𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬

37- blood thicker than water

The doctors have examined Zina further and said she is purposely became a selective mute. She won't speak to any of us as far as I know, and she doesn't even show us any sign of life except when she has to go to the toilet, and even then she doesn't speak, instead she tries to get up on herself, and when she fails only then she accepts our help. We didn't help her much yet, because she barely eats or drinks at all so there's no need for her to go.

Me and my brothers slow but steady recovered from the traumatic events we too had to spectate. None of us all gets why she did what she did, but none of us dare to ask her about it. She won't answer anyhow.

Me and my brothers have always been good in burying our feelings. Mostly because there were many occasions where we were forced to do so. At the funeral of our parents for example. We couldn't cry or even look sad because our enemies would think we had weakened. They would surprise us if they saw us being not focused on our surroundings and we couldn't have that.

However, this is our sister we're talking about. All of us need more time to heal from this, but we have to somehow manage to do so before our enemies notice our absence. I need to get back on track, or else it will be too late and our entire mafia could fall apart just because this little mishap.

Not that it's little at all for us, but it certainly is for our enemies.

Normally, Javi would need to start working today too, just like me, but I discussed with the doctors and they practically begged me to keep him here because they need him to help further in Zina's recovery. I can make an assumption for Zina, but not for the rest of her brothers, and that's exactly where I'm stuck right now.

"I'm not going to start working again Eleandro, Zina fucking needs us!" Adrian yells at me, practically generating all of his anger at me.

I can't blame him at all.

"Adrian, she has no use of us right now. She won't even answer us nor recognize our presence!" I try to reason with him.

"We can't just leave her Eleandro!" He yells losing his temper more and more. "She's our fucking sister por el amor de Dios!"
(For God's sake)

"I know Adrian. Okay? I fucking know! But you know as well as me that our enemies will notice too! And if they notice Adrian– if the Russians notice" I walk closer to him so my face is almost touching his. "They will grab the chance to fucking kill us." I finish finally in a low tone losing my temper.

Us Torres' aren't really good at maintaining our anger. None of us are and I wonder if Zina is like this too.

I see Adrian's anger burning through him, but he doesn't dare speaking back to me. He knows I'm right.

Adrian scoffs and turns to walk out of the room. He storms out of there, not sparing me a single glance anymore.

How can Eleandro be so ignorant? He knows as well as me that our sister needs us, now more than ever, yet he chooses our mafia over our own blood?

Blood is thicker than water, our father always told us. He told us that family always comes first, no matter the situation. We were told that, no matter what happened, we always had to choose our family over anything.

And Eleandro decides to disrespect our fathers words.

Our father was a wise man. A really wise man. He was even so wise, some would call him 'el filósofos de la mafia'.
Or translated 'the philosopher of the mafia'.

If you had a question of any kind, come to him and he knew guaranteed the answer to it. Our father was our hero. Our savior.

Most kids born into the mafia were unlucky to be born with a filthy excuse of a father. A beat-up who treated their sons like their soldiers. Our father was nothing like that. He was brutal and cruel to people who deserved it maybe, but to us? No, never in his life. He loved me and my brothers more than anything, and when Zina was born, he divided that love and shared it with us all. He loved us all equally, but everyone knew he had a special place in his heart for his hija. And none of us blamed him for it because we were all like that. We all love our sister more than ourselves, and we all would sacrifice anything for her.

When Zina disappeared, we all lost that little flame. The household became joyless and grey, and we all missed her more than anything. Papá lost the gleam in his eyes he once had, and begun focusing more and more on his work, which was leading this mafia. That's one of the reasons we became even more successful.

Mamá became devastated and couldn't give us the love anymore she once could. She suffered from the loss of her only daughter and fell into a horrible depression. Eleandro was the one who looked after us and made sure we didn't suffer from the sadness now intruding our household. Sadly enough this didn't work out for everyone.

Diego was the one who broke first and the most. We obviously where all grieving for our sister, but he had it so much worse. Not only losing his only sister, but also not being in the best mental state beforehand, he broke. He tried once we know of, but we all suspect him for trying to end it all more than one time. His twin, Lucas, endured it too. His twin had tried to kill himself, and he too lost his sister. Lucas luckily was positive enough not to make terrible decisions, but I know he must've had it hard too.

We all did, but those two were the ones that suffered the most.

And now we finally have her back, and she couldn't even come home to a whole household. The two protectors we once had, had been taken by the enemie, and all of our bonds were shattered throughout the years.

I know we will all try our best to strengthen our bonds with eachother for her sake, but I don't know if it's too late already.

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