Chiara Daveys is living a good life in England - if you ignore her constant struggle with food, lack of a guardian and how she's constantly working to pay the bills.
At 17 years old, she's been unaware of her 6 brothers who have spent the 14 years o...
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I make my way down the stairs, clutching my keys in my hand. I'm walking towards the door on autopilot when I notice a handbag and shoes by the door. I thought she was at school.
I walk backwards so I can see inside of the living room and find Chiara curled up on the sofa with Roland near her.
"You okay, kid?" I ask her.
"You're only two years and a bit older. I'm hardly a kid," she mumbles.
That's not an answer.
"I thought you were going back to school today?" I approach gently.
She shrugs and continues looking at Roland, "yeah, that didn't exactly work out."
"That's okay."
She purses her lips and nods.
"Where's Giovanni, I assume he wouldn't leave you here alone?"
She finally looks up at me, "He didn't. You're here," she rolls her eyes.
"He seriously put me on babysitting duty without asking me?" I raise a brow.
"I'm not a kid, Taylor," she speaks with an aggravated tone before taking a breath, "he was going to stay with me but someone called just after we got here and he immediately left. Work stuff."
I nod my head and sigh. Fuck. I was meant to be meeting up with Kieran.
She looks at my hands which are messing around with my keys, "you don't have to stay."
I shake my head but don't respond.
"Do you want to meet him?" I blurt out.
She looks up at me, "Meet...Your boyfriend?"
"Yeah," I nod stiffly, "he's been waiting to meet my family. I can ask him to come round."
"That'd be nice," she smiles.
Soon enough, my nerves are sky-rocketing and there's a knock on the door. Chiara looks up at me expectantly so I inhale deeply and get up to let Kieran in.
He's looking around the doorway, wide-eyed before his gaze flits over to me, "hey, babe, I didn't know you lived in a mansion."
I manage to crack a smile, "what can I say? I'm humble."
He raises a brow but grins and leans in, pressing his lips to mine. I groan and move to deepen the kiss when he pulls away with a smile, "so am I coming in, or what?"
Okay, so the nerves are back.
I turn around to lead him in when I see Chiara's head poking out from behind the wall.
"Hello! I'm Taylor's sister," she bounces over.
Kieran is looking over with eyes even wider than they were before - I left out the detail that he'd be meeting Chiara.
"I've heard all about you!" He recovers from his shock and smiles so unbelievably bright.
"Roland!" Chiara half-heartedly scolds her dog when he gets over-excited by the doorway.
"Hey, boy," Kieran gives the dog the attention it was begging for.
Okay, not going bad at all.
After we go into the living room, Chiara insists on offering Kieran a tea, my nerves slowly start to unwind. I watch an observe as my boyfriend interacts with my little sister so effortlessly. It feels natural, normal.
I get so comfortable that time seems to slip away. So much so that all our other family members come home.
I hear the door unlock, overlapping voices getting louder, and I tense up again.
Oh, fuck.
Lorenzo is the first to come into the room, and barely spares a glance at Kieran, moving right over to the sofa where Chiara is.
"Wait," he speaks up after sitting down, looking over at my boyfriend, "who's this?"
Almost as if as planned, Giovanni, Harry, Emilio and Noah all come into the room. Their glances all go over to Kieran, other than Giovanni. Giovanni is looking at me.
I wipe my sweaty palms against my joggers.
"Uh, guys," I rub the back of my neck and can feel my face getting hot, "Guys, this is Kieran."
I look over and Kieran is looking at me with lips pursed and disappointed eyes. I inhale deeply.
"Kieran is my boyfriend."
Silence. Oh, God.
I try my chances at looking up, finding most of my brother's with mouths agape. I don't pay any attention to them and solely focus on Giovanni; who's looking at me softly.
What the fuck?
I keep taking deep breaths as the silence stretches.
"I can go if you want?" Kieran breaks it.
"No!" I say, as well as Emilio.
"I need to know everything about you and how you started dating my brother!" Emilio exclaims, "oh my God, this is great! What's your favourite colour. Star sign? Number you feel spiritually attached to?"
"Emilio, slow down," Giovanni scolds gently, "Kieran, no need to go. Stay and have dinner with us. "
I look over to Kieran who's already looking at me. I nod my head, mentally chanting: 'please, please, please please.'
He looks up at Giovanni, "that's very kind of you. Thank you."
Giovanni nods and leaves the room. I take my chance whilst everyone is talking to Kieran and go to follow.
Giovanni turns around and faces me as I enter the kitchen.
"Come here, Bambino," he opens his arms.
Without thought, I hug him back. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was scared and I didn't know -"
