"Umm." Athena just stares at him and he raises his brow by continuously staring back at her. After a short awkward moment, he decides to cut off this annoying staring contest.

"Ariana! What did I just say to you! Do it now." He says sternly. Athena stares at the floor below her and frowns. Alexander lets out an exasperated sigh. His head has began to hurt.

"What's the matter? You are just looking at me or at the floor like a fool and not even speaking anything!" He yells at her. He feels a little bad when she flinches back in fear and tears are already gathered in her eyes.

"You can go, Alexander." Athena hears Vincenzo's voice and there he is standing at the door wearing workout clothes.

"She's so difficult, I swear to God-" Alexander mutters while storming out of the gym. Athena looks down again when Vincenzo's gaze meets her.

"Ariana...Come here." He calls her. She hesitantly comes out from the corner.

"I am going to demonstrate it to you and you will follow what I am doing." She slightly nods her head. He gets down on the floor and does five push ups. Athena tries to follow his lead looking confused. He looks back at her and stands up.

"Ok. I see that you completely forget everything in the span of one year. So I am going to instruct you now. Begin with your chest and stomach flat on the floor. Your legs should be straight out behind you." He takes notice of the tremble of her arms but does not comment.

"Keep your palms at chest level and bend your arms at a 45°degree angle."

"Not like that, Ariana." Athena shakes slightly as he grabs her arms and bends them in the correct position.

"Now exhale and push your body from your hands and heels." He instructs her.

"Good! But only bring your torso, chest and thighs off the ground." She tries to follow his instruction but she was not able to hold the position for long and she falls right down on her belly.

Her cheeks turns beet red and a tear of grievance manages to roll down her cheek again.

"Get yourself together, Ariana and get back in the position." He commands. He does not sound angry nor does he sound annoyed. He is just calm. Emotionlessly calm.

Ariana tries to do it again but everytime she manages to fall. It feels like her body has no strength.

"Can't." She whispers. She does not even try to hide the fact that she is about to start crying any next second.

"You can, Ariana. Try again." He says in the same tone again. With the next few minutes of failure, she finally learns to hold her balance. But it was only for five seconds.

"That's an improvement. Just keep trying." She nods her head and keeps trying. He sounds a little impressed. It is a good sign that he would not kill her after getting angry. It takes her complete twenty minutes to hold herself in the position for at least twenty seconds.

"Now pause for a second in this position and then inhale as you slowly lower back to your starting position." Athena is confused. If it is only for a second so why was he making her hold the position for twenty seconds. She follows his words but this time quickly. It does not feel much difficult now.

"Very good, Ariana! Now do ten push-ups and we are done here." She manages to do it and stands up. Her arms and shoulders are hurting badly and it feels like electric current is flowing in them. It feels weird.

"Now...Relax your mind for a bit and get on the treadmill for 15 minutes."

****************

The three hours are finally over. Ariana slams her body down on the bed completely sweaty and exhausted. She does not even notice when sleep takes over her tired senses.

Few minutes later, Romeo knocks on the door and enters. A smile crawl on his lips as he finds her sleeping on her stomach and hugging her pillow.

"Ariana." He gently shakes her awake. Athena opens her eyes and looks up at him.

"Was Vincenzo too hard on you?" He asks her. Athena shrugs her shoulders tiredly not knowing how to reply. He was just being stern but he was not really hard on her. He had just let her get adjusted to the things slowly. He did not seem to care if teaching her too much time.

He was so patient with her and Athena did not know what to feel about it. No-one had given her such attention before.

"Breakfast will be served in next 20 minutes. Go take a shower and come downstairs." He tells her. Athena slowly nods her head and watches him as he walks out of the room but suddenly he pauses.

"Sorry if I scared you yesterday. I didn't mean to." Athena takes note of the guilt in his tone.

Before she could think more of it, he walks out of the door.

Athena jumps into the shower this time and quickly dresses up in a red long sleeve top that she tucked into her black pants and walks downstairs barefeet.

On the dining table, only Romeo and Vittorio are present. They look at her. Vittorio's gaze falls down at her bare feet as she shyly moves to take a seat. He looks suspicious for some reason.

She simply puts her hands around her chin and stares in the space. Her muscles are aching and it feels like her bones are subtly in the process of cracking.

"Ariana, you are going to the hospital with Vincenzo for a regular check up." Luciano informs after pressing a kiss on the top of her head. He takes a seat beside her and looks at her somewhat aggrieved face with a smile.

Athena nods her head politely but feels her nerves twist a little for some reason.

Vincenzo and Alexander enters the room next. They take their respective seats and everyone resumes eating.

Halfway through her huge breakfast, Athena feels like her stomach is going to explode anytime soon.

"Finish your food, sweetheart." Luciano tells her but Athena slowly shakes her head.

"Ok. But you are not getting out of here without finishing your favourite things. I especially prepared them for you. First, your favourite nutella sandwich." With a half heart, Athena takes a bite of it making Luciano feel a bit satisfied as her blank eyes suddenly lights up.

"Very good, sweetheart." He smiles at her and requests the maid to bring a cup of cappuccino for her. Athena has noticed that he is the only one of Ariana's brother who is polite to everyone despite their positions or anything else. Athena frowns a little but takes the cup with both of her hands feeling everyone's eyes watching her every move.

She takes a first sip of it and its sweetness almost melts her taste buds. Ariana must have a real sweet tooth.

After breakfast, Athena moves upstairs. Vincenzo had not told her yet when they are going to the hospital so she has this free time for herself. She starts to clean Ariana's room. She mopped the floor until she could see her own reflection on it. Seeing no other things to do, she moves towards the hallway and starts to clean it. It is just on the instinct as she has the habit of cleaning.

A maid who was passing by that direction sees this and she lets out a loud gasp. An expensive glass bouquet she was holding in her hands shatters loudly on the ground. Athena flinches and turns back to look at her.

Upon seeing the broken glass pieces, her eyes widens. The maid is still staring at her with wide eyes.

Athena makes her way over to her and bends down to pick the glass pieces up but a hand grabs her arm and tugs her up roughly.

"Don't touch it. You will hurt yourself." Vittorio says while gently pulling her away from the mess.

"And you! Do we pay you to just stare at us?" He snaps angrily at the maid. Athena flinches slightly in fear and the maid fearfully bows her head.

"I-I apologize Sir. But I-I--"

"You what?" Romeo comes out of nowhere and glares down at the poor maid who is trembling in fear.

"S-sir. Madame w-was mopping t-the floor here. I w-was shocked seeing this and I accidentally d-dropped the bouquet. I am s-so sorry, Sir." She pleads.

Athena feels the color drain from her face as twins turns to look at her.

"Who are you?" Romeo asks suspiciously. Athena looks down at the floor and starts to tremble.

"Ariana! We are going now." Vincenzo makes his entrance at the scene followed by Alexander and Luciano. To get out of the situation, Athena immediately nods her head.

"Go put on your shoes." Luciano tells her but he sounds a little off. Athena quickly skips out of there and heads into Ariana's room. She puts on the flats from yesterday and makes her way outside where Vincenzo is waiting for her.

Ariana's brothers looks like they are having some serious talk but immediately quietens down as she arrives. Athena follows Vincenzo out of the front door.

Vincenzo sits at the driver seat and the guard opens the passanger side door for her. He drives out of the premises followed by two SUVs.

Athena quietly looks down at her hands and plays a little with her fingers. Soon they reach in front of Cortello family's private hospital. Athena looks up at the huge skyscraper building and lets out an audible gulp.

She follows Vincenzo inside. But her mind is fixed on the thought of escaping. This is the only chance and she is going to get out of here no matter what.

Vincenzo shakes hands with the dean of the hospital who leads them inside with a team of doctors. Athena is first asked to step on the scale where they measure her weight. She only weigh 70 pounds and it concerns the doctor who is assigned to her a bit too much.

Next she is guided to another room so he could perform some tests on her. Athena stares at the ceiling mindlessly as he and Vincenzo leaves the room to discuss something leaving her with a nurse.

"I am worried, Mr. Cortello. She is highly underweight and malnourished. She looks so depressed and quiet. The last time I saw Ariana, she was completely different from this image."

"Dr. Jonas...I need you to do something for me." Vincenzo says coldly.

"Yes yes, Mr. Cortello."

"I need you to perform a DNA test on her."

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"He is a scary man, Ivy! You should keep your distance from him."

"His sons are equally as cruel as him.."

"This whole family is actually heartless."

Growing up, Ivy's ears are filled with warnings to stay away from this peculiar Santiago family. The leader of the family, Mr. Lucifer Santiago is a rumoured cruel mafia leader who does not think once before staining his hands with someone's blood. Then comes his three sons- Valentino, Denver and Alessio. Arrogant, cruel and manipulative.

16 year old and an orphan Ivy is told to keep her distance from these dangerous people and she tries to follow everyone's advice but none of her plans seems to be working as the family suddenly begins to show a different interest in her. Now it has become extremely hard to keep distance from them. Especially when Mr. Lucifer Santiago himself calls her 'his little star'.

🌠HIS LITTLE STAR🌠 Coming soon on Patreon!!!!