Elegance with Expense

14. Broken Candle

TW- Mentions and details of abuse and assault.

I didn't know if the video was the one I was thinking about, I could only hope that it wasn't. I cautiously made my way over to Vincent's laptop and peered over to see the small screen. He had opened an email which had a video attached along with a short paragraph. He tilted the laptop my way so that I had a clear view of the message. It stated that only I knew the password for this pin protected video. They wrote it normally so that any regular person could read it, however I knew how these people thought, I could see the coded words that were embedded into the text. It was one of those videos that they took in London, the videos that I hoped it wouldn't be, It wasn't the same one that I was sent back in London, this one was longer. I put my finger on the keypad and directed the curser to the black screen, I clicked on it, but it only came up with a request for a password which consisted of 6 letters, there was only one password that it could be. But there was no way that whoever sent this email could know that. I told no one that password, not even Izzy.

I stepped away from the screen and started moving backwards until I bumped into a wall. That wall turned out to be Rocco. Wait, when did he get here?

I only now noticed that everyone else had joined us, I turned to face Rocco who had an American football under his arm which answered my unasked question as to why some of them were sweating. I attempted to move away from him but he placed a hand on my un-injured shoulder, holding me still.

'What's got you so worked up?' He asked from behind.

'N-nothing.' I breathed out. That was the first time I had ever stumbled over my words.

'Alessa, your shaking.' He told me, this time, the slightest bit of worry showed through his voice.

'No I'm not.' I argued knowing very well that I was wrong. I felt myself getting more and more on edge by the second. I did not want to be in this room anymore.

'What is on this video?' Armani asked but it felt more like a demand to know.

'Less?' Lorenzo calmly got my attention as he put down his half empty water bottle on the counter. I saw Juliet coming for me, she reached her arms out and took my shaking hands into her steady ones. I was still against Rocco so I truly had no escape now.

'Honey, whatever is on this video is nothing we can't handle. We are your family.' She gently reminded me as she gave my hands a tight reassuring squeeze.

'It's me who can't handle this.' I muttered looking up into her eyes.

'We can help you.' Maria spoke up from across the room.

'I don't need help; I've dealt with it on my own for all this time.' I saw sadness in Juliet's eyes as she opened her mouth to speak, but Dante beat her to it.

'Whatever is on that video can't be that bad.' Juliet's head snapped in his direction so quickly that I was surprised her neck didn't break. I saw everyone else in the room giving him a death stare.

'What the hell man! You can see that she is clearly anxious about this. When have you ever seen her troubled about anything?' Lorenzo exclaimed to his twin.

'I'm just saying, it could be something stupid, like a video of her getting drunk with her friends that she doesn't want us to find out about.' He shrugged. Does he really think that lowly of me?

'I don't want you to see the video.'

'See, this is the problem. She works herself up, along with making everyone else worried for no reason at all.' He reasoned loudly pointing a hand in my direction.