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Valeria lay motionless on her bed, the sun reflecting off her flawless skin, illuminating the small freckles adorning her face. A small bandaid was wrapped around the crook of her neck, only half of it was visible due to her quilt covering most of her body.
Surrounding her were Milan, Luca, Matthias, Oliviaand Verona, whose hand was gently brushing over Valeria's cheek, the action surprising but loving. Verona wasn't sure whether she wanted to act as a loving cousin to the girl, she was never close with Valeria.
Valeria was distant, she would always hide in the corner, observing her family interact with no means of going and joining them., not like she was welcome to anyway. Verona partially knew the reason, she was the black sheep of the family. She looked nothing like her mother or father, the only trait she shared was the small dimple of her right cheek that would only appear once in a blue moon around the family. At first, Stefano was suspicious, he suspected that Nasira was unfaithful and had done a paternity test. Fortunately, his suspicions were proven false. He went with the thought that she looked like a distant relative he never knew of, or one of Nasira's family members whom she had never introduced to Stefano.
Another reason was that she was the cause of her mother's death.
The de Vinci's despised Valeria for taking away a loving family member, a cursed child, her father would say.
Verona knew it wasn't Valeria's fault, she was merely a child at the time. But she decided to ignore that, and went with the lies that her family were feeding her.
Seeing Valeria carefree in her bed made Verona feel something, it was an emotion she wasn't familiar with. Valeria lay here vulnerable, and that didn't sit right with her.
"When is she going to wake up?" Milan asks, his voice low as he lays against the wall, watching his little sister sleep blissfully.
"I don't know, they haven't told us yet." Verona was referring to her mother and aunts, who were currently running around the de Vinci estate like headless chickens, requesting an absurd amount of doctors to check up on Valeria.
"She has to wake up soon, right?" Luca didn't want to admit it, but he was worried. Not worried for Valeria, no, he would never worry for a girl like her. He was worried for his family, if the worst comes to worst, how would the dysfunctional family deal with another potential death?
"I hope she doesn't." Olivia snorts, her eyes trained on her recently manicured nails.
"Don't say that." Verona snaps, her head whipping to Olivia, "She's a living person, Olivia. Just because we aren't on great terms with her doesn't mean you say that shit."
"Fine, I'll keep my mouth shut if that helps you sleep better tonight." She smiles sarcastically, glancing around the room before her eyes land on the glass cage, covered by a white sheet.
"What the hell is that." She questions, pushing herself off the wall and approaching the cage. It was built into the wall, but as it was too big, half of the cage was sticking out. Valeria always covered the cage whenever she went out, so no one got curious and tired to release the beast.
