Isabella

"There's someone here to see you with Emilio, Romolo and your grandfather." She said nervous.

"Who?" I asked confused.

"A lawyer."

The trail.

Shit.

"I- I'll be down in a second." I said and Crystal nodded.

"Are you sure you ready for this?"

"When people are at their lowest point, they tend to trust the first person they see. When it's a stranger or not, they just do. I had that with you and your mom. I told you everything because I was at my lowest. But I'm not at my lowest anymore. Yes, I'm still low but not at my lowest. I don't know if I can-"

"Isabella, breath." Katie said and I placed my head in my hands and took deep breaths.

"I can't just open up again like that again, Katie." I was gripping my hair and panic was flowing through me. "What am I going to do? Oh my god I'm totally-"

"Isabella, look at me. Breath. You got this. You tell them what you want them to know and you take your time. You want me to be there with you?" She asked slowly and I started to relax more.

"No, as much I want you do, this is my battle. I need to do this on my own." I sighed and Katie nodded.

"Get a shower stinky, I'll meet you downstairs." She chuckled and I had a small smile on my face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I took a deep breath and opened the door that led to the living room. When I entered everyone stood up.

"Loca." Emilio smiled and I instantly relaxed.

"Lio." I said

We started running to each other and in the middle of the way between us he lifted me and spun me around.

"I missed you like crazy loca." Emilio said with his head in my neck and my feet dangling.

"I missed you more Lio." I mumbled as I hugged him harder.

"Damn, if I didn't know you missed me I would say you were trying to kill me." He chuckled and I let go of my tight hold on him and smiled at him.

"That is just so adorable!" Katie tried to whisper but failed like no one did before. I gave her a glance and her eyes went wide.

"I ruined the moment?" She asked and I nodded.

"Sorry." She smiled softly and I shook my head while having a small smile on my lips. Emilio placed me back on my feet and I looked around in the room.

My eyes lighted up when I saw my future partner in crime.

"GRANDPA!" I screamed out and ran to him. He laughed as he caught me and kissed my forehead. He tilted me up so we were face to face. Yes, grandpa was still a big guy.

"Hello princess. I hope you don't mind we have a little visit?" He said playfully.

"Even if I don't want to -which I do!- it wouldn't stop you." I rolled my eyes and he chuckled.

"Smart girl." He patted my head and placed me on the ground. I looked next to him and my glare turned playfully.

"The evil uncle that I love so much. How are you doing oldie?" I asked Romolo while hitting his upper arm.

"Who are you calling old and evil, little one?"

"You, damn oldie, you need your hearing device?" I joked and he stared playfully at me.

"You little trouble maker." He said before he lifted me up and carried me like a baby.

"Hey!" I said shocked and everyone in the room laughed.

"What? I never got to cradle you as a baby so I'm doing it now." I laughed at this and let him do his way.

"How are the devils you created doing?" I asked. I couldn't help but be curious.

Would they be fine without me? Would they care? Maybe it doesn't affect them too much... Would there be chaos or would everything be better? What would they talk about at dinner? Aren't there too much disagreements?

"Those devils are a mess. They don't sleep, don't eat that much, all they do is looking for you and finding a way to get you back." Romolo sighed and grandpa nodded

"That's not going to happen any time soon. I need time, this time they went way too far." I said, looking at the ground.

"We know princess. But something tells me you have a plan." Grandpa winked at me and I started smiling.

"Of course I do. Right now I need time to think and I need to find myself more. So I'm going to try another sport." I said excitedly

"Really? What sport?" Emilio asked curious.

"Boxing." I said proud and all three men looked at each other and started smiling.

"Am I missing something?" I asked them.

"No, we're just so proud of you for standing up at our family when they're wrong and now you're growing up." Grandpa smiled at me and Romolo kissed my hair.

"I can't believe I missed such a big part of your childhood..." Romolo sighed.

"We can't turn back time evil one, but we can make these moments count!" I said to him and ruffled his hair what made him pout.

"You're right loca, like always. Speaking of childhood, let's talk somewhere private."

"No need. Katie and Crystal know everything and I think I'm ready to tell grandpa and uncle Romolo.

"Tell us what?" Uncle Romolo and grandpa said together.

"You'll see." Emilio said and turned to a guy that stood in the corner. "Let's get this over with, Gary." He sighed.

The man took a few steps closer to me and started speaking.

"Good morning, Miss Castillo. I'm Gary Anderson, the Castillos family's lawyer. Its a pleasure to meet you." He said friendly.

"Pleasure's all mine Mr. Anderson." I said politely.

"Would you like to tell me everything you're comfortable with about what happened with your mom and stepdad?"

I took a big breath and motioned Everyone to sit down.

"How long do we have until the trail?" I asked Gary.

"Three weeks."

"Is it good, I tell you until I can't anymore four times a week, three weeks long?" I asked.

"Of course, I think that's a great idea! Thank you for working so good with me Miss Castillo, I understand this must be hard."

"Thank you, now let's get this over with."

"Is it okay if I ask you some questions?"

"Go on."

"When did the abuse start?"

"The what now?!" Grandpa screamed out.

"Please for the love of all fucking nations, tell me this is a joke." Romolo said, standing up.

"Uncle, Grandpa, I'm afraid it's true. Kiara and Logan have abused Bella for as long as she can remember." Emilio sighed and I could see grandpa looking at me desperately.

"Princess... is it... true?" He asked and all I could do was nod. Both grandpa and Romolo took a big breath.

"Romolo son, call our companies. Make sure they can handle things for a long while. We're staying until this whole mess is solved and Kiara and Logan have been dealt with. No one else except our inner circle needs to know we're staying so long." Grandpa said.

"That's not-" I tried but someone interrupted.

"No, little one. We're staying. We knew we were staying until everything is cooled down with you and the family but now we're staying for the trail too. You can't talk it out of us sweetheart." He said, looking at me with a sad look.

"We're family, we're here to support you and we're not leaving until I'm sure you're okay again." Grandpa said and no one dared to go against grandpa.

"Fine." I sighed. "Thank you." I looked up and smiled. They both returned it and Romolo placed me on his lap.

"Okay, moving on to the question." Emilio said and pointed to Gary to move on.

"So, when did the abuse start?"

"I'm not sure, the older I came, the harder the beatings got." I shrugged.

"What were the things they did to you? Can you describe them?"

"Cutting, punching, slapping, verbal, burning water, pushing, starving and chores. Those were the mains I think." I said in a shaky breath. I could feel uncle Romolo's grip harden on me.

"Who did they most abuse?"

"Logan. Mom only slapped me and abused me mentally." I said without thinking. "But most of the time she would look at Logan beating me up and just standing there in the corner laughing at me. Like she enjoys seeing me in pain." I said, my expression was like I was thinking on a hard math problem.

"Did you try to escape?"

"Multiple times yes." I answered and grandpa gave me a proud smile.

"How did they find out?"

"If I would have known, they wouldn't have found me in the first place." I snapped.

"Sorry, did someone else know about the abuse?"

"No."

"Is there a chance there is some sort of proof they abused you? Like a video tape?" He asked and I take a deep breath.

"Take your time princess." Grandpa said.

I closed my eyes and rook another deep breath.

"Once a month they did film like a day routine with abuse. It's in their safe I think." I said in one breath. Why didn't I even think about this sooner?

"That's good, I'll ask the attorney for permission to use it. I think that's all for today, you did great Isabella." Gary stood up, shook hands with the males and Crystal

"You're a strong girl Isabella for telling us about those memories. I'm going to make sure you get justice." He gave me a small nod, I returned it and he then left to do his job.

"Someone wants a cup of tea?" Crystal said after a long awkward silence.

"Not me, I think I'm going to take a nap." I said and laid down on the couch.

"Right here, right now?" Katie asked.

"Mhmh." I said sleepy and heard some people chuckle.

The last thing I felt was someone lifting my head and placing it on their lap. Then the person started to caress my hair and speak softly to me. And I'm pretty sure that I recognized the voice of Romolo.

"You're safe now little one. Even from our own family." He sighed and after that I fell out like a light with a small smile on my lips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up in my bed all fresh and with a good mood. I looked at the time and I saw it was eight A.M.

My door was pushed open and a blinding light entered my room so I covered my eyes with my hand.

"Rise and shine ugly shit! We're getting you into a boxing school. Now get that smelly ass in the shower." She yelled as she pulled the covers away from me and pushed me off of my bed.

"Since when does the devil live in your body?" I asked annoyed.

"Since I was pushed out of my mom's vagina." She shrugged and I chuckled at her response.

"Get some soap! You can't see your mother with such a dirty mouth!" I yelled as I was walking to the shower. I heard her chuckle at the stairs and then closed the bathroom door and locked it.

I took my time to wash myself, enjoying the warm water running down on my body. Telling them about the abuse made me feel dirtier then usual. I started scrubbing myself until I saw my skin turning red.

I stopped doing what I was about to do and dropped the soap. What the hell am I doing? This isn't me. You are Isabella Gabriella Castillo. Named after your father, you don't be sad in the shower just because of some stupid painful memories.

No, I'm not going to fall into that hole. Not now, not ever. I won't allow myself.

I turned the shower off, took a deep breath and walked out of the shower. After I dried myself I took a sporty outfit and headed downstairs. I chose a two piece matching outfit with a high ponytail and black sport shoes.



I ran downstairs and grabbed the breakfast Crystal made me and got into the car.

"You ready dear?" Crystal asked. Crystal was on the wheel why Katie sat next to her and I sat in the back eating my breakfast.

"As ready as I'll be." I shrugged while gulping down my water.

"You might want to slow down on that bottle dear.' Crystal chuckled.

"Sorry." I said awkwardly.

"So there's this boxing studio pretty close to our house, but a little further from your brothers' house." Katie said while checking google maps on her phone.

"Sounds perfect to me." I said and we all laughed. Then 'Hot girl bummer' from Blackbear came on the radio. Katie looked at me and we both started sing out loud.

"Fuck you and you, and you!"

"I hate your friends and they hate me too!"

"I'm through, I'm through, I'm through!"

"This that hot girl bummer anthem!"

"Turn it up and throw a tantrum!"

"You girls know every damn song, I swear to god is there one song you guys don't know?"

"Probably, but we'll never know mother dearest." Katie chuckled evilly and I just smiled at the two bickering in front of me.

After a good twenty minutes drive to the studio we got out of the car.

"I guess this is it. Let me guess, you want to do it alone, right?" Katie looked at me and even Crystal turned around to face me.

"Correct. This is something I also need to do on my own." I sighed. "Thanks for bringing me." I said to Crystal. "And thanks for being with me." I said to Katie.

"No problem dear." Crystal smiled.

"Don't worry about it ugly ass." Katie joked and I fake punched her what made the two amazing ladies in front of me laugh.

"Now, go inside. There's not a lot of people so good luck." Crystal said and waved at me before pushing Katie back to the car.

"Message me when you're done!" She yelled before driving off.

I looked at the huge building and took a deep breath. The amounts of deep breath these two days is insane.

Here goes nothing I guess.

I walked into the building and my mouth fell open. There was this huge, beautiful, white reception with a young man behind a desk. After the young man, you could see a room full of lockers. To the left of the man with the desk was the start of a bar, I think. To the right of the man was a long hallway, probably leading to the gyms. Between the huge hallway and the man were also elevator and stairs, leading to the next flours.

I wonder how many there are....

I walked to the young man and coughed to get his attention.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if I could get a subscription to come boxing?" I asked politely.

The man looked me up and down and gave me a weird expression.

"How old are you sweety?" He said kindly.

"Fifteen sir."

"I'm sorry, you have to be at least sixteen to get a subscription and you need your legal guardian to sign the papers." He said to me.

Fuck.

"Isn't there an other way? I really want to try this out." I pleaded.

"I'm sorry kiddo, it's protocol." He answered with a sad look.

"Is there a problem?" A huge man asked, coming out of the elevator.

"No, sir. This girl just wanted to ask for a subscription but she's too young." The man explained to the huge ass man that came out of the elevator.

"Mhhh, I see. Why do you want to start boxing kid?" The man asked.

"I wanted to try something new, but thanks for helping." I was about to step away but the elevator man stopped me.

"Wait! If you can prove yourself, I'll train you personally." He said.

"Train me personally? And who might you be then?" I asked and both man looked at me shocked.

"You don't know who he is?" The man behind the desk asked scared. What the frick is going on?"

"Uhmm... no...?"

"No need to scare the girl David, it's good she doesn't know who I am. I'm the owner of teh building kid. Come with me." He said and turned around back to the elevator. The door moved open and we stepped inside.

As soon as the door closed again, I was grabbed from behind.

Oh hell naw

I stamped on his foot and threw my elbow back into his stomach. Then I put all my weight back, causing his head to bang against the wall. I turned and started punching his face but after three hits he was able to grab my fist. I mentally prepared myself for his punch, but it never came.

"Nice defense, but we can work on that." He chuckled.

You've got to be kidding me.

"Tell me you're joking and you just didn't do that to see what I was capable of." I said shocked.

"Sorry kid, it was the fastest and best way to find out. You have a pretty good punch tho." He shrugged.

"You're crazy." I said and pressed the button to get out of the elevator.

"Woha, okay okay, I know that maybe it wasn't the smartest method but I really see potential in you." He said.

"Fine, but don't even think about attacking me again." I pointed at him.

"I won't, I won't." He smiled but my gut told me to believe him and trust him. So that's what I did. He led me to his office on the third top floor. He sat down but I didn't want to sit down with him yet so I kept standing.

"Fine, don't sit then. Let's discuss a few things first. Name, age, that shit."

"I'm Isabella, fifteen, moved here recently, got some trouble at home so I came here." I shrugged. "Your turn." I said stern what made a small smile appear on his face.

"Easy tiger, I'm Nikos Galanis, 35 and owner of Galanis' hotels and casino's and owner of Gal's fighters." He said with a proud look.

"I'm Isabella Castillo, 15 and owner of sass comments." I said back with the same proud look he gave me.

"Castillo? As in Gabriel, Romolo and Luigi Castillo?" He asked surprised. My eyes narrowed with the mentioning of the name of my father.

"How do you know my family?" I asked him.

"We worked together once for... business. Also Lorenzo and his brothers came here a lot when they were young." He explained.

"Yeah, I don't think I'm going to train here, but thanks for your time." I said while turning around.

"Wait! You said you had some trouble at home? What if I don't tell your brothers you're here and you can come train at the fourth top floor, it's the place where the highest fighters train. They'l never know, and they haven't come down here in years." He said.

"I don't know Mr. Galanis. I really don't want my brothers to find out." I sighed.

"Nikos is fine. Now listen Isabella, I really think you have a lot of potential, with a good trainer and some effort you can quickly become one of my best fighters. Give it a shot and if it doesn't work out or your brothers find out you can leave." He said.

"Fine."

"Great, now let's discuss business. You're going to train three times a week with me, when do you want to train?"

"Saturday, Monday and Thursday. Am I allowed to train alone all the other days?"

"Yes, you are. If you still need advice or help I can always give you a quick explanation or advice." He said with a small smile.

"At what hour should I come?" I asked.

"You choose. Each training one hour and thirty minutes."

"What about seven P.M. until eight P.M. thirty?" I asked and he nodded.

"That's perfect, they're not a lot of people at that hour so you'll be able to train almost alone." He said.

"Good, are there showers?"

"Yes, a very important question. Every floor has two shower rooms." He chuckled. "I'll give you a client card, show it every time you pass the counter on the first floor and then scan it in the elevator. It will bring you to your floor." He explained.

"How much do I own you?"

"It's 70 dollars each month but you can pay a year subscription for 780 instead of 840 dollars. It's up to you if you're taking the risk to see your brothers but already paid for a whole year." He said and waited for my answer.

Like hell I'm going to be scared to do something just for my brothers.

"I'll try the first month for 70 dollars, if I like it then you can change it into a year subscription. If I don't, I'll be gone and you won't tell a damn word to my brothers." I said in a cold voice that says 'don't argue with me'.

"Sounds good. You really are a Castillo." He chuckled.

"How come?" I asked curious.

"First, you have Gabriel's eyes. Second that voice even made me scared for a second." He shrugged and I felt a proud feeling washing over me.

I grabbed my phone where I got some money in my phone case. When I was still living with my mother, I used to work now and then, so I got some money but now much. I'll find a way to pay that year subscription when the time comes.

"Here you go." I gave him his seventy dollars.

"Alright, they're making your card as we speak now. In the mean time, I could give you a tour?"

"Sounds good."

He stood up and walked to the door with me behind him.

"I'll show you the first floor and then we'll go higher and higher and I'll end with the floor you'll be training at." He said and I simply just nodded.

We took the elevator back to the floor ground and he walked to the man behind the desk.

"As you probably already know, this is David. Behind David are our lockers, yours is number 665 and here's your key." He gave me a key with the number 665 on it.

"It's designed so you can hang it on your client card." He said and we walked to the left.

"Here's our public cafe with cafeteria. You can always eat or drink something in here but it's usually used to catch up with other members." He showed me a beautiful open room with huge windows. The furniture was all black with golden accents and there was soft music playing in the background.

He then led me to the left of the first floor.

"Here train mostly all our newbies and beginners. The higher you go, the better you are. Every floor has two our four shower rooms with each three toilets. The fourth top floor is the highest floor you can be. The third top floor is my office and the second top floor and top floor is used as living space." He said and all I did was listen and nod.

We walked back to the elevator and stopped at every floor so Nikos could show me every rang of the fighters. His fighter's club was beautiful, I'm not going to lie.

"And last but not least, your floor. Here are the four shower rooms and this is the only floor with a private bar. It's a small one but still."

He showed me a small, cozy room with dim lights and white accents.

"Your building is absolutely beautiful." I said in aw.

"Thank you, Isabella." He said with a smile.

"Bella is fine, Nikos." I said and he nodded.

"Well then, Bella, you have your first training next Monday. Don't forget to bring water and towels, I'm not going easy on you." He smirked and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, as you wish princess." I fake laughed and did a courtesy what made us both chuckle.

My eyes took in the whole place but stopped at two men fighting in the ring. One was a lot younger than the other. They were walking circles around each other before the young one attacked. He was fast and knew what he was doing.

Seeing the other man's reaction, he was also strong and winning the battle. Not even ten seconds later the older man was knock out and the younger man won. He reached out to the older man and pulled him up. They bro hugged each other and he whispered something in the older man's ear.

He jumped out of the ring and walked to his water bottle with his back facing me.

Who was this guy?

"That's my son, Calix , he started boxing when he was nine and entered fighting matches when he was thirteen. Now he's seventeen and four year long champion of every match in the region. He became first place this year in nationals." Nikos said proud.

Right after he said that, Calix turned around and locked eyes with me.

Holy mother of gods.

His light blue eyes kept staring at me and I couldn't look away. He had soft curly brow hair with a light sun tan. His jawline was sharp and so were his eyebrows. He had some tattoos on his neck and arm but I'm sure there were even more. I even think his eye lashes were longer than mine as he kept staring at me.



As my eyes moved lower, you could clearly see he had a six pack, if it wasn't an eight pack. He had a Nike jogging with a grey tank top. He was sweating and grabbed a towel to dry himself.

After a few minutes staring at each other, he shook his hair and walked away.

"Let's go to my office, they got your card and you can sign the papers." Nikos said and I slowly got out of my trance. What the hell was that? I started following Nikos back to his office.

He opened the door and walked inside, only when I was about to enter, something stopped me from doing so.

"Hey dad I was just-" Calix started but stopped after seeing me standing in the doorway.

Oh shoot me already.

Hi

So I'm back now, with lots of ideas. Sorry for the long wait, I literally slept for almost two days hehe.

Thank you so much for the 100K you guys! I was so shocked when Katie told me, I didn't even believe it. All the support, kind comments and messages are insane! I love all of you so much, thank you <3

Now I hope you enjoyed this chapter and let's all pretend I proof read this because I wanted to publish as soon as possible soooo.

Thank you for reading and see you in the next chapter <33