Broken Bonds

Chapter 23

Vincenzo Ricasso

It's been 17 hours since the search. I was still at the Romano's because I needed to know how the search went. I cannot accept the fact that she was gone. No, never. She's definitely alive. There are many things that she never got to hear from me. 

Mum and Andrea came over too, after hearing the news. They both cried when they heard the news, and neither of them accepted the news. The rest of the Romano just came back from the search and each one of them looked haggard. My heart sunk further when they shook their heads at Ariana's question. She had been crying ever since the call with Avery. 

She was just like me, in denial of the fact that Avery was no longer with us. All of a sudden, one of their men came running into the living room where all of us were situated at. He had a box in his hands and passed the box to Alexander, Avery's oldest brother. 

Alexander Romano

As I opened the box slowly, there was a thumb drive and a piece of note in the box. The note wrote,'Watch and let it engrave your mind.' It must be from Felix fucking Parker, seeing the initials of 'F.P.' indicated at the bottom of the note.

I took the thumb drive and plugged into the computer. It showed a file which was labelled as '20/5/2008'. It was the day when father passed away, and everything changed. I clicked on the file name and it opened, displaying a video on the screen. 

It was....a footage of our parents with the young Avery and Ari. Eli moved over and saw the video on the screen, followed by the rest of them. With a soft click on the trackpad, the video started playing. 

What was shown afterward shook us to the core. Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of the gunshots rang out from the video as I hit the stop button. 

Eli was still staring at the screen, with disbelief and shock written on his face.

Enzo was expressionless, but he was clenching down on his jaw hard.

Theo's eyes were red at the end of the video but he remained silent. 

Uncle Ezra smashed his fist against the wall and turned to face the wall, trying to calm himself down.

Gabriel was in a state of shock and Axel was livid, with a hinge of guilt clearly written on his face. As for Lucas, there was no expression on his face as usual.

Mason left the room angrily halfway throughout the video. As for me, I was.... I didn't know what to feel. Anger? Guilt? Regret? Apologetic? I don't fucking know anymore. 

Probably regret and anger would describe the feeling I have right now. Regret as to why I chose to believe that woman whom I've once called mum instead of my sister. Angry at my stupidity. My choice had not only disappointed Avery, but also dad. He must be feeling so disappointed in all of us. 

All my mind could think of right now was the look of disappointment in her eyes when she looked at me through the video call. Why didn't I look at her? 

Just then, Ari's voice spoke up,"Why didn't any of you believe her? And now, all it took was a piece of footage to believe that she wasn't the one who murdered dad? You're all pathetic, really." The look of disappointment in Ari's eyes reminded me exactly of the one I saw in Avery's eyes. 

Ari was right, we are really pathetic. To believe that a mere 5 years old was capable of using a gun and shoot someone dead. Not to mention that someone was her dad whom she loved dearly. So why the hell did we choose to believe that? 

Lorenzo Romano

I couldn't believe my eyes. Everything flashed through my mind in a flash and I could feel the bile rising up to my throat. We have been wrong all these years. So fucking wrong.

Avery's words from that night came ringing in my ears, as if to mock at how stupid I was to not catch it. A lone tear slipped down my cheek. Just how much have my actions and words been hurting her all these while? The thought of it made me want to puke. 

Elijah Romano

'Eli, I want to be a doctor like you too! Saving lives and diagnosing them.'

'Eli, I want to be your first patient when you become a doctor!'

Avery's voice kept popping up near my ears. I couldn't process anything in my head right now. Ari's words were also added into the chaos in my head,'You're all pathetic, really.'

A sharp pain burst in my chest, and the level of pain only escalated. This was retribution, wasn't it? Avery must have felt worse. 

Ari was right, we are pathetic excuse of a brother. 

Mateo Romano

I closed my eyes tight, hoping that the tears would stop flowing. I should have noticed. I should have looked into the matter more. 

The night when I heard her cries in her room, I should have caught on to it. I shouldn't have ignored it . 

The image of her smiling at me when I had offered her a ride to school was still my head. Was she happy even if it was just a mere ride to school? How many nights was she up, crying to herself silently through the night? I wouldn't dare to think about that.

Third person 

The immense guilt that the Romano felt was indescribable, nothing could describe the regret in them for treating Avery Romano as though she was a sinner. They were the sinners here, and that was the joke on them. 

Felix Parker was right, the video was indeed going to be engraved in each and every one of their head for the rest of their lives. But what was the point of regretting the things they have done? To know that regrets are the most useless form of guilt and they always arrive too late to do any good. So what was the point of feeling it?

Avery Romano was not going to come back.

And that was the reality for them.

double update! first time doing multiple POVs in one chapter so I hope that was able to bring out each of their emotions.

what's your favourite colour? I've always been getting everything of mine in dark colours, especially black and probably dark blue lol.

Happy reading!  -17/9/2022