CHAPTER 42

9.6K 263 207
                                    

Silence fills the room once the dark wood doors shut

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Silence fills the room once the dark wood doors shut. Xander's body is still turned around across the table from me. His head is down and his body is still shaking.

No one moves. An eerie feeling swarms the air between these four walls.

I am at a loss for words about what the fuck just happened. Besides grandma and grandpa getting mad at my little sunshine, I thought everything was going well.

Laura didn't seem too uncomfortable which eased my anxiety. Granted, I can't read her that well, but it was a cordial interaction.

When Aunt Sophia mentioned Maddox is mute, my baby sister was so respectful of the situation. And when Romano told her he is gay. She couldn't care less. I could see how nervous he was about the conversation, but now as he sits a few seats down from me, he is calm.

Well, as calm as he can be after Laura went all 'Harley Quinn' on Xander's ass. He deserved a good scare. I don't understand why he keeps picking on Laura. He's also never picked on Maddox until now.

None of us know why Maddox stopped talking, not even his parents. All I know is that Laura had some look of understanding towards him. I wonder what that's about.

Breaking the silence Aunt Lilah speaks up, from my side of the table, announcing "Salvatore your daughter is a badass. Can she come live with me?"

Dad awkwardly chuckles in response. I look to Alessandro who's sitting to my left. My older brother is glaring at the back of Xander's head.

Didn't he have a conversation with him about all this shit?

"Xander" Alessandro calls. Xander's head pulls back on his spine, and he stands up to move his seat. Once he sits back down, his head falls again. "Look at me." Alessandro tells me with no emotion in his voice

Xander's head lifts to meet my brother's hard gaze. "What's going on with you?" He asks sighing

My little brother doesn't speak. He just looks so emotionally drained and filled with regret.

"I thought we talked about this. If you don't want a relationship with your little sister, that's fine. But you acting like this, is making it much harder for everyone else to get close to her. Go do what you need to. Go kill some people. Go to the gym. I don't know." Alessandro tells him sternly. He then raises his voice finishing with "But let whatever hatred you have for her out of your system because I'm tired of it."

"I don't hate her." Xander whispers sorrowfully

"Well you're sure as hell acting like it. After all she's done for you, you're still being a dick." Alessandro huffs out

"What do you mean?" Angelo asks with a confused expression, sitting directly in front of me.

Alessandro looks to Dad and they communicate with their eyes. Dad clears his throat. His forearms come to rest at the head of the table, and he starts speaking to the room. "I thought we would have some nice family time before we got to discussing this, but on Friday of last week...there was an...incident at my kids' school." He begins to explain in a calm tone

ALECTO | ongoingWhere stories live. Discover now