She's a fifteen-year-old girl who killed her "father" in self-defense and lied about it to the police. She thinks she has no other family members and now she has nowhere to live but the police tell her she was kidnapped from her real family when sh...
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ATHENA RUSSO:
My leg bounces uncontrollably.
How the fuck did I get away with this? I killed a man, lied to the police, and got away with it. And now I'm going to my six brothers I never knew about.
I play with my hair and lean back in the chair. For fucks sake it's so uncomfortable.
I look around the airport and it's empty.
I've never been to a different country I've never been on a plane. My parents— well my kidnappers? God, I don't even know what to call them.
Anyways they didn't want to travel. Anywhere. I've been in London my whole life. School was alright. I didn't make any friends or have any relationships. I've never even had any goddamn friends. I didn't talk to anyone when I went to the park when I was little. I've felt invisible my whole life.
Sometimes I'm convinced I am invisible.
No wonder why I got away with murdering my dad. Who would expect a fifteen-year-old to kill her own father? I mean it would be self-defense but I'm too scared to let anyone know that I've been abused most of my life.
I look around, thousands of my walls are up. Then I freeze. Two scary tall dark hair men start walking my way. They both wear rich fancy black suits. They make eye contact with me and then look at each other and nod.
Oh my God.
I'm going to get kidnapped. In a goddamn airport. I grab my bag and throw it over my shoulder. I need to get out of here.
I start speed walking to the toilets. I look behind me and see them confused but they're still following me.
I go into the girl's toilet and lock myself in a cubicle. Thankfully no one is in here.
I was told my two eldest brothers were going to pick me up at the airport so we can fly to New York together. But I have no idea what they look like.
After a few minutes, I unlock the cubicle and look at myself in the mirror.
My brown hair reaches down to the middle of my back. My blue-grey eyes stare at my face in the mirror. I covered the bruises on my face with concealer to hide them. I don't want anyone to know that I've been hurt before.
I want to get far away from this place as soon as possible. I want to start fresh. I take a deep breath. I need to leave the toilets before someone comes in. I leave the toilet and go back to the place where I was waiting and sit down.
"Athena?"
I look up and see the two men from earlier.
I freeze, "How do you know my name?"
"We are your brothers," one of them says.
Oh. That makes so much sense. I really want to face-palm myself at the moment.
"Oh alright. Wait what are your names?"
"I'm Elijah, your second eldest brother," the one on the left answers. He's got dark brown hair like me and has blue eyes. But they are dark blue.
Elijah points to the man next to him, "And he's Lorenzo your eldest brother." Lorenzo looks similar to Elijah but his eyes are exactly like mine.
Eyes are what I look at the most. They reveal secrets and emotions. You could see fear, love, fire and so much more in your eyes but words are just superficial lies. People can say the most heartwarming things and it will be a lie. But the eyes don't lie. They never do. They always tell you the truth.
I nod, "Okay well I'm Athena."
Elijah smiles, "We know, tesoro."
My eyebrows furrow and I tilt my head, "What does that mean?"
"Nothing," Lorenzo says, "now come on we need to get on the plane."
That's the first time Lorenzo has spoken since I've met him and something tells me he's no good. I look intensely into his eyes as he looks at me.
They hold so much emotion that I can't even tell what they are. I nod and stand up. They start walking and I quickly follow after them.
I try to keep up with their long strides but I feel like I need to run to catch up. Elijah looks at me and nudges Lorenzo giving him a look. I ignore it. For some reason, they slow down, and I'm silently grateful. My whole body is in pain. We end up outside and standing in front of a private jet.
My eyes widen at it, "A-Are we at the right place?"
"Yeah, we are," Elijah says.
They go up the stairs but I'm still gaping at the private jet. When Dave said they were rich I didn't expect this. To be honest I should have seen it coming. Who goes to an airport with a suit on? I'm guessing rich men do.
"Ma'am?"
I look beside me and see a man standing next to me.
"Oh! Sorry."
I quickly go up the stairs and look around. This is like a dream come true. Elijah and Lorenzo are already sitting down at the back of the plane. Lorenzo looks at me, and I can tell he expects me to sit opposite them.
And I do. I sit down opposite them and look outside the window.
I zone out and the moment when I shoot my dad automatically plays in my mind. It's like I'm rewatching a movie over and over again.
"Athena you need to put your seatbelt on."
I look around and see Elijah and Lorenzo looking at me.
"Sorry what?"
"You need to put your seatbelt on," Elijah repeats. "Oh okay," I say. I look down and put the seatbelt on but it's too loose. How the fuck do I tighten it? I struggle to find out how to tighten it.
Lorenzo sighs, "Have you never been on a plane before?"
I look up at him and I see annoyance written all over his face. I shake my head, "No. I haven't."
Elijah smiles, "It's okay. I'll do it for you."
I nod and he leans forward and tightens it for me. "Is that good?" he asks. I nod. He leans back.
I want to ask how long is the flight but I don't have the courage to so I look down at my hands. The hands with my "father's" blood on it. The ones I used to try to wake him up with when he was there laying on the ground, dead. But they're also the ones I used to try to protect myself from him.
I wonder if he deserved it. To die. But no one noticed anything. Because I was invisible to everyone around me.
But what if my brothers hurt me if I do something wrong? I examine them closely. I can tell Lorenzo doesn't really like me but Elijah on the other hand is kind. But I have four more brothers to worry about.
I've killed my father, I've lied to the police about it and got away with it, I've found out that he wasn't my actual father and that I was taken from my family at a young age and that I have six older brothers.
I keep thinking about all the events that happened in the past 24 hours. But I still can't process it.
