Chapter 21 - Twenty: To Be Left Alone

Domenic's P.O.V

I watched silently as Emily stood up from her seat and walked into the kitchen.

It had been a week since the incident that left everyone shocked and disturbed. I knew that all my brothers wanted to know exactly what Sam told me and Daniel the very night of the incident.

But to be honest he didn't share much information with us. His only words were a few pieces of advice for us. He wanted us to not bring the topic about that incident in front of Emily for the time being. Also, he asked us not to force her to eat food as long as she finished half of what she was eating.

He did not explain what was wrong with her and why we needed to walk on eggshells around her, but we did exactly what he asked us to do.

No one talked about that incident in the past week. No one forced her to eat more than what she wanted and no one interfered with her private time.

Maybe it was because all of us had been receiving the cold shoulder from her for the past week.

She had stopped talking to us completely, not even a good morning or good night.

Whenever we tried to initiate a conversation with her in the first few days, all we received was dead silence. After that most of us stopped trying, except for Daniel and Leo.

She did not even look at us anymore. She would look anywhere but at our faces whenever we were in the same room.

We only got to see her during the meal times, for the rest of the day and night she stayed mostly inside her room....my bedroom.

Since most of her room was destroyed by the fire that night, it was no longer available for sleeping.

I still remember that morning when I went to tell her about staying in my room for the time being.

---

I knocked on the door as I stood outside my bedroom with a tray in my hands.

I did not receive any reply from inside the room for the next few minutes which made me think that she probably had fallen asleep.

However, as I entered the room I saw her sitting on the bed with her back resting against the headboard.

She was lost in her own world as she kept staring at the dreamcatcher in her hands.

It was a gift from Leo after we all witnessed the dreadful episode of her struggling with a bad dream. 

It was just as heartbreaking as the fire incident, if not any less.

To see our baby sister struggling and screaming in her dreams as she tried to get away from the nightmare.

"Emily..."

I called her name softly to not startle her with my sudden presence in the room.

She finally looked up from the dream catcher but rather than looking at me she started staring at the tray in my hands which carried her breakfast in it.

When she did not speak for the next few moments, I walked closer to the bed and put the tray on the bedside table.

"Daniel prepared a light breakfast for you. You have to take your medicines too. Come on!" I said in a soft tone as I settled down beside her on the bed and took the tray back in my hands.

"Here, let me feed you. Your hands are still recovering and the doctor has advised to not let you move your hands too much to keep your cuts from reopening." I said as I took a spoon full of soup and started to blow on it to cool it down a little.

However, I felt like someone stabbed me with the sharpest knife present in the world when she moved her face away and refused to let me feed her.

That feeling of hurt and pain was like a bucket of cold water that soaked me completely from head to toe.

"Emily, I..."

She did not let me complete my sentence as she hurriedly took the tray from my hands and started drinking the soup on her own.

Of course, I was worried about her injured hands but I could not find my voice at that moment to say anything to her.

I just sat there watching her as she emptied the bowl and returned the tray to the bedside table.

"Your room will need a renovation and it is going to take some time. In the meantime, you are going to stay here in this room. If you need anything all you need to do is to tell one of us and we will make sure that all your needs are taken care of." 

I waited there to hear her reply. Anything could have worked at that moment. I thought that even though she would end up shouting at me and kicking me out of the room, I would have felt happy about the fact that she was at least speaking again.

We have not heard a single sound from her mouth since her terrifying screams the previous night and she had not spoken to any of us from the very moment we had lunch with Mrs. Smith.

The Alessandro Mansion and its residents were waiting to once again hear her sweet soft voice.

However, when she finally opened her mouth to speak, her voice came out so low that I would have almost missed it.

And her words gave me nothing but grief. She sounded so hurt and sad that all I wanted at that moment was to engulf my baby sis in my arms and surround her with love and protection.

I gave her a last quick glance before picking up the tray and then headed towards the door.

She just sat there staring at the dream catcher in her hands. Her eyes were still looking as empty as before. There was nothing but emptiness in them.

As I walked down the stairs towards the kitchen her words kept running through my mind.

"I just need to be left alone."