The Shadows

Chapter Fifteen

As the De Luca family was walking out of the hospital, Alessio, Alessandro and Angelo had begun to fight over who would sit next to Annabella in the car. While the boys were fighting, Annnabella's twin walked over to her. As she was already sitting down in one of the cars, he just plops down next to her. The boys keep fighting, not noticing Armani was missing from the argument, while he starts to speak to Annabella.

"Hey, are you okay?" He questioned her softly. Not wanting to speak at the moment, Annabella gave him a tired smile and a thumbs up. The medicine they gave her for her headache and leg must have been making her tired. He must have seen how exhausted she was because he got Dad's attention. They must have seen the gist because he yelled at them in Italian.

"Shut up and get in the cars! Your baby sister is tired and needs rest, you idiots!" Dad yelled. Annabella was guessing that they still didn't know that she spoke Italian yet. Anyways, him yelling seemed to straighten them out.

They all looked over to her with sheepish smiles. When they notice that she was in a car already and Armani is with her they pout. Like actually pout. Imagine scary looking dudes, some with lots of tattoos, pouting because they didn't get to sit with her.

It made Annabella want to giggle but she held it in. Alessandro stopped pouting when he remembered that there was a front passenger seat he could ride in. He quickly ran over to it while the others looked dumbfounded at his actions.

This caused her to lose my control on the giggles she was holding in. Their faces just looked so cute at that moment. After Annabella had finished giggling, she saw that they were all staring at her with a fond smile.Even Adriano smiled.

Once they realized the reason they had gotten yelled at in the first place, they came over to give her a kiss on her forehead and went to the cars they were riding in. Once they pulled out, the hum of the vehicle lulled Annabella into the darkness that sleep brings.

The last thing she could remember was Armani moving her so that her head was in his lap while he played with her hair. "Goodnight luce del sole," someone said. Then she went into dreamland.

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Armani looked down at his twin. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep. Less troubled even. When she was awake, you could see the pain in her eyes if you looked close enough. She tries to act all tough, but she is going to be a real softy on the inside once they break that barrier.

He wished she would let them in. Yeah, she acts like everything is fine and plays the role of a little sister perfectly, but it's not her. She hasn't truly let them in yet. When she does, he thinks they all will be shocked.

The other boys think she has already let them in. The only ones who don't are him, dad, and Adriano. They think the same way as him. So lost in his thoughts, Armani didn't notice that they were home yet. Alessio looks back and calls his name softly, noticing that she was asleep in his arms.

"Hey, should we wake her up yet? Or just let her sleep? I mean it's only 1 p.m. so I think we should wake her up so she can sleep tonight," he says softly. Armani agreed and started shaking her shoulders to wake her up.

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Annabbella was brought out of her terrible dream by someone shaking her shoulders. Afraid that she had screamed while she was asleep, she slowly opened her eyes to see that it was only Armani telling her that they had made it home.

The dream was really a memory and that was the reason she was scared she may have screamed. It was the time when her fake parents, John and Christy, had beaten her till she had multiple broken bones. Annabella couldn't go to the hospital so she doubted they ever healed right, seeing as they still give her some problems from time to time.

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Annabella had just finished their dinner, and was waiting for her parents to come back from wherever they went. She knew that she had to eat something or she was going to die from hunger.

She quickly took a few pieces of bread and some water. While she was making her way up to her room, which was really just the attic with an old mattress on the floor, they came in. They saw the food and started to beat her.

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Annabella had ended up with a broken arm, wrist, foot, and knee. Along with some broken and bruised ribs and a concussion.

Armani was waving his hand in front of her face. She must have spaced out again. She quickly apologized and they walked into her new house together.

'There has got to be something bad that will happen. This is just too good to be true.' Annabella thought as they walked into the foyer.