Her Five Protectors

NINTEEN

Athena twiddles her thumbs together as she sits in front of Vincenzo. He looks at her face. She looks deep in a thought yet she is aware of his stare on her. He also knows that her attention is solely on her.

"As I told you earlier that we are organizing this party....as a celebration of your 17th birthday. You can invite your two friends from school."

It is not her but it is Ariana's birthday. Athena's birthday is within next two months.

"You can go now." Vincenzo dismisses her shortly. Athena mumbles a small 'ok' and walks out of his office in absolute silence. Lost in thought, she keeps walking but suddenly collides into someone.

"Athena...Are you ok?" Luciano asks her concerned. He has observed that Athena tends to keep quiet even more now. Athena looks up at him and slowly shakes her head in positive.

She walks past him, not uttering a single word out. Worried, Luciano goes toward Vincenzo's office.

"Vincenzo!" He calls his brother's name as soon as he steps inside.

"What happened?" The older brother raised his brow, in a questioning manner.

"Do you know what's the matter with Ariana? She seems even more quiet."

"Athena! Her name is Athena." Vincenzo corrects him.

"It doesn't matter. The girl has been living with us."

"So you are indirectly telling me that you have grown attached to her. Did you forget that this girl will leave as soon as Ariana will come?" Vincenzo asks.

"Do you still believe that Ariana will come? It's been almost two years since she left us! She never looked back."

"She is ready to come back."

********************** Flashback

"It's me." Vincenzo froze as he heard a familiar voice on the other side of phone.

"Ariana?" He asked carefully while clicking through some buttons on the laptop to trace the location of the call.

"Y-yes. I don't h-have much time." Ariana whispered.

"He hurt you?"

"Every second. He k-killed the b-baby." Vincenzo closed his eyes and took few deep breaths to cover up the darkness in them.

"You were pregnant?"

"I'm sorry. Save me plea--" Her urgent voice was abruptly cut off as the line went dead.

****************************

"Why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"I just got to know about this yesterday."
Vincenzo responses in a relaxed manner while he lights a cigarette and takes a deep inhale.

"When are we heading out?" Luciano asks. There is an impatience on the tip of his tongue.

"Tomorrow. We will get Ariana back on her birthday." Luciano nods his head but then he asks.

"What about Athena?"

"What about her?" Vincenzo raises his brow.

"What are you going to do with her?"

"She can leave. She can start her own life. I will hel--"

"How can you be so selfish, Vincenzo?! You are using that girl for our own benefit and as soon as you will be done with her, you will kick her out?!" Luciano yells angrily. At this time, he just could not believe his brother.

"That poor girl needs a family! She needs love, care and guidance in her life. If Ariana has suffered so has Athena. We literally snatched her away from her freedom just to push her away when we are done with her?"

"I will find her family." Vincenzo says.

"Why can't we be her family!"

Upon hearing Vincenzo's silence, Luciano realized that this was of no use. He storms out of his office. Vincenzo stares at the closed doors and heaves a small sigh before looking down at the file in front of him with Athena's name written on the top. He skims through the pages and spends a moment to look at her photo.

He flips the next page to see her DNA test report attached. That never matched. She was not their sister. His phone rings grabbing his attention. He looks down at the screen to see that the call is from one of his secret spy.

"Yes, Adam!"

"Sir, Miss Athena was sold to the Russians mafia leader Ioann Boris." A loud and clear voice sounded on the other line.

"Are you sure?"

"100% definite sure, Sir."

On the other side, Athena locks herself in her room.

"They know! Since the whole time, they knew. So, why keep pretending?" Just a few days ago, she had accidentally listened to Vittorio and Alexander's conversation when Vittorio had mentioned her real name and she also knew what Vincenzo was planning to do. Luciano had informed his younger brothers about it and they all seemed so happy. Athena had seen and heard it all.

They are happy because they can finally get her out of their lives.

In the past month, Athena did not realize when she got so closer to this family that after hearing everything, it hurt her a lot. She held her chest, feeling sharp pain of something breaking in her heart as tears gushed in her eyes.

She regretted that she could not leave earlier. Why did she fall into a delusion that she finally found a place where she could belong?

Tomorrow, the real Ariana will be here.

What was her use here then?

She will leave!

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