Lost And Found

Chapter 14

Angela's POV

When her brothers left the room, Angela lay back in her bed with a slight wince, her back stinging, but it was more comfortable than sleeping on her front or on her side so she had to deal with it. She was beyond thankful Matteo and Nico had walked in before she removed the concealer hiding her bruises or that would have been a fun conversation. 'Oh, well, you see I walked into a pole, that's how my face is bruised, then I was so out of it, I got dizzy and fell right onto a man's hand which explains the marks on my throat.' Yeah, that was definitely believable.

Staring at the ceiling, her mind raced with everything that had happened that day. It was hard to believe that only hours ago, she had been in school watching in dread as the hours passed, each one getting closer to the end of the day. She would have walked back into that apartment knowing what was awaiting her, but not able to do anything about it.

And yet now she was here, in a place that was apparently supposed to have always been her home had her mom not moved away, which was definitely still bugging her. It was all so much to process - meeting them for the first time, finding out she has a twin, being welcomed into their home, then that awful, tense dinner.

She had honestly wanted to make a good impression. But instead, she'd messed everything up. The moment Antonio had started shouting, she'd reacted. She didn't know why. It was so unlike her. She hated confrontations, preferring to lay low, a habit born from years of punishments for the littlest things, and yet today, she couldn't help it.

WIth the Bastard, she hadn't felt emotionally hurt by his words or actions for a long time, she'd just gotten so used to it. Antonio's words had somehow struck a chord in her. They weren't just cruel - they were cutting, they were personal, and something inside her had just snapped, and she lashed out, letting her emotions overflow in a way she never allowed herself in years.

God, she'd never felt so scared when she'd stormed out of the dining room, her heart pounding in her chest. She had half-expected someone to follow her, to grab her by the arm and drag her back to face some form of punishment, which considering the number and sizes of them, was not going to be pretty.

That's how it always had been in the past. Any outburst, any sign of rebellion, any little thing that didn't go his way, (even if it wasn't her fault) was met with the most painful punishments the Bastard's depraved mind could come up with so she'd learned early on to keep her emotions in check, to never give them the satisfaction of seeing her break, but today she didn't know what happened. She was just so sick of it all, of being judged at every corner. She just wanted to be herself, whoever that was, without constantly thinking about what others would think. To the Bastard, she was apparently too fat; now, to these people, she was too skinny. She could never be just right, not for anyone—not even for herself.

She's grown up hiding her body from the world for fear of anyone noticing the bruises. God, she couldn't even remember the last time she looked in the mirror and liked what she saw because there was never a time when a bruise wasn't staring right back at her.

She remembered when the two had come over and knocked on her door, her heart had froze in her chest. She had thought it was their father, about to give her her punishment. And you know what the sick part was? She felt grateful. She'd felt fucking grateful that he'd come alone to give it to her in the privacy of her room, instead of in front of the others where she'd have to walk back to her room and up the stairs in pain. God the Bastard had her so messed up, if that was the first thing she thought of.

But then Nico and Matteo had walked in, and she had felt a mixture of confusion and relief before fear took over, as she thought about the fact that her father may not have been so nice after all, and was calling her down for her punishment. But then they both were smiling, looking at her so softly, trying to make light of the situation, and she didn't know what to make of it. She hadn't known what to expect. But as they talked to her, apologizing for what had happened, she began to realize that they weren't there to punish her. They were there to comfort her, to make sure she was okay, and that nearly had her breaking down in tears but she'd thankfully held it together.