Monaxiá

Part one - cold

Anthony's POV:

We sit around the table silently as nick listens closely to the doctor on the other side of the phone. Everyone's here, and I mean everyone, me, dad, Nick, Emily, Alex and all of their kids and a couple family friends who've helped looking for Ella too are are all waiting for just one simple sentence.

An unidentified female, around Ella's age, was found three days ago unconscious near a small town in Russia. Annoyingly after a long and sickening wait the blood works just come through to identify her.

She is awake, she woke up yesterday, and they've tried to talk to her but they say she's unresponsive, not dead or brain dead but just 'not there mentally'.

I don't know how I feel about this though. obviously I want my daughter back, it's the only thing I want, I want her alive and in my arms and safe and innocent of what I've done, and maybe innocent of what's happened to her. If she ever finds out what I've done to try and have her back with me this past month she wouldn't ever love me again.

But if this is her than what's happened to my baby is obviously bad, found in Russia and 'not mentally there' only means one thing. It's really bad.

No one who's ever been kidnapped by Russians has ever made it past a week. Let alone five.

I would try to think that this shows they showed my daughter at least some mercy but.. if I know anything about them, they didn't.

They haven't said anything about the injuries this girl has only that she looks like my Ella and matches her description perfectly; 5'3, brown hair, dark brown eyes, button nose, freckles etc.

The one thing they've told us- or me- about her is when I asked them to check a small heart shaped birth mark on her collarbone they said the skin was missing. I asked them to tell me what they meant by her skin was missing in that area and Nick told me to calm down and tried to tell me this might not be my daughter and to not get my hopes up.

Emily's on call with vittoria, my cousin in law from Italy, as then they can get to Russia a lot faster than us as they're closer. And so if it is Ella, the plan is for vittoria and luciano to fly over there than immediately to America where we will take her here, her new home, where she will recover under the supervision of me and Charlie- my nephew who's a very well trained doctor.

I feel sick. I knew whoever had her would hurt her, that's what happens when people are kidnapped. Especially for this long. And I've tried to prepare myself to be there for her and support her as she needs me but.. what if she doesn't remember me? What if she hates me for not being there for her? What if they brainwashed her to hate me? What if she doesn't love me anymore? What if-

I stop my train of thought when I feel a hand on my shoulder, Alex, "you okay?" Nodding I don't speak, if I speak i might be sick and this table looks really expensive.

My right hand plays with the ring on my finger nervously as everyone else seemingly sits stoically and emotionlessly, although they look it they aren't. I know that as I've seen almost all of them cry over this, even if they've tried to hide it. I can't say anything- the amount of times I've cried in front of everyone here would be embarrassing if it weren't for Ella.

Nick, stood by the window staring out into the endless woods outside pauses as the phone call falls silent. Everyone pauses as he turns and immediately makes eye contact with me. He nods and immediately I feel sick, looking back down at my hands I shuffle in my seat as everyone looks from me to Nick.

"It's her?" Sebastian asks as he also fidgets in his seat as the tension overwhelms everyone in the room, Nick nods again and i immediately stand and walk out.