"What's happening?" Loud murmurs and whispers erupts amongst the crowd. Athena feels her heart sink again. Again that skin crawling sensation takes over her senses. She frowns, glancing up at Luciano who is staring at Ariana with a heart warming smile. Feeling Athena's eyes on his face, he looks down at her and offers her that same smile.

"What the hell does this mean?!" Sarah whispers in Athena's ear angrily who flinches at the harshness her tone holds.

"Come here, Ariana." Vincenzo's cold voice brings the unsettling silence. Everyone watches as Ariana takes small steps to reach the stage but she throws a confusion filled glance in Athena's direction.

"Athena!" Athena stiffens staring up at Vincenzo. Immediately, Sarah takes a step away from her.

Ariana and others watched in shock and amazement as Vincenzo holds his hand out in front of her. Athena looks at it with an intense amount of hesitation.

"Go on, Athena." Luciano whispers in her ear. He grabs Athena's trembling hand and places it in between Vincenzo's hand who without a word pulls her up on the stage.

"As everyone can see that we have brought Ariana back." Ariana furrows her brows immediately noticing how Vincenzo's expressions slightly softens when interacting with this girl 'Athena' but upon mentioning her own, his expressions hardens like no end. Does her brothers hate her so much?

"If you have brought Ariana here now, then who the fuck is she? Why was she living under your roof and pretending to be Ari in front of everyone!" Sarah spits out in anger but immediately bites her tongue, realising. Even Max tried to tell her to shut up but got cut off by Vincenzo himself.

"Watch your mouth when you speak about one of my family member!" Vincenzo warns her emotionlessly.

"B-but this girl cannot be your f-family. Y-your real sister is Ariana..." Sarah stutters out in fear and under a lot of stress. It is the moment when Athena notices a slight smirk on Vincenzo's face. It twists the knots in her stomach.

"Yes, Athena is not our real sister. But she's our family, living with us since the last month."

"Athena is none other than the real daughter of Ivan Boris and Diana Boris." This statement freezes everyone. Athena is stunned hearing this news. She remembered her foster parents names were John and Linda. Could it be? That means Vincenzo is talking about her birth parents.

Her heart begins to beat loudly. She nervously tries to search the truth in his eyes.

"That's unbelievable!" Someone whispers in shock from the crowd. Not only that person, others are astonished too.

"No wonder, they look so much like each other." Alexander mutters, there is surprise evident in his tone but no doubt. Twins- Vittorio and Romeo nods as it also sink in their heads after a moment.

They were not aware of this truth too. Only Luciano and Vincenzo knew.

Diana Boris was an identical twin sister of Angelina Cortello. Angelina as in the mother of Vincenzo and his siblings. Diana was married to the younger brother of Russian mob boss Iaonn Boris. Ivan and Diana died exact sixteen years ago in an intentional car blast. They were coming back home from the hospital with their newborn daughter 'Athena'. Athena was born exactly two months later after Ariana's birth.

The DNA test reports proved that Athena was the daughter of Diana and Ivan. Back then, Vincenzo hid the truth from his brothers because he was not exactly sure of their reaction and he also needed to get to the bottom of that whole accident fiasco and her kidnapping.

Right now, Vincenzo just knew that Athena was their little cousin and she was in the need of protection. Ioann Boris as in Athena's uncle had mirrored his evil intentions by first buying her. But when she runaway, he tried to kill her in that accident.

Vincenzo wanted to let her leave but after knowing this whole truth, he was determined that he would not let her go in the face of danger, not at any cost, not until all of her problems are solved. In this dire time, she has to rely on his and his brothers' protection and he would offer her that, even if he has to force her to stay.

Another alarming danger was Angelo Riccardo. The tormentor of his little sister 'Ariana' who managed to escape before he and Luciano could reach there to save Ariana. He could harm both Ariana and Athena in the future because he was clearly sick in the mind.

"As Athena is still 16, she is in the need of rightful legal guardian--" His next words tenses both Ariana and Athena.

"--And I have already taken her custody." He finishes the sentence by staring right at Athena who is refusing to lift her gaze up from the floor.

Ariana's frown deepens and without a word, she storms out of there.

"From now on, Athena is truly a part of our family, the Cortello family." Unsure clapping of the audience reaches Athena's ears but she just silently moves out of the room. Her eyes seems distant.

As Athena is silently walking in the hallway, all of a sudden, a hand grabs her wrist tightly and she is pulled into Ariana's room. She looks up to find Ariana staring right at her with a look of hatred in her own eyes.

"How dare you?!" Athena flinches in fear as Ariana shouted at her.

"I was gone for what like a year and you tried to be me! Do you have no shame?!" She snaps her fingers while pointing at her room.

"I'm just simply disgusted of this room and every item of here that actually rightfully belongs to me!" She hisses, emphasizing at her every word.

"You were the one who left all these things behind. Actually everything behind stupidly." Alexander speaks out of nowhere. Ariana looks back to find him standing at the doorway.

"So you are on her side?" Ariana grits her teeth in anger. Her grip on Athena's wrist becomes unimaginably tight. Tears start to burn in Athena's eyes.

"I am on no one's side and leave her instantly." Alexander tells her calmly. He grabs Athena's hand and yanks her behind his back, out from Ariana's painful grip.

"I thought maybe you have changed after seeing the consequences of your own stupid mistakes. But I was so wrong. You are just so fucking selfish, Ariana! You never really cared about us, your own family! Now you think that we should give a shit about your probl--" Alexander cuts off mid sentence when Athena nervously tugs his sleeve to gain his attention.

He looks down at her to see her shaking her small head. He looks back again at Ariana who has uncountable tears rolling down her face.

"I HATE YOU!" She lashes out at him.

However, Alexander ignores her.

"Let's go, Athena!" He pulls the hesitant Athena out of the room. They both walk towards his room by passing Romeo on their way who silently enters Ariana's room.

Alexander makes his way in his own room and tells Athena to take a seat on the bed. Athena obliges his command and sits down. She plays with her fingers nervously as he comes back from the closet with a first aid box in his hand.

He grabs her hand in his own and starts to apply ointment on her skin.

"I know what you are thinking. I shouldn't have been so harsh on Ariana. But she needs to learn her lesson. I don't ever want her to repeat the same mistakes again and get hurt. She needs to learn the consequences of her mistakes." He tells her while slightly blowing down on Athena's bruised wrist.

On the other side, Romeo asks Ariana.

"Can we talk?"

"No! Get the fuck out of here!" She shouts at him and slams the door shut.

"I HATE YOU ALL! I HATE EVERYTHING! I HATE ANGELO, THAT MOTHERFUCKER!.......I-I hate myself." Her last whisper has been barely loud to her own ears as she falls down on her knees.

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