Azalea

A room full of snakes

Devan leads me down the stairs occaisionaly touching my back to stabilise me, the bruises across my torso from when Michael threw me against the wall a few days ago still fresh.

biting back a wince at the pain, i smile.

i don't have to fake the loss of balance when i walk down the stairs, still not used to the sling incapacitating my arm.

we reach the bottom of the stairs and i hear a hushed whisper "why did you have to let her come back, she would have been better off without knowing about us" Ares says "yeah, why invite that whore into our house" Vince chimes in. "thats not what i fucking meant" Ares growls to his brother.

"hey, you ok?" i hear Devan whisper in my ear, causing me to flinch. god, i hope he didn't notice that.

i nod my head and he steps fowards to push the doors open. once inside the room i see the large dining table, each person seated in age order, dad at the head of the table, a space across from Ares for Devan. a space across from Vince. for me.

yay

Everyone stopped talking when we walked in, i could feel the tension between them like a living thing in the room. i smiled and nudged Devan, when he looked at me i nodded my head in the direction of the seat across from Vince. He looked at Vince then back and me, but nodded. fuck.

i smiled, took my seat and peered around at the faces around the room. everyone was staring at me, some with adoration, one with hatred. everyone stared and i thought for a moment i'd be able to read their minds, but i couldn't understand what they were thinking so i kept staring back at them until one by one they looked down at the empty plates infront of them.

all except for Vince, he was glaring at me across the table and i felt like being a bitch, so i glared back, and kept glaring. but so did he, so i changed my tactic. i smiled back at him, just to piss him off a little, he frowned and looked away before looking back with hatred in his eyes.

i took a chance to look around the room, the small bookshelf in the corner, the door behind dad, i wondered where that lead. but my eyes caught on something else. there was a row of photo frames on the wall, each one containing a photo of one of my brothers. they were all labeled in a plain font but the simplicity made it enough. next to Vince's photo there was an empty one, with the name Azalea at the bottom.

"that would have been yours, if you know, we hadn't given you away" he finished the last part in a whisper only i could hear.

i look back at him, then down at my plate as tears filled my eyes and i felt my chest tightening as i swallowed hard. i heard a slight clatter and looked up to see my plate now covered in foods. fuck i mentally groaned.

not only did it look amazing, it smelled even better.

once i saw everyone else eating i slowly took the fork and stabbed a little chunk of potato, tentatively raising it to my mouth and taking a bite. i closed my eyes and waited for a slap, or some yelling. but, it never came.

i opened my eyes and saw everyone still focused on their food so i started eating, what must be my first proper meal this week.

i ate as quickly as i could and finished my plate of vegetables and salad, leaving half of the chicken, it was huge. i was really full and now felt queasy, i guess thats what i get for eating so quickly on an empty stomach.

the voice at the head of the table clears his throat, causing me and everyone else to look up at him. "have you had enough to eat Azzy darling?" he says, causing all other eyes to return to me.

i smile weekly and give him a thumbs up. he smiles back at me, claps his hands and says "ok that's enough for today, Azalea if you would follow me to my office, i have some rules to go through" the room goes quiet again and all i can hear is some quiet breathing.