44 parts Ongoing MatureMy name is Antonia and I am 16 years old. Until recently, my life was a hell that I didn't think I would ever get out of. My father... not only would he yell at me, but he would raise his hand without hesitation, whenever he had a reason - or even when he didn't. My mother? Just as guilty, but in a different way. Her words tore me apart worse than any blow. I lived for years believing that this was my life, that this was what I deserved.
Then, one day, everything changed. A black car, strangers who knew my name, my story. They told me that these people - the ones who had destroyed me - weren't even my parents. My real family had been looking for me for years. Arthur and Teresa Rosetti, the leaders of a world I had only heard stories about, are my biological parents. And now I find myself here, in their midst.
I have six siblings. Six strangers who, although they share my blood, seem inscrutable. Everyone is different. Some are strict, rigid, as if my every move is a test. Others seem gentler, but something in their eyes keeps me at a distance. And some are simply cold... and even harsh. They look at me with envy, as if they don't know what to do with me, as if I'm an extra problem they didn't want. And... my twin. Yes, my twin. It still seems hard to believe. I've always felt a void he couldn't explain, an absence that gnaws at me. Now that I'm here, next to him, that void has been filled.
But they don't know me. They think I had an ordinary past, that I'm a simple girl, maybe just a little disoriented by change. They don't know what I've been through, they don't know about the wounds I hide under my long sleeves and forced smiles. My trauma is a secret, and the hell I went through is something I can't tell them yet.
And me? I'm caught between the fear of opening up and the desire to understand them. I'm Antonia Rosetti, a girl trying to leave hell behind, but who still doesn't know how to live in the light.
