The Shadows

Chapter Forty

When Angleo came through the door of Annabella's temporary room, no one thought he would say what he did.

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"It's Armani. He woke up!" Angleo said, sort of out of breath as he ran all the way here. He was excited that one of the twins had woken up and appeared fine.

All of the family shared his excitement except Adriano and father.

It is not like they didn't love Armani, because they truly did, but it was the fact everyone seemed to forget about Annabella who had suffered a far more traumatic experience than anyone could think of.

As they all rushed out, Adriano stayed with Annabella for a little bit longer. He needed to get some things off of his chest without anyone else in the room who could say anything back to him.

"I know you probably can't hear anything I am saying, but I need to let all of this out, and since I can't go to the gym right now, talking to you will have to do." He said as he started off his rant.

Sighing, he continued. "It feels like I am losing you all over again. When you were born, I was the first to hold you. I wouldn't let anyone else near you." Adriano chuckled, recalling one of the few happy moments of his life.

"I wouldn't even let dad or mom hold you, which looking back I should have. Mom never goes to hold her baby again. Neither did dad." He said in despair, wanting to go back in time and change every choice he had made.

As he was ranting, Adriano hadn't noticed that his dad was still in the room. He had heard everything, and came to comfort him in one of his rare moments of weakness.

"Son, I know how much this is truly affecting you, but you need to know that I don't blame you for not letting me or your mother hold her more that day. You deserved to hold your baby sister too." Dad told Adriano as he gave him a much needed hug.

After that hug, they talked for a couple more minutes. When they had finished talking, they stood up and started to walk towards Armani's room to see what was going on in there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Armani knew that something was wrong with his twin, and that she needed him.

The only problem was that he was still stuck in endless darkness.

He kept trying to open his eyes, which would usually be a fairly easy task, but his eyelids felt as if they had been cemented together.

As Armani kept trying, he could feel his fingers twitch from the exertion of him trying to pull himself out of the void he was in.

Whoever was in the room with him must have seen it also, as they had gasped.

Ignoring them, Armani kept trying, and to his surprise, he had succeeded.

He had finally opened his eyes.

He groaned from the bright lights that were in his room, because his eyes were not used to them just yet.

The person in the room noticed this and went to dim them. Once everything was dimmed, Armani opened his eyes fully once again, blinking repeatedly to make his vision less blurry.

Glancing around the room, he saw that it was Angleo in the room with him.

Angelo saw him looking towards him, and smiled at him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, brother." He said, while chuckling a little bit.

Armani smiled back at him before turning serious.

"Where is everyone else?" he questioned Angelo.

"Oh! I'll go get the boys" He stated quickly, running out of the room before Armani could question him on why he didn't include Annabella in that sentence.

He sighed, knowing that he wouldn't get an answer until everyone else arrived here to see him actually awake.

As he waited for everyone to come bless him with their presence, Armani took a look around the room that he had been staying in. It was your normal hospital room.

Plain blank white walls that make you go crazy.

Beeping machines that make you want to cry.

Thin blankets that do nothing to keep out the cold of the hospital.

Disgusting food.

The usual.

Armani was brought out of his thoughts when his brothers burst through the door to this dreadful room. They all raced over to him and started to ask him questions about how he had felt, but he paid no mind to them. Armani only wanted to know what had happened to Annabella.

"Where is Annabella," he had asked as soon as he got everyone to calm down and stop badgering him with questions.

All of them immediately looked away with a guilty and sad look on their faces.

It was then that Armani knew something bad had happened to his twin. He wouldn't stop questioning them until he knew what had happened to her. Anyone who messed with her messed with him too.

"Armani, when the car wrecked and I guess you passed out, she was taken by the Russians and their allies." Antonio said in a somber tone, not wanting to risk upsetting him.

Armani let out a deep breath before speaking again. "Okay, so what happened to her? Is she okay?" He said in a deathly calm voice, to show that he wasn't messing around.

"We don't know what happened in the place she was at, but she came out pretty banged up. She had to have emergency surgery. Right now she is in recovery. Dad and Adriano stayed back with her I think." Alessandro told him.

That was a lot for him to take in this soon after waking up. Armani knew, however, that she was going to get hell from him and their family though, so he put any thoughts involving that into the back of his mind and instead focused on what his brothers were talking about.

It felt good to be back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Samuel sat in his office after his darling's brothers had broken into the warehouse they were keeping her in, and got her back, he was thinking about how to get her back.

'They may have gotten you back this time, love, but I will be back to get you.' Samuel thought to himself.