Trusting My Brothers

Chapter 18

After working out until I am exhausted, I go back to my room and take a shower. Deciding that I didn't want to deal with my brothers tonight, I go straight to bed and feel myself get pulled into a nightmare. 

Five Months ago

No, no. I can't believe I am running late. Nate is going to kill me. I run as fast as I could, my injuries limiting me a little. It is already 6:00pm and my curfew is 5:00. I finally make it back, but see that there are multiple cars in our driveway. Oh no. I try to sneakily walk in, but don't make even two steps before I feel myself get pulled back. "Now where do you think you are going slut?" Nate said.

"N-no where." I stuttered.

"Now I think you deserve a punishment. You were fucking late and lying. I think my friends might want a turn as well." He calls over all six of his friends. This is going to be hell.

Nate starts punching my stomach, which still hasn't healed from the last beating. I try to contain my screams and cries of pain, knowing that if I make a sound, it will just be worse. He continues punching the same area for a while and then grabs a knife, cutting along my hip. I bite my lip so hard that it starts bleeding. 

Then it's his friends turn. One by one, they would punch, kick, use the knife. It was becoming harder and harder to contain my cries. I see Chris, one of the worst of Nate's friends, coming towards me. He started doing the same as the others, but then I feel his hands start to wander.

"S-stop. Please." I cried.

"I don't think so. You are just a fucking whore." he said.

I start to try to fight him off, but am not making any progress. I turn to the right to see my mom staring at me with an evil smirk. Turning back to him, I notice that he is starting to unbuckle his pants. That is when I lose it.

"Get off of me! Ahhh!" I screamed, trying to push him off. The other guys try to hold my arms down, but I just punch them. 

I continue to scream, but then hear someone calling out to me. "Liliana! Wake Up!"

Opening my eyes, I see all of my brothers surrounding me. Rubbing my eyes, I notice that I had tears running down my face. Quickly wiping them away, I wait for one of my brothers to say something. 

"What the HELL was that?" asked Luca.

"Nothing. It was just a nightmare. You guys can go back to bed. I'm fine."

Savio says, "There is no way that that was just a fucking nightmare. You started screaming like there was no tomorrow. What happened?"

"I just told you, nothing. The nightmare was probably caused by stress or something." I said.

"Just tell of the truth, Bambina. We want to help you." said Nico in a sincere tone.

Then I lost it for like the third time in 24 hours. "Are you fucking kidding me? You want to help me. Well I sure as hell don't need your help. You guys have treated me like shit ever since I arrived and you think that I am going to open up just like that? You have never given me a reason to trust you, especially you Matteo. All you do is call me names and none of you know what I had to go through in the past, so just shut up."

Lorenzo said in a calming voice, "You are right. We have treated you poorly and we are sorry. You are our little sister and even though we don't show it, we do love you. All of us have trouble expressing our emotions, especially because of what we went through as kids. Let us help you so you don't turn out like us, broken."

I can't believe he apologized and said all of that, though when he said that last sentence, I laugh humorlessly.

"You don't understand. It is already too late for me; I'm already broken." I say, a few tears leaking out the corner of my eye.

Lorenzo walks to me and wipes the tears away. "You need to tell us what happened. Maybe it will help you, talking to someone about it."

After thinking for a moment and looking at everyones sad face, I decide to tell them a part of my story. "Ever since I was five, my mom would...neglect me. That is why I don't have a big appetite, since I never had three meals a day. She would date the wrong people and would leave days at a time, so I had to fend for myself. Then when I was ten, mom started dating my stepdad, Nate. He and mom would mentally abuse me, him worse than her. It is part of the reason why I was so upset when Matteo called me a slut, they would call me that on a daily basis. I told you that Liam and Michael are my best friends and they knew about my parents neglect. That is the reason why no matter what, I will always be friends with them, because they were the first people I trusted in a long time. And that's pretty much it." There were tears trickling down my face. People would wonder why I told them all of this and the reason was because I could tell that they felt bad.

There was a couple minutes of silence before someone spoke up. "Why do I feel like you aren't telling us something?" Asked Matteo in a surprisingly soothing voice.

I say in a taunting voice, "Maybe there is. But you will have to gain my trust to learn what it is."

"Thank you for at least telling us a part of it. Don't forget, we love you sorellina. Even if we don't show it most of the time." said Fabiano.

"Your welcome. And don't look at me with pity. Treat as you would have before, just try not to be as mean or rude. Wait, how were you guys treated when you were younger?"

None of them speak. Well if I opened up, they would have to as well.

"Dad would neglect us as well, always working or sleeping with women. I had to learn to take care of the boys and eventually, Savio started to help. Dad never did anything except train us for the family business. None of us had the love from our father and that hurt us, knowing that we weren't good enough." Lorenzo says.

"I'm sorry for what you went through." I said.

"It's okay, Bambina, Why don't you try to get some sleep? You can take tomorrow off from school."

"Okay. Thank you. And can someone stay with me tonight?" I felt silly asking, but I knew I wouldn't get any sleep unless I knew I was safe.

"I will stay with you." said Fabiano.

I nod in thanks and he starts climbing in my bed. We say our goodnights and my brothers turn the light off and leave. Setting my head on the pillow, I fall asleep with a small smile on my face.