Loner

Chapter 7

LUCY

"You killed her." she heard a voice. "You killed my baby." the voice again reached her ears. She recognized the voice as her mom's. "Mom" she uttered weakly. "SHUT UP I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER" yelled her mom. The room was dark. It looked like her mom's study. The room was dimly lit, thunderstorm and lightning voices could be heard from outside making the aura of the room more depressed. Despite the dimness, she could see her mom's tears streaming down her face. The mere sight of her mom broke her heart. She hated herself for putting her mom in this situation. She was thinking of a way to calm her mom when suddenly her mom threw a heavy vase in her direction. It was about to hit her head when she suddenly opened her eyes.

She looked around her room and realized it was just a dream...a nightmare, to be exact. She turned on the lamp on the nightstand and checked the time. It was 4 in the morning. She took some deep breaths to calm herself down. Her mind couldn't process anything she saw in her dream. She couldn't think of anything. Her ears were ringing with the same voice of her mom telling her that she killed her child. After some time of sitting in her bed silently listening to her irregular breathing and fast heartbeat, she sighed.

Her throat felt dry so she looked around to check if there was some drinking water in her room. After finding nothing, she got up lazily and decided to go to the kitchen to get some water. She quietly opened her room's door and she looked around the corridor. Upon finding no one she released her breath which she was holding all this time. She descended the stairs and went towards the kitchen.

She saw two refrigerators kept side by side to one another. She stared at them for some time thinking about which one to open. She stared at them for a bit longer and her mind started to think if she should even touch the fridge without her brother's permission. It's a good thing to take people's permission to touch or use their things but being an introvert, asking someone was a tough job for her. After some more time of standing in front of the fridge, she decided not to touch the fridge or in other words, she decided not to drink water. She just gulped down her saliva to wet her throat and went back to her room to sleep.

BERNARDI

Little did she know that all this time she was being watched by her eldest brother who was sitting on the kitchen counter silently sipping on his coffee. As the kitchen was dimly lit, she couldn't see him sitting there but he noticed her presence. He was still not fully satisfied that the girl was innocent, so he decided to observe her every move. Every time he looked at her, he felt bad like something was wrong with her, like she was hiding her emotion. But he shrugged his thoughts as he saw her approaching the fridge but she stopped and again started to stare blankly at the fridge. She then made her way back to her room. He knew she wanted something from the fridge. Maybe she was hungry or thirsty. Whenever he looked at her, she looked harmless to him. He was slowly deciding to accept that she was innocent.

He shrugged all his thoughts, returned to his room, and got back to work. Soon the clock showed the time, 7 AM, indicating it was their breakfast time.

Everyone was sitting in the dining hall except Lucy. They didn't want to wait for her but just for the inevitable rules set by their elders, they were helpless. The rule was that all the family members were supposed to eat together unless anyone was sick or out of the house. So they waited. Domenico was sitting on the head chair completely unbothered while working on his laptop. Leandro was reading some business articles on his iPad while the younger siblings were getting annoyed and impatient. Stefano was going to let out his frustration when the door of the dining room opened and came inside a little figure. Lucy closed the door behind her and looked at the surroundings and the morning environment as it was her first breakfast with her new family. She went toward the chair she sat on yesterday when she realized some constant stares at her. She looked around the table and found everyone staring at her more like glaring at her for being late.

She was about to apologize but her mood changed when she heard one of her brothers speak who she recognized as Stefano. "What the hell were you doing? Don't you know the timing of breakfast? Haven't your parents taught you any manners? There's no place for a lazy brat in our house. Do you get it?" he spoke in a harsh and cold tone. She looked straight into his eyes and said in a calm tone, "No, they haven't." Everyone's head snapped in her direction as those words left her mouth. But her face looked stoic and the stares didn't make her uncomfortable this time but filled her up with rage which she successfully controlled.

She then turned her gaze towards the food kept on her plate and picked up the fork. She saw a bread sandwich with some vegetables inside it. It took her a while to return to herself and realize what was on her plate. She cringed at the sight. She hated sandwiches. She hated breakfast. She hated meals. She hated food. The thought of eating itself gave her a sickening feeling in her stomach which was enough to make her morning worse. At her previous house too, she rarely had breakfast and also there was no one to force her to eat which was the only thing she liked about that house.

After five minutes of constantly tapping her plate with the fork, she heard someone ruining her thoughts. "Get out if you are not going to eat." she recognized the voice to be Franco's and looked at him who was already glaring at her with pure hate reflecting in his eyes. "Your sole existence is enough to annoy us, you don't need to make that annoying noise." She heard Stefano's voice from her side. She stared at the table and felt her hands slightly tremble under the table. She stood up and went towards the door calmly, at least that's what she showed, only she knew what battle she was having with her mind was having with its thoughts.

"Meet me in my office in 10 minutes." She heard Domenico as she turned the doorknob and walked out without giving any reaction.

She knew that she already got herself on the bad side of her brothers. But she wasn't scared. She didn't want anyone to worry about her, or pay any attention to her. Her mind wanted her to become invisible while her heart wanted her to be actually found.

To be continued...

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