Chapter 206 - Bitter And Sour

Leo and Daniel were just outside her office when they heard the ear-piercing scream of their sister. The brothers stopped in their tracks as they heard the scream which was filled with fear and pain.

With their fast-beating hearts, the two of them hurriedly entered the office and found their sister sobbing hysterically as she was hiding in Shadow's arms.

Her body was shivering as she tried to make herself disappear while she kept sobbing as Shadow tried to calm her down.

The man had left barely for five minutes to grab a bar of chocolate for her and he was on his way back when he was alerted by her scream.

"What happened?" 

"Emily..."

Both Leo and Daniel hurriedly ran towards their sister and Shadow. Though they felt relieved when they saw Shadow with her, they were still worried about her.

As the brothers crouched down next to their sister and Shadow who were sitting on the floor, they noticed Shadow pointing his gaze towards a box that was lying next to the office table.

There was a photo card, a shattered glass frame, and a piece of silver chain covered in dried blood.

"What the heck? What are these things?" Leo asked as he crouched down next to the box but before his hands could touch any of the things, he was stopped by a hand that was gripping his arm tightly.

"Don't touch anything... please..." 

Leo was surprised to see his sister whose puffy red eyes were staring at him and pleading to do as she was saying. He found himself nodding his head before he stood up and immediately wrapped his hand around his sister who instantly melted into his embrace, hiding her face against his shoulder as she found comfort.

"Let's head home. We will talk later." Shadow told them as he clicked his fingers and all the materials laying on the floor disappeared into thin air.

Daniel and Leo nodded their heads before they followed Shadow out of the office. Emily was holding Leo's arms so tightly with both of her hands as if she was afraid of letting him go even by mistake.

They quickly made their way towards the car parked in front of the building and hopped inside. Shadow took the driver's seat and they set off towards the Alessandro mansion.

***

Emily was wrapped up in a thin blanket as she set on the huge sofa all alone. Her eyes were fixed on the candy box that was sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

Though she had developed a special love towards sweets in the past five years, currently, those candies appeared like they would taste bitter and sour if she tried to eat them. 

"She has not spoken a single word since you all returned," Crist whispered to Rylan who was sitting next to him. Both of them were looking at the girl with worry clearly visible in their eyes.

Emily heard him but still refused to speak. She had no idea what she was supposed to say, especially when everyone was waiting for her to explain what happened to her and what was in the box.

She had kept this darkest part of her life hidden from everyone for almost a decade but should she still kept it a secret, particularly from her family who had given her the strength to fight that darkness.

It took her so many years to finally come out of her past but just when she thought that she had successfully defeated those dark memories, reality pulled her out of her dream with a powerful slap.

Just one look... all that took was just one glance at that blood-covered silver chain and all her confidence got crushed. 

It was true that she did not end up having an episode, she also did not felt the dark energy overpowering her but the fear... it was still there.

Just how long it was going to take her to finally overcome her past? Or would she even be able to overcome it? 

Her train of thoughts was stopped when she felt the warm touch of Kaiden's hand which came to rest on the crown of her head.

She moved her head to look at the man standing behind her and just one look at him made her relax. He smiled softly at her before he made her face the front again and started massaging her head with his fingers.

After massaging her head for a while, his hands moved to rub her shoulders. Emily felt herself relaxing even more as her taut muscles finally decided to loosen up.

No one tried to disturb them as almost everyone was thankful towards Kaiden for helping her relax. She had been on the edge ever since the incident in her office around an hour ago.

After a long while, Emily finally stopped him and signaled him to take a seat which he immediately did, settling beside her on the sofa.

Looking at her it was clear that she was finally ready to speak.

Shadow decided to stay closer to her just in case and took a seat on the floor near her legs, resting his back against the sofa.

Emily was really grateful to have both shadow and Kaiden near her. She knew that the two of them would be able to control her if something went wrong.

She tapped Shadow on his shoulder and the man immediately understood as if he had read her mind. He clicked his fingers and the box with the photo card, the broken frame, and the silver chain appeared on the coffee table.

Everyone waited patiently for her to explain exactly what did the box and the things inside it meant.

Before Emily could start speaking, she found Domenic moving towards her as her brother came to crouch in front of her beside Shadow who had his amber eyes fixed on the silver chain.

"Emily, remember to tell only what you are comfortable of revealing at the moment. There's no pressure. None of us will blame you if you decided to not tell us anything today... though we all really want to know. But you have to keep in mind to not push yourself too much. Alright?" 

Emily nodded her head as she smiled softly at her brother. Nick's words had made her relax even more and she finally felt like she was ready to speak and answer at least a few of their questions.

She took a deep breath before she spoke, "Someone sent this box today for me, wrapped beautifully... I did not know that inside such a beautiful box was hiding such a dark memory of my past." 

She stopped to let her words sank into everyone around her who was looking at her and the box with confused expressions.

"Remember that day four years ago when we talked about how I used to always flee from my foster homes because almost none of those families treated me like a human... the memory hiding in this box belonged to that time." She told them as her eyes looked locked on the box sitting on the coffee table.

No one spoke as they all waited for her to continue. Almost every single one of them was nervous about what was coming next. The mere fact that she called it the darkest memory of her past, scared everyone. They wanted to know and also not to know at the same time.

"I was thirteen and it was early September when I flee from the couple who had recently adopted me. They were nearly the worst people I had met through the years that I spent as an orphan. On the first day, I moved into their house, I got to know that rather than a child, they wanted a slave to torture and ruin. It barely took them forty-eight hours to drive me crazy. By the time I fled from their house, I was not even in the condition of properly walking... and maybe that's how I ended up in the hands of a rogue group of supernaturals who were trafficking humans from the city." 

Emily could sense the shock and anger that immediately erupted in her brothers. Kaiden and Shadow also stiffened, while Rylan had left his seat as he moved to stand next to the sofa where she was sitting.

Though they all were left disturbed by her words, none of them said anything as they did their best to keep themselves calm for the moment.

A sigh escaped Emily's lips as she realized that one of the reasons why she kept hiding this memory from these people was because she knew that they won't be able to take it all. But the sad truth was that there was nothing that they or their anger could do to change her past.

That's why she had decided to keep the torture that she experienced to be as vague in her words as possible. 

The less they knew, the better it was for them. She alone was enough to suffer through those memories.