Silence

{4} Stillness

{Aspen's POV}

I figure I go and stay in the forest for around 5 hours. That should be enough time to get my sanity back. Seeing as my brothers have this gigantic mansion, they must have some day job as lawyers or fancy business men. I should be good to go while they're at work.

My only dilemma is the gun. Since my brothers have a plethora of guards, they should have guns. I just need to figure out how to steal one. Maybe not steal... Lets consider it borrowing? 

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a soft knock at the door.

"Come in" I say.

 Ambrose walks in, giving me a friendly smile. He seems like the nicest one out of my brothers. He's the only one who's shown me any kind of emotion other than anger or coldness.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come down to eat something? All the boys are off doing their own thing so the kitchen's empty." He says.

"Yeah, sure" I reply, suddenly noticing my empty stomach. 

I follow Ambrose out of the room and he leads me to the kitchen. It has a similar theme to the rest of the house, of course it's gigantic. I cant help but stand there in awe. I love to cook and I'm pretty freaking good at it. It's my favorite thing to do next to hunting. I consider it a form of therapy - when you're zoned out of the world and focused on your dish, it's a feeling I cant quite describe. Even the clean up afterward is satisfying. I used to cook for step father sometimes but I was never allowed to eat what I made. I cant say I put much effort into the food I made for him, but when I cooked my own food with the animals I hunted and Edith's herbs, let me say there is nothing that can compare.

"Hey, you alright there?" Ambrose asks, distracting me from my thoughts.

"Erm yea..." I trail off walking into the kitchen.

"You act like you've never seen a stove before." Ambrose says with a chuckle.

"No, I've just never seen this nice of a kitchen."

"Well its all yours, you can cook whatever you like so long as you don't burn the place down."

I let out a small chuckle as I walk through the kitchen. I open various cabinets and drawers, trying to familiarize myself with the new space.

"I'll warm up some leftovers from dinner, you like chicken parm?" Ambrose asks.

"Yeah" I reply.

As Ambrose warms up the food, I take a seat on a bar stool by the island. I want to try to get some answers out of Ambrose to find the best way I can go on my little outing.

"So what do you do for a living?" He visibly stiffens at my question.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious." I shrug my shoulders.

"Caspian, Sorin and I work at the family business." He replies.

"What is the business?"

"Nothing to concern yourself with." I can see he's avoiding my questions, but I decide to press on.

"what are the hours like?" 

"We're usually gone from the morning till the evening." Vague, but I can work with it.

"What about the twins?" I ask.

"Their focus is on school."

Before I can ask another question, the microwave beeps and Ambrose take the food out. He sets it down in front of me along with some cutlery and takes a seat to my left.