Blood is thicker than water

Chapter 36

Adelina POV:

"Oh my god Addi," Phoenix's eyes shine with unshed tears as I sob in her arms, some part of me completely breaking in her presence,  she looks around and takes in her surroundings, trying to support my weight "back off. Everyone step away. Back off, I mean it."

Someone must have reached for me, however, because next she barks "Touch her and I'll cut off your dick."

Then she takes a breath and sinks to her knees, cupping my face with her hands, "You're okay, oh my god I can't believe it's you." 

She holds me on the ground with me sobbing in her arms, hushing my cries and instinctually rocking me just slightly like she used to. It all feels so familiar, and I can't process much but bone-aching relief. 

Just then, Valentino and Angelo arrive home. There was much commotion that I couldn't quite comprehend, but I knew I would be alright. I was in Phoenix's arms. 

She demands that Tiago help move me to the living room and before I knew it I was placed on a couch, Phoenix kneeling in front of me and checking me over for injuries. 

"Jesus Addi, you're skinny. Have you not been eating? Have you not been fucking feeding her?" she barks towards the back of the room, where all the boys, cousin and not, watch with mixed emotions. "Have you been getting your period?" she asks me "You don't have bruises, that's good. That's good Addi, no bruises are good. I can see your ribs, what's going on? What's been happening? All this time, I couldn't bear the thought of you alone with Michael..." she mutters.

She takes a pause, catching her breath, then turns toward the boys "Somebody better start explaining or I promise you, heads are going to start rolling." 

My words are unintelligble and she hushes me soothingly. 

"None of us understand what's going on Phoenix, you need to calm down. " Tiago attemps but Phoenix is having none of it.

 Even though, from my understanding, my best friend and the brothers have not met, Phoenix speaks to them like she's known them forever. "Someone better get me some fucking answers real fucking quick." 

At this point, I find my own excessive crying obnoxious. I have felt more disgusting, but this is the reason I hate crying. And emotions. They're plain stupid and make me feel repulsive. 

"Phoenix," I stammer through uneven breaths "I need a xanax," she shoots me a disaproving look "or something, just something. I-I can't, I just c-can't-t" my heartbeat is making my hands shake. 

"Ok, you're ok. I'm here, I'm taking care of it," she smooths my hair before once again turning to the brothers "Where's her room?" 

"Upstairs," replies Francesco as he and Angelo motion to carry me "we'll take her." but I flinch away from their hands. 

"Valentino," I mutter, and his sad eyes perk up from the back of the room "Valerio," I continue, Valerio's stony face giving nothing away as he nears me. 

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Raffaele POV:

"She's asleep." Phoenix says as she finds a seat between Adriano and Tiago. 

The table is silent, no one has a word to say though it is quite evident among my brothers faces that they all have so much to ask. I could tell by observing Valentino and Valerio after coming back downstairs that somehwere, amidst the hurt, shock and confusion, there was something resembling burning happiness. 

The kind of happiness that is entirely painful and rips you from the inside out as it courses through your veins. Because it hurts to feel, but you want to feel it anyway. 

And we all sit in silence for too long, nobody having anything to say and so much to express. 

"Phoenix..." a name we did not know until Adelina cried it through tears, is the first thing said into the silence.  

"I think," Phoenix's dejected voice draws all of our attention "I - um- I need to ask some questions. I'm sorry that my first questions are not going to be your names. I need you all to answer in the most detail possible."

"We don't know you-" Francesco interrupts but Phoenix is already replying, with fire in her gaze. 

"Her best friend. The only person who knows her inside out and she's the only thing I have that resembles a sister. She's my sister. That's all you need to know."

"Phoenix." Adriano' tone is one of warning but Tiago is shaking his head, wanting to let her continue. 

Best friend. Our cousin's nanny is Adelina's best friend. My mind is too warped to wrap around the fact.

She takes a deep breath, bouncing Benito soothingly in her lap, slowly closing her eyes then opening them "Has she been eating?"

"She's been eating," Angelo replies, he's the one level-headed enough to reply "not very much, but at least two meals a day. Smaller portions than us, but substantial enough. I'm not quite sure why she has been losing weight. We were going to take her to a doctor next week if it didn't get better."

She starts nodding her head, suspicion still resting in her gaze, but for one of the first times in ten years, I feel the need to cut in. "Except she hasn't..." I trail off.

Everyone's eyes zero in on me, so when I continue speaking, there is not a person who doesn't hear my words, "maybe you can explain to me, because I've noticed since her first night here..."

"What?" she says.

"She was looking around the room once we all started eating, with... hesitation?  So I nodded at her,  to encourage her I guess, and she picked up her fork and ate. And ever since, it's become a routine."

"Has it really?" Valentino has hurt woven into his voice.

"I've never seen her eat without me there, and she's never eaten without that little gesture while I was there."

"She doesn't eat without you there..." Angelo adds with realization. A sinking feeling sets in along with the confusion. 

"She'll get up and go find you at meal times, and you guys remember that movie day?" Valerio motioned to Valentino, Angelo and myself. 

"She flat out fucking asked you if she was allowed to eat." Valentino runs his hands through his hair in fustration. 

"She what?" Domenico enters the conversation, and once again whatever growing noise in the room is quieted quickly. 

She did ask if she was allowed to eat, I thought it had been playful enough. She was overly happy that day with seemingly no cause that day and that the goofiness might be part of this personality we hadn't seen. It had been the only day I saw her eyes light up with pure joy and heard a genuine laugh and... and she was high. She must have been. Because it's the only reasonable explanation. 

"Please," Phoenix says "do not open a can of worms at this very moment. I still have much to ask."

Domenico does not take orders and he does not put anyone's needs above what he prioritises. That is what makes him the don of our family. It is partially the reason he was chosen. But only partially.

Domenico, however, has something Francesco (per se) lacks. His ability to choose time and place. And he could recognize, with the small raven haired girl in front of him, that it was not the time nor the place. 

With a stiff nod, he allowed the questions to continue because this girl is able to offer us information and has asked the right questions so far. 

But before she could ask a single thing more, footsteps are heard bounding down the steps. A groggy Adelina appears in the kitchen. 

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