Apathy

39| Torture session

*TW: This chapter includes violent content that may be triggering to some readers*

A S T R A E A

It's been weeks this the revelation of the most recent family secret. There was an evident tension between everyone and even though it was starting to get better these past few days, it was still there. And I fear that it will always remain. At the end of the day, they hid an important secret from us. Surely, we had forgiven them but it was impossible to forget.

They had been trying. My mother suggested we hire a family therapist to talk and try to mend our relationships. Mr. Bertelli—the therapist— had ties to the mafia so we could talk freely about our sins without worrying that he will run to the feds after our sessions. We also might have threatened him to keep our family drama between us and himself we didn't want our secrets to making the headlines after all The Regios and The Rodriguez were still famous and important figures in New York. We didn't want any scandals released.

And that's how we ended up all gathered in our living room. I just admit that therapy had been good for us. We are slowly returning to the family we used to be. But some sessions are incredibly boring, like this one. Today, Mr.Bertelli was questioning our parents—both biological and adoptive—about the dynamic of their marriage and relationship and the method they use to raise us. So without any more explaining, this session is boring us to death.

Even Tony and Andro looked like they are about to grab their guns and shoot the poor therapist between his eyes so they can escape this hell. And then there is Val being Val. He placed chips on the table and started licking them like a dog. Of course with the help of Mattias who was holding Val's hands behind his back to stop him from using them. They are completely ridiculous.

Surprisingly, Santiago wasn't really affected by the news like everyone else. But I suppose it was because he already knew it for a while now and he had the time to accept and digest the news. Atlas. Area and I didn't know how to feel exactly. We talked a bit about the situation but it was still odd for us. We grew up thinking that we were triplets and now finding out that we are actually quadruplet is a real shock.

But we were glad that it was Santiago and now someone that we didn't know. Santiago was already our brother, the only thing that changed was that we are related by blood and that we shared a womb for nine months. But it was still unusual.

We sat down the four of us one night and talked until the sun raised. It wasn't awkward but it was different. Good different. We knew that it was going to take time to get used to the idea. But we wanted to try. We want to make up for all the time we had wasted. We wanted our bond to become stronger than ever.

It was just the beginning.

Saturday was my birthday. Finally, I will be turning eighteen. And for the first time, Santiago was going to be celebrating with us not only as our brother but as our quadruplet. He decided that he will be celebrating both of his birthdays. And he wanted to keep his name as Santiago but changed his middle name to Apollo.

Santiago Apollo Rodriguez Regio.

That's a long-ass name—

We decided not to do anything since we were still shaken up by everything that happened and neither of us was in the mood to organize a party or attend it. So we will be going out for dinner, just us, our family, and the Hales. Hopefully, next year would be better and we could do something more fun.

The best part of our birthday was the early gift we got. A torturing session. What could be better than torturing the Germans cunts for my birthday? Absolutely nothing. It was the best gift.