Broken Bonds

Chapter 4

Avery Romano

Seeing that I shook my head at his question, he stood at the same spot for a few seconds to ponder my answer, then he finally stood up from his position. 

"I see.... but thank you for your pencil and eraser." The grin on his face only grew bigger which made me feel even worse. I'm sorry.

"Welcome." I muttered under my breath. I was thankful that he went back to his seat and we never spoke to each other for the rest of the day again. 

Although I had mentioned previously that I would always walk to school, Mason would always make sure to drive me home whenever he did not have his hockey trainings. He did offer to drive me to school, but I simply rejected because I did not want him to wake up an hour earlier just to fetch me to school. 

"Bye, Ave!" I waved to him after getting off from his car. Looking at the gigantic house in front of me, I let out a small sigh as I pushed open the doors. It felt as though I was back in the cage after a whole day at school.

Walking through the living room, the house was on silent mode as usual. Noticing that Missus Dai was not around too, I headed straight to my room and closed the door shut. I took a quick shower and changed out of my clothes into a more casual outfit. Taking out the stack of papers from my bag, I begun working on them. It became a way of coping for me ever since I had started school. It had always been my dream to become a doctor, just like Elijah. Even though he was not like the caring brother as he was before, my dream had never changed.

Although he was not working for hospitals, he was working for our family business. And yes, I do know what exactly is their business at the age of 9. I happened to overhear the conversation between Alexander and someone on the call. But I remained silent about it, not that they would care if I know. 

At least on a better note, I took self defence lessons from Mason since no one would be there to protect me when I'm in danger and I refuse to always go to Mason for help. He has got his fair share of burden as well. Although he was reluctant to teach me at first, he had no choice but to agree that I will soon become a target for other rivals of other mafia. It has been 3 years since he started coaching me and I had to say I was doing pretty well. At least it was enough for me to take down a 6 foot man. 

A soft knock came from my door and I immediately knew that it was Missus Dai. I acknowledged her to come in and she greeted me with a smile. 

"Avery, your brothers are having some guests over for dinner tonight and you are required to join them as well." She gave me a sad smile, knowing that besides having guests over, we would never sit down together at the same table and have dinner. 

"What time do I need to be down? Do I have to be in formal dressing again?" It was pointless of me to ask who was coming over. Not that they will bother telling me as long as I show myself up at the table and not to cause them any trouble.

"By 6pm. And they did not specify any dressing code." My eyebrow quirked up at her words. No formal dressing means the guests might be a family friend or someone who is very close to us. Either ways, I was glad that a formal dressing was not needed. The previous time I attended a dinner with their guests, I went down in a hoodie and sweatpants. To which Alexander told the servants to bring me back to my room and change into a formal dress. I really wondered why didn't he just let my stay in my room instead.

I nodded at Missus Dai's words and she left. There was about an hour more to go and I decided to head downstairs exactly at 6pm since I do not have to change my clothes. There was no point sitting at the table so early waiting for them like the idiot I was before. Not that they will appreciate the fact that I had been waiting for them. 

Opening the drawer at my nightstand, I realised the sleeping pills that I had were running out and so I decided to give a call to Dr Rosaline, who had been my therapist for 5 years. Mason introduced her to me after knowing about my occurring nightmares. I had then been visiting her since then and never once stopped. Although she was not able to take away the nightmares, at least she would stop them for a while and let me have a night's peaceful sleep. 

Pressing on her number, the line soon got connected after three rings. 

"Hello, Dr Rosaline speaking." Her voice came from the other side of the line. Hearing her voice had always soothed me a little because she was like an older sister. 

"Dr Rosaline, it's Avery Romano. I.. The pills are running out. Can I visit you tomorrow or other days when you are free?" I bit my lips nervously while waiting for her response. 

"Avery. Are they coming back very often now? What I had prescribed to you was a month's worth of pills, and this is only the second week of the month." I knew she would say this, but what she did not know was that I was actually going to ask her for stronger pills. The ones that can put me to sleep instantly. Or maybe to end things right away.

"I know, Dr Rosaline. I... I will explain to you when we meet for the session. I promise." I added the last part because I was scared that she would not meet me soon and the pills would probably be gone by tonight. 

"All right, you had better explain everything when we meet okay? I will see you tomorrow then, you can walk in whenever you are free and ready." Her voice softened at the last part. She knew how hard it was for me to step into her clinic every time. What may seem to be easy was actually the hardest. I thought I would no longer be scared and nervous to step in there but it seemed like I have yet to change. 

"Hm. Thank you."

"You are most welcome, see you tomorrow." With that, she hung up the line. I released a breath which I had not realised that I was holding since the start of the call. Looking at the 3 pills in the bottle, I sighed, knowing my night would be dependent on them. 

Mason does not know about the pills that were prescribed to me. And I pleaded Dr Rosaline to not mention about those to him either. He would be even more worried that he was originally and it makes me feel guilty to see him worrying about me. 

Shoving the bottle back into the drawer, I glanced at the clock which showed 5.55pm. Might as well head down now. 

As I walked down the stairs, I realised Lorenzo and Mateo were already at the table while the other two were no where to be found. I took a seat opposite Mateo and settled down. We remained quiet until the door bell rang which Missus Dai rushed out of the kitchen to open the door. 

As Lorenzo and Mateo stood up, I followed suit but kept my gaze on the ground instead. It was only until a warm pair of hands grabbed my shoulders that snapped me out of my trance. 

"It's been so long since I've seen you, Avery."

Updated! nothing much going on in my life for the day :) being a couch potato as usual and it might have gotten a little worse especially since my hols started NWSJWNSJN

What do you guys do during your hols? and how long does your hols usually last?

I usually try to find part-time jobs but would end up at home being a couch potato T_T and my semester breaks are usually around 2 months or slightly less than that but other than that I would have a week's short break in between the term

Happy reading! - 27/8/2022