Alexia

Chapter 7

Alexia POV

Alexia jerked awake at 4.52 AM, sweaty and breathing heavy from yet another nightmare.  
She glanced over at Leo, who's thankfully still peacefully sleeping next to her. She takes a few moments to catch her breath and shake the remnants of the horror away from her mind. 

Carefully she got out of the bed, grabbed her backpack and went into the bathroom before quietly closing the door. She pulled out her hoodie and jeans before looking around for a clean towel. Once she found one she pulled off her pjs. She avoided looking in the mirror. She knew what would be looking back at her. Her bruised and battered body. New and old wounds, fresh and faded scars in the hundreds. Big and small, deep and shallow. Kiara and especially Thomas did a lot of damage. 
Alexia stepped into the hot water. Her wounds burned as the water hit them.
Not only were her shoulder and her ribs discolored. Her thighs were as well. She fought him every time and it honestly made it worse. But every now and then, he was too drunk and she could get away with fighting him off without drawing too much attention to her fighting skills so it was a fight she tried every time. 
She could have fought him off every time if she was honest. But she knew doing it would have made it worse. He would have drugged her and gone after Leo. She didn't want that so she'd made herself the target as long as Leo was safe she would be fine. 

She stood under the water for a long time trying to get the soreness of her body and the horror in her soul washed away. By the time she got out of the shower the clock read 6.15 AM. 
She quickly got dressed and then went in to wake up Leo. 
After Leo left, she took out all the cash she had hidden in her backpack, put a hundred dollars into her back pocket and hid the stacks of money she took from Thomas inside the two boxes of feminine products she had. Half with her tampons, half with her pads. She figured a bunch of boys probably wouldn't look in there should they look while she was out on this forced shopping fest with her father. 
She hid what she had earned inside one of her hoodies she left in the closet. 
Not long after Leo came back into her room and they sat in a comfortable silence until their father came and got them. 

Following behind their father down the stairs and through the mansion the faint chatter became louder and louder until it went completely silent when they finally stepped into a room with a large table with a lot of people seated around it. All eyes were trained on Alexia and Leo. Some sent smiles their way, some looked curious, most looked indifferent and some were scowling. 
"Alexia, Leo come sit." Their father said as he pointed to two chairs next to him and a man that looked almost identical to him. Looking around, it was easy to see everyone here were related. 7 of the people in here had red-ish hair while the 6 she assumed were their brothers had a mix of brown shades with the exception of one who had dyed his hair blue. The 7 with red-ish hair looked roughly the same age as her assumed brothers so she figured they got their hair color from their mother. 
Alexia and Leo took their seats. 
"Boys introduce yourself. Names and ages oldest to youngest. Brothers first." Their father said. 
"Lorenzo, 25." 
"Hi, I'm Matteo. I'm 23. Welcome home." The guy sitting next Alexia said. He had a bright smile on his face and seemed like one of the few friendly ones. 
"I'm Luca, I'm 21." The guy across from Matteo said. 
"I'm Santino, but you can call me Tino if you want." The guy with blue hair said excitedly. "I'm 19." 
"I'm Dante and that is Riccardo." Said one of the identical twins at the other end of the table. "We're both almost 18." He said and scowled at her just as much as Riccardo had done the whole time. 
"Ignore the grouches." Said the man that looked a lot like their father. "I am your uncle Alessandro. I am your fathers twin brother." He said smiling at the two of them as well. 
He seemed less cold than their father did. "Your turn boys. Same order." Alessandro said. 
"I'm Stefano. I am also 25 like Lorenzo." Said the oldest of the guys with red-ish hair. 
"I'm Marco. I'm 24." Said the man sitting next to Matteo. 
"Emilio, 21." He smiled at them like Marco did. Stefano had been indifferent like Lorenzo.
"Giovanni, 20." He was more concerned with this phone than anything else it seemed.
"I'm Antonio, I'm 18." A boy sitting with the twins said. The last boy with the twins remained silent while scowling mostly at Alexia. She didn't know what she'd done wrong but clearly those four boys had something against her. She'd ignore them as long as they left Leo alone. 
"Nico!" Warned Alessandro coldly.
"Nico, 17." He said shortly, still scowling at Alexia like it was her fault. 
Then a boy next to Alessandro spoke up and waved. 
"Hi.. I'm Marcello. I am 10 years old!" He said excitedly looking at Leo. "I'm happy to finally have someone my age to play with!" He exclaimed. 
"Those are technically your cousins but we're a close family so they are basically like your brothers." Alessandro explained. 
Lovely. Alexia thought. 14 brothers.. That should be a lot of fun.. Not.. 
"We also have an older brother, Gabriel." Alessandro continued to explain. "He and his wife Aria has five boys as well."
Five more? So a total of 19 brothers? Oh yay... 
Alexia just nodded, there wasn't much she could say to that. 
"You will meet them later along with your grandparents. They are all in Italy for business right now." He said. 
"Introduce yourselves." Their father said looking at Alexia and Leo. He sounded cold and annoyed. 
"Alexia, 15." Alexia said glancing at Leo wondering if he would say anything himself or if she had to introduce him. 
20 seconds passed and he was still frozen. 
She silently sighed. 
"His name is Leo, he is 11." She said. 

"Can we eat now? Some of us still have to go to school." Riccardo sneered. 
"Riccardo!" Their father warned.
"Am I wrong? We have to leave in 20 minutes if we want to get to school on time." He replied back. 
Alexia bite her tongue. She'd have taken a hell of a beating for talking back like that if it had been Thomas but Riccardo clearly looked comfortable talking back like that. 
"Like you actually care about being on time." Luca commented. 
Their father sighed. "Lets eat." 
Everyone instantly reached out to grab something. Only Alexia and Leo didn't react right away. Leo looked at her. 
She looked at him and smiled, nodding at him to go ahead and take whatever he wanted. 
He reached out for a pancake. Something he didn't get often because Thomas hated it so Alexia never made it. Leo loved pancakes but only got them for special occasions like his birthdays or celebrate an achievements from school. He looked longingly  at the bacon and fresh fruit that was out of his reach so Alexia grabbed the plate of bacon for him before letting him grab his own. 
"No more than you know you'll eat." She whispered to him. 
He grabbed 4 big pieces before putting the tongs down again. Alexia switched the plate for the bowl of fresh fruit and again let him grab his own. 
He took one big scoop. 
Alexia took 2 small scoops while she had it and then reached for the one thing no one else had grabbed so far. 
The yogurt. She scooped a little into her bowl and spotted a tray of various nuts and seeds. She added a little of everything to her yogurt she then slowly started eating it, very aware of all the eyes on her. She switched between taking bites of her yogurt and bites of the cut fruit. The banana and strawberries were particularly good. 
Leo went for seconds before Alexia was even half way done with her yogurt. She poured herself a glass of water and reached into her pocket for a small orange pill. 
Very discreetly she placed it in her mouth with the cover of a cough, then she took a drink of her water and swallowed the pill. She felt pretty confident no one had noticed until she noticed Matteo frowning at her out of the corner of her eye. 
She looked at him questioningly and he looked pointedly at her, then down at her pocket, then back at her mouth. 
Okay, so he had noticed something. Question was. How much.
Before either of them could say anything about the matter their father broke the quiet chatter. 
"There are some rules you two should know." He started, looking at Leo and Alexia. 
Alexia was happy for the interruption. 
"Rule number 1. My office, Alessandro's office as well as Lorenzo and Stefano's offices are all off limits without permission." He stated firmly. "Meaning, unless you've been asked to go there or you need one of us for something important don't come. And if you must, always knock and never enter without permission." He said sternly and Alexia felt a shiver of fear run through her body. 
She made a note to herself to never go looking for them unless he called for her, which at this point she wasn't sure they would. Neither of them seemed too keen on her at all. 
"Rule number 2." He continued. "Neither of you can leave the house without one of us. Or at least letting one of us know." He said. 
Alexia slightly frowned at that. So they were basically prisoners inside a mansion. He was more restrictive than Thomas had been. She wasn't sure this was shaping up to be much better than the situation they'd been in before. The hostility here was parable and there were more here. And they were all bigger and honestly looked stronger than Thomas. Definitely stronger than Kiara. 
"Rule 3." He said, this time glancing at Leo but mostly looking at Alexia than at Leo. "You will listen and respect your brothers." 
Alexia's eye twitched. Yeah, that one was most definitely said for her benefit and she couldn't help herself. 
"Right," She said sarcastically. "Because that clearly applies to everyone." She said now looking at her father with a challenging look in her eyes. At this moment she didn't care. There wasn't anything he could do to her that wouldn't break her more than she already was. Regardless of what punishment he'd deal out chances were, it had already been done. 
The table went completely quiet now. 
"And what is that suppose to mean Alexia?" He asked, sounding cold. 
"Exactly what I said." She replied then took a hold of Matteos left hand and twisted it without hurting him and took a look at his fancy super expensive Rolex before letting go and looking back at her father. 
"23 minutes ago Leo and I walked into this room, outside of the introductions they were forced to do five of them," She said sweeping her arm around the table towards all her so called brothers. "have completely ignored both of us and I guarantee at least four of them wouldn't have said a word if the two if you hadn't ordered them to say their name and age. Meanwhile four of them." She points down to the band of scowlers at the other end of the table. "Has done nothing but send me nasty looks and mutter crap about me as if I killed their pet goldfish." She continued. "And either you're all deaf as hell." She looked around at every single person at the table. "Or you're okay with the shit they are spewing out of their mouthes." 
She looked back at her father. 
"So tell me, Leonardo. Why should I listen and respect a bunch of people that doesn't have the decency to do the same?"