Cold as Stone

45

I walked through the restaurant, my head held high. A waiter came over to me.

"Moretti." I say, annoyed. They instantly tense up and I follow them to the table. I saw my entire siblings and dad sitting down. I tensed up but sat down. Everybody looked at me in disbelief.

"Addison. You said you couldn't make it." Dad says, making me look at him.

"I said maybe. My schedule was busy but you sounded serious so here I am. Now why exactly am I here?" I ask, confused.

"You knew where she's been for the past year!" Adrian gritted out. He sighs.

"You look fantastic, Addison." Marcus says, making me smile at him.

"You left. You straight up and left."

"I had my reasons." I say, shrugging. "I texted and called, did I not?"

"Yeah but that's not the same as in seeing you in person." Darius says, coldly. I rolled my eyes.

"Are you planning on lecturing me? I was safe. Besides, if anything did happen, dad would get notified immediately. Then you guys would come to my rescue. Simple as that."

"You've been gone for a year."

"It was supposed to be two but it's alright. Plans changed."

"Two fucking years?" Chase gritted out.

"Look, I had something to take care of. I didn't need you guys getting in the way of me doing that. Not that you guys were but I knew you guys would try to help. I had to do that by myself."

"Then why not come home after you did whatever you did?" I tensed up and so did dad.

"Because."

"You knew where she was, didn't you?" Leo says, looking at dad. I knew they were mad at him.

"Yes. He knew where I was. You can't get mad at him for that. I told him to not tell you guys. I was safe and dad knew I was safe. If you want to get mad at someone, then get mad at me. Not dad." Adrian let out a breath.

"You look different. Good different. Like you're happy. Are you happy?" I smile at him.

"Yeah, I am. More than happy." They nod.

"That's good." Darius whispers, making me smile at him. I then looked at dad who had tears in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Chase asks, softly. He shakes his head.

"Nothing. Nothing. Just glad that my kids are back together again even if it's for a short amount of time." Darius looked at him weird.

"Why are we having dinner, dad? You don't like eating out that much. If it is, it's only for something important." He sighs and looks away from us.

"I-I have cancer." Everybody tensed up. "I start treatment soon. I'm only in stage 1. They caught it early."

"What?" I ask, hoping that I heard him wrong. "You're dying? Like literally dying?"

"He's not dying, Addison. You're not dying, right?" Adrian asks, looking at dad.

"I have lung cancer." He whispers.

"You- Oh God." Marcus says, freaking out.

"I-I gotta go." I whisper, tears welling up in my eyes. Everybody looked at me.

"Addison-" Dad starts but I shake my head. I stood up.

"I'll see you guys later, alright?" I didn't wait for them to say anything before I left.

Tears started falling down my face before I even made it out of the restaurant. I got into my car.

"Penthouse." I whispered, before leaning my head against the window.

Dante's pov

We all watched as Addison left with tears streaming down her face. They looked back at me and I sighed.

"Why'd she leave? Will she come back?" Adrian asks, afraid that his twin will disappear again.

"She won't leave town. She's just hurting." I say, looking at them.

"Why? I mean, I get that you're hurting but why is she hurting exactly? I mean, I get why she's hurt. You're not dying, are you? Because that would fucking suck." Adrian said.

"Things have been hard for her for the past year. I know she's going to get mad at me for saying this but it would come out sooner or later. The reason why she left was because Ryan was back. Yes, I know she said he was dead but she didn't watch him die directly. She never thought that his girlfriend who shot her would nurture him back to life." They tensed up. "Don't worry, he's dead now. Well he should be dead considering he bled out from 7 gunshot wounds. Two in his legs and arms, then one in his torso, another one in the heart then the final one in his head."

"She killed him? That's overkill but I get it. I would do the same too." Darius says, chuckling a bit. They looked at him then back at me.

"He contacted her at the first race that you took her to Chase. He then contacted her at the second race by sending a picture with Ashlyn and him. A recent photo. At the fight, he took her and she saw Ashlyn with her own eyes."

"What happened?" I let out a breath.

"The thing she was fighting for that day was the password to a code called 'virus'. It's basically a code that you can find anybody anywhere. Even if they aren't in the system. Addison didn't know where Ryan was keeping Ashlyn. When she came home, she tried finding him. He disappeared. He popped back up a few days later in Russia. His home town. She wasn't about to go. He showed up in Cali a few weeks later and that's when she left. She wanted to kill him right then and there but he threatened Ashlyn."

"Oh fuck." Chase mumbles.

"A few months later, she found bruises on Ashlyn. She went to him and he claimed she fell and all of that bullshit. She had enough and killed him. With the help of me, of course." I say, smiling.

"But explain this to me, she said that Ashlyn was dead." Leo said, confused.

"She is. The kid who Ryan claimed that was Ashlyn, wasn't really Ashlyn. Addison wanted a DNA test so she got one done. Ashlyn's mom is dead and Ryan was her father. Addison didn't know what to do so she stepped up and adopted her. Changed her name to Emily." Everybody tensed up. "They live in California for the moment. I know Addison wants to move back here but doesn't want Emily under stress."

"Why wouldn't she tell us? We would've helped her out."

"Addison didn't know what to do. She wanted to come to you guys, she really did. Hell, it took her almost a month to contact me. She didn't want to disappoint you guys. She really didn't."

"But I'm her twin."

"Who she looks up to. She didn't want you guys to think bad about her. The only reason why she contacted me was because she was scared. She didn't know what to do. She needed me there for her and I was. I was her rock. Now if I die, you guys have to check up on her."

"You're really dying."

"I'm not dying. I'm just saying, if it progresses you will have to be there for your sister. She's going to need it." I say, softly. They nod, slowly. "You guys won't get rid of me that easily."

You guys, this chapter made me sad. How did you guys like it?