Family Comes First

Chapter 32

- A m a r a  R u s s o -

I woke up to the soothing feeling of someone stroking my hair as I groggily opened my tired eyes.

"You're awake!" the person exclaimed as I let out a tired groan.

What had happened?

Memories suddenly came rushing back to me and I jerked into a sitting position, my head banging against the person's forehead as we both cried out in pain.

"You have a hard head." the person moaned as he rubbed his forehead with his palm, I myself, copying the actions.

"What- what happened?" I gasped as the memories replayed through my head like a movie.

"You are in the hospital, is what happened." the person drawled, and I finally started registering the familiar facial features.

The hair, the eyes, the body physique... Sandeo?

"You finally recognize me?" Sandeo chuckled as the tension in between my shoulders loosened and I let out a relieved breath.

"Yeah," I murmured as I slumped onto the bed, only to regret it as pain ricocheted into my skull.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I let out a gasp as I held in the pained groan.

"Slowly, sis." Sandeo advised, "You just woke up."

"W-what happened?" I stuttered, and Sandeo had a conflicted look on his face.

"I think you know what happened." he deflected, "But I'll get Salvatore in to tell you."

Hearing his name, the ends of my hair rose as panic gripped me.

"No!" I shouted, and lowered my voice into a whisper. "Not him."

"Why not?" Sandeo frowned, and I shook my head, not giving him an answer.

"Not him." I repeated, and Sandeo gave me a bemused look. "Not him."

"Alright, I got it." Sandeo said slowly, "But why not him?"

I didn't know how to explain the feeling, so I replied with simple words. "Scared." I murmured, and although Sandeo looked pained at my answer, he nodded nonetheless.

"Got it." he stated, and got off the bed. "Stay here, alright? I'll go get Salvestro."

~

"Samantha's g-gone?" I whimpered.

I had just finished listening to Salvestro recount everything that has happened while I was unconscious, and with each work spoken, I could feel my heart beating faster and faster in my chest.

"Yes." Salvestro replied gravely with a dip of his head. "We don't know where she is."

For some reason, I didn't understand why Salvestro was being so honest, so open with me. These past few days, Salvestro has been anything but open with me, hiding so many secrets from me that I was starting to wonder what was so important.

They even stated that family doesn't hide things from each other, and from what I was seeing, they were hiding plenty from me.

Salvestro must have seen the look on my face, because he sighed, rubbing a tired hand down his face.

"Look," he started, "I know that you know that we are hiding secrets from you."

This is not looking good so far.

"But, you have to trust us that we only want the best for you." he continued, looking me in the eye as I sent a defiant glare. I was feeling abnormally defiant at the moment, and knew that I would probably regret it sooner or later.