New Life

Chapter 3

Allison's Pov-

I slowly open my eyes, just to see the face of Aiden, staring down at me.

"Ah!" I yelp and I scramble away from him.

He bursts out laughing at my reaction, and eventually I just join in.

"Okay, okay, sorry. But I just came up to call you down for dinner. Ha, see what I did there, up- down for din- eh, nevermind."

I nod,
"Um, but I negotiate use the restroom first. You can like waitout here for me I guess."

He nods and I make my way to the bathroom. The painkillers that I took while being on the plane have now worn off and my ribs, head, and leg are hurting a lot.

I grab my painkillers from my bag and I take 3, in hopes it'll work fast, before I have to walk down those stairs without limping, at least not obviously.

Going up the stairs and during that tour of the mansion, my leg was literally screaming at me, but I will not let anyone find out about the abuse. It's in the past anyways, right?

I leave the bathroom and Aiden is right where he was before, he nods at me.

I nod back, and follow him out of my room. He leads me all the way downstairs and to the door of the dining room, when he shoves the doors open so the hit the wall with a loud- Bang! Which inadvertently causes me to flinch. I really hope no one noticed.

"Aideeeen, not the wall... again." Nate groans.

Whew.

Looking around at the seating I need to decide where to sit, but there's only 1 empty seat, between Owen and David and across from Logan, 2 who I think don't like me, and one who does. Yay.

The seating order goes like this, James at the head of the table, the on his right there is Nate, then next to Nate is Aiden, and next to Aiden is Owen, then next to Owen is an empty seat, probably for me.

And then on James's left hand it's Michael, and next to Michael is Ethan, and next to Ethan is Logan. And finally at the other end of the table, it's David.

I slowly shuffle over to my seat and when I sit down, Michael glares at me. Yep, he definitely doesn't like me.

Just then, some maids walk on, carrying plates of pasta.

I thank the maid for the food when she sets it in front of me, she nods in response but she scurries away before I can even ask her her name.

At the other house, I was rarely able to eat, even if food was placed in front of me, I would get beat.

But for some reason, part of me trusts these guys, though I haven't known them for long.

Well, maybe trust is the wrong word. But I believe that they wouldn't beat me for something as simple as eating. Because I also know that in the world there are definitely people like Arron, but there are also people like my mother, the best and sweetest woman ever.

So, once everyone else dug in, I also did. Mmmm...

This is so gooood...

The savory cause with the warm meatballs. I don't know what it's called but I am definitely finding the recipe for it.

Sadly, because of my... upbringing, I have quite a small appetite and not even halfway done I can feel my stomach bulging. So I slow down my food consumption, but I don't stop, because thag would be suspicious.

Just then, as I was trying to give myself a pep talk to eat another bite, someone clears their throat.

I look up and I see James staring at me,
"Allison, I would just like to ask you to join me in my office after you're done, just so we can go over a few things."