The Brothers' Desire [Complete First Draft-Unedited]

Chapter Three (First draft-Unedited)

Charlie's POV

"How come you never mentioned having a daughter before now?!"  Maria Sorrentino, the older of the two Sorrentino daughters, questioned me.  She aimed an incredulous and accusing glare between my wife and I.

"She doesn't live here. She has a life in California. We haven't seen her since the day she left." I calmly replied, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.  I place my hands in my lap to hide the nervous tapping of my fingers on the table that I catch myself doing, unsure of exactly how long I've been doing so.  Looking back up at Maria, "I didn't think it would be important to disclose such matters." I'm quite bold as I deliver my statement.  I know how her father is about leaving information out.  It is the same as lying to him, and I'm pretty much admitting I chose to do so.  I sigh loudly, wishing Armando's daughter would just shut up.

"Well that doesn't mean you should act like she doesn't exist.  With as much as our families are around each other, I would've never guessed you had any other children," Maria crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head as if she was disgusted as much as she was in disbelief, "Just Luca." She finished.

I drag a hand down my face in exasperation, "I know.  And honestly I removed traces of her existing in our home so that if the Russians ever got in, they wouldn't see her pictures up and go looking for her.  I wanted to protect her from this lifestyle we got involved with because she's my baby and not built for this.  As much as it hurt us to push her away and cease almost all contact, I knew it would mean a better chance of a safer life for her.  I just never expected someone would be trying to kill her such as they have tonight."  It is true.  I lied to protect her but now it seems it was all just borrowed time. 

I grabbed my phone and booked two plane tickets for the morning for San Diego, excused myself from the meeting for tonight and packed a small bag to take with us. Hopefully this won't inconvenience everyone and it doesn't take too long.

Little does Amaris know, she's coming back home. I will not take no for an answer from her, it's settled.

Amaris's POV

I wake up feeling my vital signs being taken. The throbbing in my head doesn't feel as intense this time upon waking at least. "Can I talk to someone about the accident and what's going to happen? I just remember a truck hitting us then waking up here. I know my head has been injured by the way it hurts, can someone tell me if I have extensive injuries? Please?" I beg my aide with what I hope is a pleading look in my eyes.

She looks at me with a soft but pitying smile.  "Well you have a concussion, a laceration over the right side of your mouth that didn't require stitches thankfully, however, it did slice your top and bottom lip in a straight line above the your lips and through your lips a little bit.  That should heal up just fine.  You also have a laceration on the left side of her chin which did require stitches. At first you weren't responsive for quite some time and the doctors feared your head injury was worse than initially diagnosed. They did further scans and saw there wasn't any injuries that were overlooked or anything. Now, Mrs. Hamilton-"

"Miss Romano again, actually, please." I interrupted.

"Miss Romano," she continued, looking at me a little curiously, "Your parents are your emergency contacts and we had no success contacting them, however we were able to contact your brother.  So just letting you know,  your family is aware.

"Oh, isn't that just fantastic...." the words fell sarcastically out of my mouth before I realized it. Sighing loudly with frustration, I decide it's time to text my brother.  Maybe he will even respond to me this time.