𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕
I was sitting in my cabin, scanning the last page of a weapons contract, when my phone buzzed harshly against the desk. Without glancing at the caller ID, I picked it up.
"Hello? Who's this?" I asked, voice clipped.
"Good morning. Am I speaking to Mr. Alexander Romano?" said a voice-firm, unfamiliar, American.
"Yes, who are you?" I asked, already frowning.
"I'm Noah, a police inspector from New York. I need to speak to you regarding your sibling."
My brow creased further. My siblings? What the hell did my brothers do this time in New York?
"Are you sure you're talking about my siblings? I don't think any of them were involved in anything over there."
"I'm certain, sir," Noah replied calmly. "But I'm not calling about your brothers."
I froze. "What do you mean?"
"I'm referring to your sister, Bella Blackwell."
The world halted.
Bella.
My bambina.
Her name was a blade straight to the chest. I hadn't heard it in years, hadn't dared to. My breath caught as everything else faded. The documents, the silence, the clock ticking above my head-all gone.
I leaned back, the weight of her name pressing against my chest. Bella. The little girl Amalia ripped away from us when she was only two. My baby sister. Gone without a trace, taken by the woman who gave birth to us and then destroyed us.
We searched like madmen for years, burned every resource, and tore through every lead. Nothing. It was as if she had vanished off the face of the Earth.
Dad never recovered. Her disappearance broke him. And when Amalia left too, abandoning us, it shattered him completely. He took his life not long after.
From that day on, I became the pillar for my brothers. The silent force holding the Romano name together.
"Hello? Sir, are you still there?" Noah's voice brought me crashing back.
"Yes." I cleared my throat. "What about her?"
"There's been... a situation. Her mother-Amalia-passed away eight years ago. Since then, she's been under the guardianship of her stepfather, Thomas Blackwell. But he died earlier today. Car accident. I'm calling to ask-would you like to take her guardianship? You're the closest living relative we could find. Otherwise... she'll be placed in the system."
I sat there, stunned.
Eight years. Amalia died eight years ago... and no one knew? Not a whisper, not a murmur in all the networks I had in place. How the hell did she die off-grid like that?
"Yes," I said without hesitation. "I'll take her. She's my sister."
The call ended, and I sat in silence for a moment, letting the storm of emotion brew inside me. After twelve years, my bambina is coming home.
I grabbed my phone and sent a message to our private family group chat.
"Boys. Office. Five minutes."
---
They all filed in, one after the other. My brothers-loud, chaotic, loyal to a fault.
"I have some news," I began, smiling without realizing it.
"WHAT THE FUCK. ALEX IS SMILING," Xavier and Ethan shouted in unison.
YOU ARE READING
The Hidden Pain
Novela Juvenil"Blood may bind them, but secrets could tear them apart." --- Separated at the age of two. Raised in shadows. Loved by no one. She spent her life behind walls she built to survive-walls no one has ever dared to break. Until the day her stepfather di...
