Her face paled and her eyes went cold.

"Mena," Alva nudged her as he felt her muscles stiffen.

She stared straight at the picture with no emotion, her ears blocking out every sound to her everything was silent.

She didn't hear the screaming.

She didn't hear the shouts.

She didn't notice the tension.

She didn't notice their worry.

All she felt, heard and saw was the man who first broke her.

***

"She's fine boys," Fernando sighed as his sons swarmed Ximena's room as soon as they were given the clear by Manuel who had just checked up on Ximena.

He had explained that it was just her epilepsy making an appearance once again. The boys asked what they could do to help her when she was having a seizure and Manuel explained that they shouldn't try to hold her or stop her movements, which made it worse. People should be out of the way when she was having a seizure and sharp or hard objects should be nowhere in sight. She should be placed on her side to help her airway clear and they should try to time the length of her seizures.

"I'm fine bam bams," she tried to push them away as they checked her for injuries "Uncle Manny checked me."

Manuel beamed at the nickname. He couldn't wait for his child to be born although he and Jesselyn were yet to sort out their differences he could tell she was trying because at first, she couldn't stand the sight of his face which bruised his ego.