VERITY'S POV ~_______~_______~

I woke up to two bodies flying on top of me.

I groaned and tried to push Miya and Derek off of me.

Keyword: tried.

My body and arms still being quite sore from last night's fight, I couldn't push the two devils off.

"Get off me, you fatasses!" I used all four of my limbs and finally was able to get them off me. They fell on the floor with a loud thud but stood up quickly.

"Jesus fuck.. what time is it?" I sighed and looked at the side clock.

9:30 A.M.

"My biologicals are going to kill me," I whispered in horror.

Derek rolled his eyes, "Mikael and Anya have trackers on you, right? They probably told your bios that you are safe. They'd recognize this mansion as one of the backup safehouses."

"No, Derek. Mikael is being cocky as fuck, probably letting my bios panic. Anya would probably yell at him for it but still.. she wouldn't say anything either." I sighed and got out of the bed.

"It's fine, we'll come up for an excuse. Now go shower you stink! Both of you." Miya giggled and Derek walked out the room, grumbling how he smelt 'very good' and that he had the best hygiene out of all of us.

I did smell of sweat so I stripped my clothes in the bathroom and took a hot shower, the heat of the water burning on my cuts and bruises but I didn't mind because... hot showers are better than cold ones.

Never in my life will I take a cold shower when I have the option of a hot shower.

My muscles relaxed and I quickly did all of my hygiene. Since we crashed in Derek's room, I started changing into one of his white t-shirts, a grey jumper and grey sweatpants. They were all big on me because Derek is a tall fatass so I had to adjust them a bit before running downstairs to the kitchen.

The smell of French toast, eggs and bacon hit my nose and I practically died and went to heaven right there.

Derek placed a plate of French Toast and eggs with a side of bacon and some juice in front of me. I frowned, it looked yummy as hell but I couldn't stomach all of that. I didn't have an eating disorder, no, neither did I give a fuck about my weight because I am at a perfectly healthy weight and I know it, but because I used to barely eat anything so having many big meals a day was new to me.

Courtesy of John.

"Just try to. It's fine if you can't eat it all, just eat whatever amount that you can eat. Don't force anything down." Derek smiled at me and I returned it gratefully, digging in.

When I was done I grabbed my phone off the counter and my eyes widened at the notifications.

90 Missed Calls from Sperm Donor 😒 102 texts from Spawnpoint 🤰 42 missed calls & texts from Enzo 🤬 20 texts from Fam Bam 💥 + Verity Group Chat 56 texts from Siblings🤓Group Chat 1,086 Texts and missed calls from One Eyed Jack/My Other Half 😎🏴‍☠️ 5 texts from Dad 😨😰

1 from unknown number.

I ignored most but opened Dad's (Mikael) texts.

10:32P.M. Dad😨😰: L.O.L. they are freaking out. Have fun at da fight club. 😈🤺Kick some ass. 💥👊🥊Luv you. ❤️😘😘💕💕🥰🥰♥️💙💜💜💜

1:00A.M. Dad😨😰: Did you win? 🥇Nvm, I know you did. Don't answer that question. 👍‼️

1:30A.M. Dad😨😰: O.M.G You ducking🐥fought Blake? 🤬🤬😤Call me right now, are you hurt? 🩹🤕😰 but I'm proud of you for winning. 😏😏💪💪🥇🥇🏆🏆

3:00A.M. Dad😨😰: We are crashing at Italian's house tonight, they won't let us leave until you come home!! 🙄🙄🙄Pls come home quick I don't think I can handle being around these Italian duckers🐥 anymore. 😢😢😢😢🥹🥹

8:00A.M. Dad😨😰: Come back plz🙏🙏🙏they are trying to feed us pizza🍕🍕🍕 for breakfast 🥞 they are a disgrace to society. 😔☹️😞😥

I chuckled at Mikael's excessive use of emojis and called him.

He picked up on the first ring.

"Please save us from these Italians. They are staring at me like I'm from a museum. Come home and tell me all the details from the бой с клинком." (Fight with blade) came his rushed out voice on the other line.

"Okay dad. See you soon," I chuckled and hung up. Short conversation but everything that needed to be said was said.

Derek and Miya took my phone and read through his messages.

"Why does he use so many emojis? It's funny as hell." Miya laughed and Derek agreed.

I chuckled. "I know right? But I'm going to go home before I get in even worse trouble than I already am in."

Derek frowned and Miya pouted.

I sighed. "Guys, I really do have to go."

"Fine. We'll drive you there." Derek grumbled.

~~

As we pulled into the driveway, the roar of Derek's Jaguar F-Type R no doubt caught the attention of the people residing in the mansion.

As I got out the car and bid my friends goodbye, they took off quickly seeing the front door open, revealing my biological family who came running out — chosen family following close behind with amused looks on their faces.

"Where have you been?! Do you have any idea how worried we were? No matter how we tried tracking you we couldn't fucking find you- and you didn't come home last night?! Where did you sleep?! God, Verity-" Sperm donor yelled but I cut him off.

"None of your business. I crashed at a friend's place. I didn't want to come back to the house last night, I needed away time from you lot. If I had it my way, I'd be gone for a week." I stated harshly. The fact I said 'The house' instead of 'home' did not go unnoticed.

"Sweetie, you could have at least answered your phone." birthgiver said softly but I scoffed. I knew I was being an A Grade Asshole but I didn't apologize for my actions.

I shoved past my parents and brothers and went to Mikael, who pulled me into a hug and grinned at me.

"Finally, I was dying over here." He groaned.

Anya smacked him upside his head for his rudeness and he rolled his eyes playfully. Francesco glared at him. I'm surprised they were able to stay in the same house without killing each other. They're quite literally always trying to kill each other as mafia rivals...

"Verity, can't you see they don't fucking care about you? He was unbothered by your absence. He didn't care. But we do. We're your family, Verity, you need us and you can't just go storming off in the middle of the night!"

I spun around to the source of the voice that interrupted my thoughts- Enzo. Andrei was about to say something but the raise of my hand stopped him.

"Mikael was informed of my location. He knew I was okay. So don't ever assume he doesn't care about me. Because he's been here with me longer than any of you," I paused, taking a deep breath to calm myself.

It didn't work.

"I'm pretty fucking sure he's been here when you haven't. His entire family has been. I don't know what you guys expected when you decided to barge back into my life. I'm aware it wasn't your choice that I was taken away, but I clearly built my own family when you weren't being mine. I clearly replaced you all.. even if you weren't there for me to replace you in the first place. Mikael has been there as my father. Anya as my mother. Andrei, Alexei, and Maxim as my brothers. I don't need any of you. In fact, if it was up to me, I'd live with them. Not you."

There was silence after my little outburst. Before anybody had the chance to say something, I stormed into the house and up the stairs to my room.

I get it. I was a bit dramatic. But I needed to yell at somebody.

With what happened the night before, the fight and the guilt piling up on me for no reason, all this change happening in my life, I couldn't handle it. I let out a lot of it when I was beating Nicolas to a pulp last night, but there was still some leftover. It was wrong of me to let it out on my biologicals, even though some were not at fault, but they needed to hear it anyways.

I sighed and locked my door before taking out my phone and plopping onto my bed. I cleared my notifications, not bothering to read any but I stopped at the last one. I forgot about that. I hesitantly clicked on the notification.

Unknown number: Hello Verity. Since you clearly weren't in a good mood earlier.. good fight. Don't get too cocky. See you at school, Angel.

I felt myself blush whilst heart skip a beat as I read the message. I knew who this was right away. A certain grey-eyed boy.

'Angel?' Is he seriously making nicknames?

I laughed to myself and didn't text anything back, putting my phone down yet my mood was now considerably lightened.

Was I seriously blushing over this guy?

And then I realized something.

Something that shook me to my core and made me pick up my phone, re-reading it over and over and over again.

How the fuck did he know it was me who fought him last night? __________________________________ Word Count: 1584

I'm SOOO SORRY IVE BEEN SLACKING GUYSSS🥲

My mental health has recently been deteriorating- writing has always been my way to cope with it but recently I have no energy for even writing.

I'm sorry you guys waited so long for only a short, single chapter that's practically a fill-in. I'm trying, I promise.

I love you all so much, stay hydrated, eat well and get rest lovelies <3 ily so much.

Don't be silent readers!!