"So can we just pretend that we're not falling into the deep end?"
15 year old Marlowe Alvarez is your stereotypical troubled teen living with her aunt and uncle after her mother died in childbirth and her father abandoned her, not wanting anything...
I highly suggest that you guys play Deep End by Birdy on repeat during this chapter. Also, I'm sorry in advance.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I just forgot. I have a horrible memory." I lied quickly.
Vincenzo narrowed his eyes.
"We'll talk about this in the morning. Take your water and close that cabinet." He sighed.
Technically, it's already morning.
I nodded and reached up to close the cupboard, my shirt riding up my stomach a little bit.
I heard Vincenzo take a sharp breathe.
Why is he- oh shit.
The bruises. I could probably get away with the ones on my ribs, but the ones are my stomach are too old. And these boys are familiar with bruises. They'll know a week old bruise if they seen one.
And Vincenzo just did.
I hung my head and cursed under my breathe.
"What happened?" He asked, trying to keep his anger in.
He wouldn't look at me.
"The ground happened. I fell out of a window when I was escaping the Spanish. I'm fine, it's just a little sore." I told him. I mean, I wasn't lying. Just concealing the truth a little bit.
"That explains the ribs. What the fuck happened to your stomach, Marlowe?"
I thought for a minute then thought of something. "I had a mission. Last week. I got a little bruised up. I'm fine."
He shook his head, scoffing. "In what world do you think I would believe that, Marls. Did you think that Lorenzo wouldn't do any research on you? We know that Alvarez would only send you out for missions a couple times a year. And he wrote them down when he did. He didn't send you out on a mission last week. We know that you were in a car crash 3 years ago. We know that when you were 5, you told a teacher that Alvarez was abusing you. We know that that teacher was never heard from again after contacting him. Did you think that we wouldn't see past your strong act? The fact that you flinch at everything? The fact that last night, I heard you sobbing in the shower? You need to get it through your head, Marlowe, that you aren't alone anymore. You have us. And we'll be damned before we let anything happen to you. We lost you once, we won't let it happen again."
I stood in shock after Lizard's rant. I couldn't meet his eyes. I felt a hand cup my chin gently. My head was lifted up and I saw Alessio. Vincenzo must have woken him up with how loud he was talking.
"Marlowe, how did you get the bruises? The truth this time." Alessio said sternly, yet softly at the same time.
"I got into a fight at school. Some girl was making me mad, so I punched her. I didn't take into account that she was a senior and she was the girl's weightlifting champion. So, yeah. She left some bruises." I said, making up a story that definitely didn't happen.
