What!?

6

Iliana continues to watch. She would very much like to see her mother's reaction when they get to the room. Her father's as well. They didn't yell, so she didn't know the boys were there until they went into the bedroom area where she was almost asleep.

"What are you doing here? Haven't you boys hurt Iliana enough today?" Lovina hisses angrily at the brothers. All ten had come to apologize to her.

"We came to apologize to you and Iliana. Isaac didn't feel comfortable feeding for the first time alone, so he asked me to be there with him. The bitch that was with me and the one that he was with both wanted to add a bit of spice and do it by the pool. I didn't think about Iliana or other children being in the house when I gave in. I completely understand why you are angry about that. You have every right to be. I know how hard you've worked to keep Iliana innocent and then Isaac and I blew it. As for the other, I have no explanation. I had no idea that it had been so long since I had talked to her. I actually had gotten her tickets to the ballet she wanted to see for tomorrow. But, I guess if I had talked to Iliana more I would have known that she wasn't going to be here.

"It makes me sick that I hurt her like that and I would like the chance to apologize to her directly, if you would allow it. I, and my brothers would like the chance to take her to the restaurant downstairs for ice cream as a goodbye from us. I know that it won't make up for any of the pain that she felt, but I hope it's enough for her to know that we don't hate her." Blake tells them and each of the brothers tell her parents something similar.

Iliana knows that her parents gave them permission, but watching what they went through she wonders if they will get permission after all.

"If you ever do anything like this again, you any of you, will be banned from communicating with her in any way. I won't have her hurt like this again. It's hard enough on her having to move across the country leaving the majority of the people she knows to start all over. Thinking that her only friends actually hate her made it that much harder on her. If she is awake and not asleep from crying then you can take her down for ice cream. She'll be able to sleep in the plane on the flight over. But only if she is willing to go. 

"I have to say, I never thought that all ten of you would make Iliana cry like that. She adores all ten of you and for you to ignore her and allow your friends to make fun of her like that, well it better not happen again."

"What do you mean, allow our friends to make fun of her?" Casper demands.

"She said that some of your friends made fun of her when she tried to get your attention and you did nothing. She felt like she was an unwanted guest in your home and if she could have, she would have left then."

All the boys are now angry. How did they not hear or see their friends making fun of Iliana? "We'll be looking over the security videos and finding out which of them did that and we'll no longer be friends with them."

Lovina and her husband Joel move aside to allow the boys to enter the room.

They only allow Blake and Isaac in first since they owe the biggest apology. If Iliana is awake and willing to go with them the others will apologize when she comes out.

"Ili? Are you awake?" Blake whispers going up to her. He can tell from her breathing that she is, but she's likely close to sleep.

"Go away, Blake. Why are you here? You didn't want me when I was at your house."

"I, we, wanted to apologize for how we acted towards you not just today, but for the last couple of weeks. I am very sorry, Ili, more sorry than you can know that you cried because of my actions and even more upset that my brothers made you cry as well. I'm angry at myself because I allowed that bitch to talk me into having sex out by the pool and so you saw that too. I am sorry you had to see that." Blake tells her rubbing her back. He can see tell tell signs of dried tears on her face and it breaks his heart.

"I'm sorry too, Ili. There's no excuse for what we did, today by the pool and how we treated you. You didn't deserve that and to be honest we didn't even realize that we ignored you. That's on us. If you give us another chance we won't do that again. We know we hurt you, we didn't mean to, didn't mean to ignore you and definitely didn't mean to allow any of our so called friends to make fun of you and make you feel like you didn't belong in our home. You are family, Iliana, you belong, you will always belong there. They are the ones that don't belong.

"When we get home tonight, we'll be going over the security videos and when we find out which of our friends did that and treated you like that, they won't be welcome any more." Isaac also sees the dried tears and puffy eyes from her long term crying and is very angry. He's angry at himself, his brothers and the so called friends.

"If you will permit it we'd like to take you downstairs to the restaurant there for ice cream. It's a goodbye and hope you'll forgive us and not hate us gift." Blake tells her once Isaac is done with his apology.

"Just you two?" Iliana asks more than a little sad.

"No, the others are in the sitting area with your parents. They didn't want all of us back here if you were already asleep." Isaac tells her.

"All of them?" Her tone says it all, she doesn't believe them.

"Yes, all of us came to apologize to you and ask your forgiveness."

Iliana looks at him with disbelief but allows Blake to help her up and to the bathroom to wash her face before taking her to the sitting area.

Once there all the boys take turns telling her how bad they feel for ignoring her like they did and asking her forgiveness. In the end she tells them all, "I forgive you, but I don't trust you any more. How can I believe that you won't do this again?"

"If your parents are willing?" Blake looks over to her parents for this part, "We would like to set up some kind of schedule for skype calls or if she would prefer facetime. If you would wait  two weeks for the first time, let us know what would work best for you all then we will work around it. It may not be possible for all of us to be there every time, but at least one of us should be there. After the first time we'll call unless we're really late. If something comes up and you can't be there just send us a group text letting us know and we'll text you back a reply."

Lovina has her eyes narrowed, still very unhappy about the days events and how Iliana was treated. "Why two weeks?"

"We're grounded, all electronics, friends, entertainment for two weeks. Hopefully, it will just be those weeks." Blake replies.

"Why hopefully, Blake?" Iliana questions.

"Because if any of us break the grounding it will start over. It could be up to six months if any of us continue breaking the grounding."

"That would be stupid." Young Iliana says and the older Iliana smiles at her words.

She speaks the next words with Phoenix, "Yes, it would, but some of us aren't that smart, Ili." The words that made her giggle. Sometimes they could be downright stupid and Iliana had seen it first hand.

"Don't be too long and they might not let her in since she's in her pajamas." Joel tells them with a little less hostility than before.

"They'll let us in," Blake says and it's more than a little threatening.