Lost And Found

Chapter 10

Leonardo's POV

"We need to have a talk. One of you get Antonio, then gather in my office," Leonardo said to his children as they walked down the staircase from Angela's room.

His sons nodded, Matteo going off to get Antonio, the others following him to his office settling down in their chairs around the polished mahogany desk. After a minute of all them lost in thought, Antonio arrived with Matteo with his head down and his hands shoved into his pockets.

"We need to talk about Angela. I know this is a lot for you all to take in after being apart from her for so long. Some of you remember her, some of you don't, but she is your sister all the same. I need her to feel safe here. She's been on her own for 10 years," Leonardo said with a frown.

"What do you mean? She had mother and her stepfather," Dante said the last word with a grimace on his face.

"Apparently not. Mother died 10 years ago. It wasn't recently," Lorenzo answered much to all their shock.

"How?" Marco asked, his face unreadable.

"Angela said she got sick," Matteo answered with a frown.

"Then she had her stepfather right?" Alessandro asked confused.

"Yes, but they weren't close from what we've gathered. She started working at 14 at a cafe just to get out of the silence of the house as he was barely ever there and also to save up money to pay for her own school fees, things he should have been doing, not her," Lorenzo said clearly angry about the situation and his brothers didn't seem to like that either.

"Yeah, it was so bad apparently that she refused to even attend his funeral. It was clear she didn't care about the man," Nico said.

"And let's not even mention the place she was living in. It wasn't good at all. It was in the most rundown area of the city. God, you should have seen the building," Matteo grimaced in disgust. Nico and Lorenzo had the same expression on their face.

"You should have seen the apartment. The place was barely livable," Lorenzo said with a clenched jaw "It felt...cold, distant. There was literally nothing to show she'd lived there at all. The walls were peeling, the carpet stained, the furniture scratched and worn. It was barely a step up than our prison cells."

"Seriously? That bad?" Marco asked shocked and concerned, knowing his brother wasn't one to exaggerate.

"You have no idea," Lorenzo said, shaking his head.

"He was distant at best, neglectful at worst. She wasn't shown much affection growing up, and that's something we need to be mindful of," Leonardo said to his children seriously. He didn't want them freaking her out or anything. "She doesn't like raised voices," he gave a stern glance to Antonio at that and he looked down immediately, "Or any quick gestures. She's a bit jumpy."

Antonio, who had been silent up until now, finally spoke up, his voice low but filled with regret. "I messed up earlier. I...I didn't know how to react but when I saw her eyes, well, the contacts I guess, I got pissed. I thought it was another scam. I should have talked, instead of jumping to conclusions. I was wrong," he sighed deeply, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at her or stormed off after."

"You need to apologise to her Antonio," Leonardo said, his tone softer. "She needs to know she can trust us, that we're here for her."

Lucian, who had been sitting quietly with his arms crossed, leaned forward, his voice serious, "She flinches a lot. Any sudden movement and she jumps, sometimes its hard to notice and you don't really clock it, but I've seen it. It's like she's expecting something bad to happen. I don't think that's just because of today—She seems like she's always on edge. I didn't want to jump to conclusions but now that you've mentioned her relationship with her stepfather, I think we should look into the possibility that he may have gone further than neglect."

Everyone in the room went silent as they looked at him with varying degrees of surprise before concern and anger clouded their faces. If Lucian noticed something than it was definitely something to look into. He was always the smart, silently observing type so the rare times he spoke everyone listened because it was always something important.

The tension in the room thickened as Lucian's words settled over the group. Leonardo's expression grew darker, his fists clenching slightly on the desk. The idea that Angela might have endured something even worse than neglect was a bitter pill to swallow. He had already failed to protect her once; the thought that she might have suffered in silence all these years was almost too much to bear.

"Lucian's right," Leonardo said, his voice steely. "We can't ignore the signs. If there's even a possibility that she was mistreated in any way, we need to know. But we need to approach this delicately. Pushing her too hard for answers could do more harm than good."

"Agreed," Lorenzo added, his jaw tight. "We can't overwhelm her. We need to make her feel safe, let her come to us in her own time. But we also need to be ready if she does open up."

"She's been on her own for so long—she might not even know how to rely on someone else," Nico said worriedly.

Dante, who had been quietly absorbing everything, finally spoke up, his voice tinged with anger. "If it's confirmed that bastard hurt her in any way, I will literally dig him out of his damned grave just to torture the fuck out of him until even the fires of hell would feel like a mercy."

"Calm down, Dante," Lorenzo said, his tone measured even though he definitely felt the same, and from the looks of everyone, even dad's faces, they felt the same. "We can't jump to conclusions as of yet. For all we know she could have just been jumpy because of everything that happened, finding out about us, moving from the place she's lived in for so long, and being the centre of attention from all 10 of us. I reckon with her stature, that would definitely be uncomfortable, but we also can't ignore the possibility. If something did happen, we'll deal with it then. Right now, our focus needs to be on Angela—making her feel safe, comfortable, and part of this family."

"We need to show her what family really means," Lucian added, his tone surprisingly soft. "We've had our fights, our disagreements, but at the end of the day, we're family. She needs to know she's part of that now."

Leonardo nodded, his expression softening as he looked at his sons. With that, he stood, signalling the end of the meeting. "Alright then. Let's go have dinner. Did one of you give Angela directions?"

"Directions? You should have given her a map," Matteo joked and they all either rolled their eyes or chuckled.

"I did. Don't worry dad," Marco said before they all left the office.

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