With the same restrained and heavy feeling in her chest, Anastasia sits down on the comfortable floor, ignoring her bed in the room. Her mind plays the same scene over and over again and she finds a certain gnawing feeling in her stomach.

She curls her body into a small ball and squeezes her eyes shut, feeling cold wetness on her cheeks as tears rolls down.

A whimper escapes her lips, remembering all the abuse she has gone through under Paul. The horrible memories keep playing in her mind like a horror movie.

She is safe!

Still she cannot feel safe.

The sudden urge to hurt herself remains hidden behind the depth of her thoughts. All her life Paul told her that she deserves this pain-- and now 'they' say that everything happened to her was unfair.

Is it even right?

Paul had beaten something opposite in her mind throughout the whole 13 years and now, her brothers suddenly came and indirectly told her that 'it isn't right. So they are saving her and taking her back.'

They accomplished in their goal, finding their lost family member alive but they found her-----

Broken.

Her spirit had already died long ago. She is of no use to them.

Anastasia jerks from her thoughts as the door opens and someone steps in.

She clutches her knees tightly to her chest.

"Ana." There is that nickname again. But it sounds strange coming out from Allesandro's mouth.

Allesandro who is her 'father'...Someone who has recently taken position of Paul.

But it was Paul who stole his position at first place. Now he had something of his back.

"Why are you on the floor, love?" Allesandro says this while sitting down on the floor beside his daughter.

His eyes suddenly come across the bruises on her neck which are peeking out from the collar of her shirt. Seeing this, his heart clenches....The rage that he recently calmed down just to get along and cherish the good news that his Ana, his daughter is back. Nothing more mattered than that for him.

But after seeing the bruises covering her body, he somehow gets the idea of what is going in her thoughts.

He places his hand on her slightly trembling shoulder. His heart shatters as she flinches in fear.

"Everything will be alright, my daughter, I promise." He gave her the same promise that earlier her brothers have given her.

Anastasia wants to trust. But she is scared.

Everytime she looks at Allesandro, she gets reminded of Paul.

His gentle hand on her shoulder should feel comforting.

But from inside, it feels like he is squeezing her shoulder tightly with an attempt to dislocate it or just break it.

Something that Paul had done several times.

"You should take the bed, Ana. You don't deserve to be sleeping on the floor."

Deserve?

Again, this deserve word.

First, she was used to hating this word in some part of her mind. Today, it is sounding a bit likeable.

Only word that always rings in her mind is just 'obey'.

So hesitantly, she moves her weak body up to the bed while hearing Allesandro's footsteps walking out of the room.

To survive, she just needed to obey Paul and now it looks like it is Allesandro this time.

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

Arabella sits in her rocking chair. On this, her mother used to sit and Arabella always sat on her lap while Isabella sung her lullaby.

Blank tears roll down her eyes. The small seed of hatred has grown to be intensely big now.

This hatred was always directed at Anastasia for having Arabella's brothers love and affection all the time, even if she was dead long ago.

This hatred just tenfold more just remembering that warmth in her brothers' eyes as they brought that girl, their real sister back, opposite of being dead.

Is this the reason why Arabella hated Anastasia in school for no reason at all?

Arabella remembers the first time she saw Anastasia at school. A mute, weak-pathetic, low class girl. Something about her brought her the sense of gnawing irritation covering her whole body.

But Anastasia is completely opposite of what Arabella had thought about her. She is the fucking real princess of the Romano family.

Arabella's fists clenches and she growls under her breath.

She has already seen the way how they are going to fret over her when she gets hurt.

Suddenly she gets reminded of that day. When to get her brothers' attention, something she had yearned for throughout her whole life, she at the age of 10 stabbed a knife in her arm.

"Ahhhhh." Her loud scream awakened the whole of Romano family.

It only took a matter of minute, the door was kicked open and several footsteps rushed in.

She looked up screaming and crying.

"This hurts!" She cried out loudly.

"What the fuck were you doing with that knife?" Stefano yelled loudly while approaching her, that only made Arabella flinch in fear at his loud voice over her own loud crying.

"Where did you get this?" Giovanni asked while examining her bleeding arm.

"This is going to hurt. I need you to brace yourself." She nodded dumbly at Adriano who slowly started to pull the knife out, so the bleeding would not speed out while Anastasio grabbed some stuff out of medical kit.

Only two members not present in the room were Ermanno and Allesandro. Their father was on a business trip and he had taken Ermanno along with him to visit his grandparents' house while he finished his work there.

He had asked Arabella to join them but she declined saying that she was not feeling well. She wanted to spend this time with her older brothers.

Finally, her wound was cleaned and treated as well as she was given some pills to numb the pain and sleep peacefully tonight. Adriano and Giovanni were the first one to walk out of the room.

"W-won't you stay with me? I'm hurt." Arabella asked them in a small voice.

"With father's absence, balancing the work load is our responsibility, Arabella. I'm sorry. Maybe next time." Adriano said using a gentle tone.

Arabella's shoulders slumped as tears brimmed in her eyes.

"Hey! Don't look down now. We are here! Aren't We? We are enough to stay with you for night. So go to sleep."

Stefano grumbled with an annoyed look. Even though he had some chick waiting for him in the guest room. But he knew he needed to be here for Arabella.

Arabella's dizzy mind took this grumbling as a sound of his annoyance of taking care of her. Anastasio never said a word throughout the whole night but she felt his hand patting her head gently.

Still, it wasn't enough!

Adriano and Giovanni refused to be with her when she was in pain. She needed them with her.

Stefano was not happy at all. He was annoyed to waste his time on her and Anastasio never said a word.

She wanted more comfort that her brothers were not willing to give.

That's when she understood she could never be Anastasia, their real sister and Arabella hated Anastasia for it.

It was her fault. Anastasia should not have been born.

Author Note:

I'm splitting the chapter with both Anastasia and Arabella's perspectives. I want you to understand Arabella's predicament too. Even though she knows that her brothers care for her at certain point, but it isn't just enough for her. Indirectly saying, she wants the whole love (their love for Anastasia) for herself only. That's what I have tried to portray in this chapter.... On the other side, Anastasia is in predicament between facing her father who reminds her of Paul due to his title of being her father. Right now, she is confused between what she actually 'deserve'. The thought that Paul drilled in her mind from throughout the whole 13 or something years that she deserves to be abused and punished for single mistakes and only thing she needs to do is obey. Or what her brothers are trying to say to her is right? And now Allesandro too. Just like he said in this chapter.