Their Sister, Their Strength (Old)

Chapter 1 - Little Sister

(A/N: Welcome! Just a quick note from me to say please give this book a try💕 The chapters and writing improve noticeably by Ch. 15 ish and of course there is significant character development for all! Lots of love and welcome to the family🥰)

I was sat on my suitcase at the train station waiting for one of my new family members to come and pick me up after an extremely exhausting day. I was now a thirteen-year-old orphan and just six hours earlier, I had found out that my whole life had been changed forever.

My school counsellor, Luke, had taken me out of class to inform me that my step-father Dominic had committed suicide the night before. Dominic was in Italy on a trip and had been away for five days leaving me home alone. That wasn't unusual since mum died. I preferred it when he was away on trips, it meant that he couldn't hurt me or blame me for mum's death as usual.

I didn't cry when Luke sat me down in his office and told me. Instead, I felt this horrible rush of relief that he could no longer hurt me and that just made me hate myself for being so heartless. I wondered why he had committed suicide and couldn't help the thoughts that crept into my mind that perhaps it was my fault, after all, mum's death was my fault.

A couple of weeks after mum died, Luke was employed as the part-time school counsellor. That was nine months ago. Since then, I would talk to him once a week and he became like a big brother to me.

I think he was slightly concerned about my lack of emotional response to my step-father's death.

The sad truth was that my real step-father died nine months ago with mum, Dominic was just an abusive shell of the man he used to be.

Luke informed me that I would now be living with my older brothers who had agreed to take me in. My six older brothers. My six older brothers that I had no idea existed until that morning. He seemed to know a lot more about my own family history than I did. In fact, he seemed to know a lot about my brothers.

A social worker had come to collect me from school and help me pack my bags, which were embarrassingly rather empty. She had put me on a train and told me that my eldest brother and new guardian, Mason Costello, would collect me at the station on the other side. She had told me that my new home had already been reviewed by social services and that I was very lucky to be living in such a lovely, new home with six brothers who were willing to look after me.

I really didn't like her.

I was waiting at the train station on the other side for at least 30 minutes. The social worker told me one of my brothers would be here, what she didn't do was give me their numbers so I had no way of getting in touch with them. Great.

Suddenly, I heard my phone ping in my bag. I looked down at the text notification from an unknown number:

Our driver is collecting you, Madison. His name is Jackson, picking you up in 10.

Our driver? My brothers had a driver? How rich were they?

I couldn't help the slight disappointment that one of my six brothers couldn't have collected me. I was warned by Luke that my brothers had very busy lives, so it was to be expected. Apparently, they ran their own family business.

I replied with a quick: Thank you, is this Mason?

I picked up my light suitcase and waited for the taxi outside, it was pretty cold and it looked like there was a storm brewing outside.

I took out my phone to see if I had a reply from my brother but it wouldn't turn on. It was out of charge. I cursed silently for playing games with it on the train and prayed I wouldn't get into any difficulties getting to my brother's house.