Chapter Five

Angela woke up sluggishly. The bed was very comfortable, but it took getting used to it. She had slept on the floor of a cold metal cage for six months. And tossed and turned all throughout the night trying to sleep, and when she did finally fall asleep. She had nightmares of him, she rolled onto her stomach and nuzzled her face into her pillow and groaned.

She turned her head to face the door when she heard a knock.

"It's Abelia, can I come in?"

"Of course, Abelia."

Angela re positioned herself so that she was sitting up and yawned.

"Morning Angela." Abelia smiled and closed the door behind her and came to sit on the bed in front of Angela.

"Morning Abelia."

"How are you doing?"

"It's hard getting used to this comfortable bed. I-" Angela stopped when she felt Abelia's place her hand on her leg.

"We'll get through this together. You've got five people who care about you now. Well, sometimes Lauro only cares about himself, but you get what I mean. You are not alone anymore."

Angela smiled softly and she felt a little better. She actually had people who did care for her, even though she hadn't known her long. They already shown her more affection and kindness in couple of days than her family had in years. Maybe, just maybe she could be happy here.

"Thank you Abelia. That means a lot, and it makes me happy."

"Good, I'm glad. Now, Luca is downstairs making breakfast, waffles." Abelia said as she stood up.

"Alright, I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Got it." Abelia left and closed the door behind her.

Angela sighed as she looked at the scars on her wrists, it would take a long time for her to get past these demons that now nested in her head and the physical proof of what happened. She got up from the bed and walked to her closet. She chose a dark green sweater, grey sweats, and black socks.

As she donned her clothes, she smiled weakly when the sweater covered her wrists and the socks hiding the scars on her ankles. Yesterday, she felt so much better. She was wear a short sleeve dress and sandals and now, she was covering up. She felt like she took a step back.

She felt miserable and began to lose herself as she stared at herself in the mirror. After just two showers, her hair looked somewhat healthy again, but her skin was deathly pale and her eyes were void of life. Her eyes showed life sometimes, but that would be because of the facade she would put up.

Angela hated this feeling, she could feel it begin to take all of her. She heard dark voices in her mind, but really it was just her. She looked down at her right wrist and pulled up her sleeve a little bit and felt a pull.

She looked in the shower and found her razor, she rinsed it just in case and then slowly pressed it against the scars on her wrist and pulled. She felt her shoulders slump in relief as her blood flowed. She rinsed her razor and her wrist.

Someone knocked. Her eyes widened in panic as she quickly turned off the faucet and put her razor back.

"Angela?" it was Alessio.

"Just washing my hands, be right there." Angela ran a brush through her hair and pulled her sleeve back down. Then went to answer her door.

"Hey, just seeing how you doing? Abelia went to get you about ten minutes ago and we waited for you."

"Sorry about that. I'm ready now." Angela forced a smile, Alessio's concern for her touched her, but she couldn't let it show.

"Alright. Let's go." Alessio motioned for her to walk in front of hm and he watched her expression. She seemed more guarded now, yesterday she looked carefree. He was going to have to talk about this with Luca.

They got downstairs and saw that Luca was making waffles in the kitchen.

"Good morning Angela. How are you doing tesoro?" Angela looked up at him and saw nothing, but kindness and affection for her.

"Morning. What does that mean?" She asked as she sat at the bar and watched him.

"It means darling." Luca smiled as he watched Angela's cheeks flush a bit.

Angela looked down and played with her hands. She could guard her expressions, but she couldn't stop herself from blushing. Luca had given her a term of endearment and she liked it.

"Here, eat up." Luca chuckled and Angela saw that he set a plate of a waffle in front of her with some strawberries and whipped cream on them.

"Thanks." Angela picked up her fork and began to cut the waffle.

"So what's on the agenda today?" Abelia asked.

"Well, I don't know about them, but you're spending the day with me Beli." Alessio winked at her and she blushed.

Luca chuckled. "I've got some work to do, not much so I should be done by lunch." Luca turned to face Angela. "What do you want to do?"

Angela put her fork down and thought honestly, I want to be alone. "I'll check out the library you have."

Luca nodded his head. "Alright, I'll show you my office just so you know where it is."

A little while later, Angela was sitting in a microfiber armchair in the library with a romance book sitting on her lap. She had zoned out and was in deep thought. She said earlier that she just wanted to be alone, but now she felt alone. As if there there was no one who could help her, even though she had people around her. She wrapped her around around herself and let out a soft sob.

Angela shot her head up when she heard a knock, she turned around and saw Elia stadning against the doorway.

"What are you thinkning so hard about?" Elia asked as he came closer to her.

"I-I..." Angela whimpered and looked away.

Elia crouched down and gently grabbed her chin and turned her face to look at him. "Don't keep those things bottled up inside, it will eat you up. You can tell me and I will listen, I won't say anything."

"You won't say anything if I talk or you won't say anything to everyone?"

"Both. If you decide to trust in me to talk to me, I won't betray that trust." He let go of her chin and pounded his fist against his heart. "Honour and family. That is what us mafia men are about."

Angela let a small smile show. "I'm adopted. I was five years old when I came to live with the Kavanaughs."