Edited

"And don't lie," Ezra warned from where he was standing, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed and a hard face.

Seven brothers and one sister. She was completely outnumbered! "I fell down the stairs when-"

"I believe we told you not to lie," Zayne's silky smooth voice reprimanded.

"Tell the truth, hun," Callan said. Callan and Zach had gotten off the bed and were now standing at the end of it.

Zayne was still sat in his seat, looking professional as ever, Brayden was leaning against one of the counter-tops on his right arm and Ezra, Silas and Zaiden were leaning against the doorway.

Their expressions became even darker. Maybe she could run? But she didn't think she could get as far as the edge of the bed.

"Brynn." Zayne.

He was now in front of her, out the chair, and was making painful eye contact with her. She looked at a diagram of the digestive system on the wall behind Brayden. Zayne tutted as his right hand grasped her chin and angled her head to look at him. "Brynn," he repeated more sternly.

He took a deep breath and his nose flared in the slightest. "Did someone give you these marks?" he glanced down at the bandaged shoulders which were just visible under the loose white shirt Brayden had her wear.

Brynn scanned the rest of the room to watch the rest of the brothers' faces. "Don't look at them, look at me," Zayne forced her attention back to him. "Did someone hurt you?"

She really couldn't keep a strong front anymore. It was overwhelming, thinking about what has happened and the current situation she was in. Sucking in her bottom lip and breathing her nose, her chest stuttered. It was too much. She nodded and could practically feel the tense silence. Zayne's grip tightened substantially and his face was blank.

"Who?" he didn't really ask, it was almost like he'd already figured it out.

She didn't do anything. What was she supposed to say? Milo? The guy mum left me with? The man so many people put their trust in?

"Brynn Marie Verlice, answer us," Callan ordered. Brynn didn't even want to imagine what his face looked like right now. He even used her middle name.

She still stayed silent. A few more unbearable seconds of silence and they weren't having it anymore.

"Brynn," Ezra's voice growled as his arm slammed on the door frame nearly shaking the whole room. Unlike the rest of the brothers, who stayed in their places not shocked by Ezra's sudden outburst, she shrinked backwards, both literally and figuratively, "Milo!"

Everyone froze, except Zayne. His stare grew more tense and his jaw was practically shaking. Wanting to be alone has never been a more prominent want in Brynn's mind.

"Everyone, except Callan, out," Zayne ordered them and soon after, protests immediately sprang around the room.

Brynn lowered her head, and vision, as much as she could in Zayne's grip. The grip loosened as Zayne turned his head over his left shoulder, effectively silencing the room when he did so. The ones he silenced balled their fists up and held looks with him, agitatedly and angrily.

"Come on," Brayden walked out first, followed, reluctantly, by the others. Once the door closed, Zayne released his grip and looked back at Brynn with an unreadable expression. "Brynn, I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to answer them honestly. You can nod or shake your head just this once, okay?"

Relieved she didn't have to talk, she nodded weakly, wanting this over with as soon as possible. Callan came over and sat by her side, at an appropriate distance away with twitching hands. "Has this been a recent thing?" The questions began.

Brynn thought about it, then shook her head. There was no point in lying at this point. "Has this been happening since you came into his custody?" She bit her lip and nodded. Her eyes focused on the sheets and nowhere else. There was no way out of this now. Zayne inhaled deeply and momentarily closed his eyes as Callan did his best to shuffle closer to the girl unnoticeably.

"Four years." Zayne opened his eyes with his usual vacant face. "When was the last time he did this?"

"The day before he died."

"How often did he do this?"

She took a shaky breath before answering, "every day." Callan's movements to get closer stopped and he took a sharp intake of breath. Zayne ran his tongue along the inside of his bottom lip and shook his head again.

"Brynn, this might be difficult for you to answer but I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me," Zayne said strictly. She nodded in understanding and he sucked in a breath almost painfully. Almost as if preparing himself for what he was about to ask.

"Did Milo ever touch you? In an inappropriate way?" ...

Her eyes filled to the brim with tears and she choked on a breath, giving a barely noticeable nod and the two tensed. "Oh my god," Callan muttered, right hand over his mouth as he moved the final centimetres to touch Brynn, embracing her despite the subtle resist she had.

The door slammed open making her resistance to cease. "WHAT THE FUCK ZAYNE!" Zach stormed in with a pissed expression, the door banged against the wall, no doubt leaving a dent. Behind him were the rest of them that went outside looking just like he did. Were they all listening at the door way?

"Zach go back out-" Zach dared to cut Zayne off, "no Zayne, how can you be so-"

"Zach!" Callan bellowed from above her head. She flinched at the volume of his voice, trying to get out of his hold. Zayne gave Callan a look and Callan kissed her hairline lightly, stopping her struggling entirely out of pure shock and uncertainty. He stood up went over to Zach grabbing his shoulder, then whispering something she couldn't hear into his ear.

Brynn moved her eyes from the two to look behind them, through the door frame. It was an alternate to looking at Zayne, albeit still just as nerve-wracking.

She looked to Brayden, who looked furious, to Ezra, who looked blank, but somehow holding the same look Brayden had. Once their eyes properly locked, Brynn inhaled sharply and looked away, back to Zach who was still listening to Callan whilst watching her.

She'd felt like she'd already stated how uncomfortable she was numerous times, many just not out loud.

Eventually, Callan coaxed a despondent Zach out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

It was just the youngest and the oldest now. Brynn and Zayne.

"Brynn."

Brynn looked towards Zayne. He wasn't even looking at her directly, running his tongue over his lips a few times and cracking his knuckles. Brynn brought her left thumb to her left ring finger to repeatedly brush over the hangnail there, nervously.

He slowly reached both his hands out, encasing her entire left hand in them. His thumbs stroked over the flesh on the knuckles as he started speaking again. "Words cannot describe or explain how sorry I am."

"You didn't know." She really wanted this conversation to be over and she did not want Zayne to feel any guilt whatsoever. If he even was feeling anything.

"It doesn't matter if I was aware of this or not, the second you mother died, you should have come right home to us, where you belong. You should have never left in the first place and we are so sorry that you have been through this," his hands tightened ever so slightly around hers which she looked down on. She watched as his right hand moved away from the hold, coming closer to her chin until he lifted her head fully.

That was all he did. She was compelled to keep staring at him as he did her, he didn't look like he was going to say anything, but his stare felt like it meant something. Even the utter silence in the room avoided the loud, tense invisible force field around them.

After exactly a minute, Zayne broke the force field, "I'll get Callan to get you some breakfast, drink some water," he let go of her hand and stood up.

"I'm not really-" he raised an eyebrow, daring a protest.

Seemingly satisfied with the silence, Zayne nodded once, buttoned up his blazer and with that, left. He probably had an office here. But Brynn didn't know what he was going to do?

The second he opened the door, she could see Callan and Zach outside the door with worried expressions. Where the others had gone, she didn't know but she was grateful they weren't there.

"Hey, hun," Callan pitying tone spoke. They both stepped forward and she felt highly anxious Would they be mad? Would they not like her anymore? She began to scratch her right leg like she usually did when she got anxious, it was itchy a lot too.

Callan's eyes caught the scratching and he furrowed his face, picking up his pace and moving her hand away slowly. Brynn shuffled backwards when he reached for her right pant leg, but didn't move fast enough. He'd already grasped it and lifted it to reveal an angry red rash. He tutted, "your eczema is still just as bad."

Eczema? "What's that?" she asked, moving her right foot around in circles, still not okay with the comfortableness her brother had around her. She didn't feel like that just yet and she didn't know if she ever would. That wasn't a comforting feeling and she didn't like it.

"You don't know you have eczema? It's a skin condition you've had since you were a baby, I guess you never grew out of it," Callan explained with a soft face.

He went to the cupboard above the sink in search of something. Moving some bottles and boxes around, he finally found what he was looking for. "Ah, I knew we still had it," he grinned and opened the container he got out. It was some sort of cream. He sat back, kneeled down by the bed, scooped some out and began applying some to the rash.

Brynn sat still, watching any and all movement he did, unsurely.

The last time she got a rash like this, Milo had caught her scratching it and made her keep going until it was red raw and bleeding all over. It took ages for it to scab properly and burned when anything even grazed it.

She rubbed her left elbow thoughtfully, her stomach dropping at the memory. Mum or Milo never told her she had eczema.

Callan finished with the cream and put the lid back on the tub, "I'm going to get breakfast for everyone, will you be alright with this moron?" Zach didn't retort as he was too busy blowing up the blue balloon which she didn't see before. She nodded giving him her best 'I'm fine' smile.

He leaned forward to kiss another hairline kiss, but paused when Brynn moved her head back. She looked him up and down, awkwardly, as he back himself up and gave a hurt smile. By the time he had left and the door was fully shut, Zach was now tying the balloon licking his lips with full concentration. In a way, it reminded her of a child.

When he successfully tied it, he bounced it up and gave a 'look what I did' look.

"Don't tell Callan I got this from one of Brayden's drawers, otherwise he'd be all on me about being sanitary and stuff," Zach mumbled, already bouncing the balloon in his right hand. "Would you like to play?"

Brynn grinned at him and fully turned to him showing him she was ready to play. Playing what? She didn't know. But Zach looked excited about it.

Throwing the balloon up once again, he whacked it towards her, it coming just above her head before lowering in a flowy-like manner. She decided to follow his movements. Lifting her left hand up, as high as she could without wanting to wince and whacked it back to him.

And that's what they did for the next thirty minutes, Zach dubbed it the 'no touching the floor' game'. The balloon wasn't allowed to touch the floor, but an exception was made for when it landed on the bed, although, Brynn did everything she could to ensure that it wouldn't land on the bed as did Zach with the floor.

She didn't even think he realised how cool this was for her. Pathetic, she knew, but she was playing a balloon game with her brother. Her brother. And no one could take that away from her.

---

Brayden made her stay in medic for a little while longer for the occasional check-up on the bandages. He also made her eat a few french fries to 'keep her strength up'.

She'd wondered, as she was eating, what this building was. Passing by, she saw many hosiptal beds and doors with locks on. Brayden said that this was only one of their buildings, so do the others look the same? How many were there?

There were so many questions yet she couldn't summon up any courage to ask them.

Brushing them off, she focused on her chipped nails as they hit a bump in the road. She and Zach were on their way home in this huge black range rover being driven by a daunting-looking man. Brayden wouldn't let Zach drive as he was, apparently, wasn't trusted enough to drive that far yet.

Brayden also gave her this larger t-shirt to cover up properly. She didn't know what was wrong with the other top he gave her before but he was firm with this shirt. The top had a band called "The Stone Roses" on it. She didn't even know who they were.

Arriving home, Brynn found she wasn't to be out of Zach's sight for more than a minute. Possibly something he was told to do by Brayden or something. She was taken to the gaming room. The gaming room was as big as the cinema room with hundreds of tvs and gaming consoles.

"This is Minecraft. You can build and break different blocks and have cool pets," he said getting two weird looking remotes. He pressed play and the girl tried to make sense of the alien looking controller. Zach saw she wasn't moving and looked down at the remote and back up at her with a questioning eyebrow.

"There's too many buttons," she mumbled. He chuffed, softly, "here," he abandoned his own remote and reached over her hands, to which she froze, just letting him do what he wanted. There was nothing else she felt she could do.

He held the controller with his hands over her frozen ones. His fingers were over her fingers and his thumb was over her thumb as he instructed seriously, "now this button here," he pressed down on her numb finger gently to press the button, "is to break the blocks, see," they looked at the screen. "And this one," he pressed on her other finger, "is to build," he placed a wooden block down. "See look at that, you're a pro already."

Five minutes into playing and I felt a weight on her shoulder. Looking down, she saw Zach's mop of dark hair in her face; his eyes were still focused intently on the game as he got comfy.

This was odd. She'd never had someone seek out comfort in her, especially not like this. She didn't want to move, any movement could lead to Zach not being comfortable with her anymore and she didn't know how she felt about that.

She even evened her breathing out so her shoulders didn't move so much, keeping them as still as she could.

Maybe she could get used to this.

Just maybe.

At five forty-five pm, Silas opened the door and leaned on the frame watching them play, boredly. He looked like he'd calmed down a lot.

Zach noticed him and paused the game, "dinner's ready, Jacob and Mika are here too," Silas informed blandly and went back downstairs. Brynn remembered Jacob but who was Mika?

"Let's go, love," Zach shifted them up.

"Who's Mika?"

"Another family friend like Jacob," Zach answered.

Brynn's face dropped. What if he expected her to remember him? She didn't want to upset him.

Zach put a reassuring hand on her arm, "don't worry, he understands you don't remember."

"Does he know about Milo?" she asked nervously scratching her arm. She'd really hoped they didn't tell him about it, she didn't even want anyone knowing about it.

Zach didn't respond nor did he make any eye contact. Great.

"What if he doesn't like me?" she mumbled, She know she didn't know him but she still wanted him to like her. Zach chuckled "he already does, love."

"How do you know?"

"He's known you since you were born, Brynn, I assure you he still believes you're best friends."

Best friends?

When they walked past the bathroom, a man she hadn't seen before came out. He had jet black styled hair, a honey skin tone and almost white eyes.

He first saw Zach. "Zach! How's it going, bud?"

"Not too bad," Zach responded then patted her shoulder, "Brynn, this is Mika. Mika, you know Brynn."

Mika's eyes widened while a nostalgic look crossed his features, "Brynn, my love," she winced as he pulled her into a hug but he didn't seem to mind, in fact he seemed to hold her tighter. "Haven't you grown beautifully?"

Blushing, she pulled away. "Hi-"

"Zayne told you guys to hurry up," Zaiden ordered coming up the stairs.

"Well we mustn't disappoint big bad Zayne," Mika joked, grinning at me so wide, she felt it would be illegal not to return with her own.

They went to the dining room where everyone was. Everyone.

The whole meal Mika was telling her old stories about when she was a baby and embarrassing stories about the brothers.

The happy mood was put to a serious one when Zayne spoke up, "Brynn, you won't be starting school tomorrow with your brothers, instead you'll be staying at home for another week." Oh no. She really wanted to start school as funny as it sounds, it was the first day of year eight and she didn't want to be the "new kid who joined late". Especially not in a new school.

"I really don't need to-" she was cut short once again. "Brynn, you are staying home and that's final," Zayne ordered and she obeyed, of course. Of course, she did.

"Since Callan and I will be at work and Silas, Zaiden and Zach will be at school, you will be spending your day with Ezra tomorrow," Zayne also added on.

What?

Ezra stared blankly at the kitchen table.

---

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