We all lean against the walls of the hallway, waiting for any news on Darcy. Our doctor refused to allow us in the room with her while she was working incase we 'distracted' her.

We had to physically remove Romeo, who was petrified to have Darcy out of his sight for even a minute.

Santiago and the rest of Romeo's friends have been off duty for hours now but they've stuck around. Wether it's to provide support for Rome or just out of plain curiosity to see how this situation ends I don't know.

The doctor enters the hallway, causing all of us to snap our heads towards her. She holds out a tiny unfamiliar device in her hands.

"What's that," Angelo asks.

"We caught this in her wrist on one of our scans, it appears to be some sort of tracking device that's able to emit painful electrical shocks throughout the body," She explains.

We all look at her confused, never seeing something like this before.

"It's primarily used as a small explosive, it's not powerful enough to blow up a whole room but it will kill whoever it's imbedded into," She says whilst placing it on the floor and stomping on it. "It's best if it's destroyed, that way no one can track this location or blow it up," She justifies.

"Why was it in her?" Lorenzo asks.

"I'm not entirely sure but it looks like one of the devices the Russian and Brazilian mafia use in their assassin training programs," She explains.

"Elaborate." Lorenzo says bluntly.

"Well I'm not entirely well versed in the subject but I believe they use them as a form of control to prevent assassins from abandoning missions or running away. The electric shocks are agonising and are used as a final warning before extermination which is why Miss Russo had such a panicked reaction I believe," She concluded.

I curl my fists in anger, the thought of my sister being forced to do something under the threat of death makes my skin crawl.

"Miss Russo's body has been under extreme physical duress for some time," She says solemnly, interrupting our thoughtful silence.

"What do you mean?" Arlo asks, the concern evident in his voice.

"Well she's clearly not been eating or sleeping enough, her body is littered in scarring and we even discovered a branding."

I feel sick as my mind flashes back to that night we first went to get Darcy and the doctors in Greece told us almost the exact same thing.

"We also found something very concerning," She reveals, alarming us more as we couldn't picture anything worse than what she's already said.

"What is it," Lorenzo asks hesitantly, his voice cracking.

"When we preformed an MRI scan we found chemical and cellular changes in the brain, suggesting that it underwent extreme usage of electro shock therapy," She explained.

"Electro shock therapy?" Romeo gulps.

"Yes I believe it's often used as a method of torture by the Russian mafia," She replied. "It severely damaged the dopamine neurotransmission in her brain, meaning she has most likely been experiencing apathy, a loss of emotional responses, frequent dissociation, insomnia and seizures." She listed.

The doctor continued speaking but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't make out her words. My ears were ringing as I thought about how scared my baby sister must have been when she was going through that torture.

Alonzo places his hand on my shoulder, sensing my rising panic attack.

"You can see her now, she should be awake," She said, turning to walk down the hall.









I wake up in a bright white room, feeling no more rested than I did before I fell asleep.

Wait I fell asleep? I can't remember how I ended up in this room that has an overwhelming stench of bleach wafting through it.

Realisation hits me as I frantically reach out to feel my wrist, surprised chunks of my body haven't splattered against these white walls yet. It feels lighter and there's no longer that excruciating pain emitting from it.

I sigh in relief, the burden of constantly fearing for my life finally being lifted from my shoulders. I trace the stitching on my wrist with my finger as the door opens, revealing my eight distraught looking brothers.

I internally roll my eyes at their sorrowful looking faces, knowing whatever doctor was in here probably told them all my business.

I feel the urge to thank them for helping me but my pride get's the best of me and I remain silent.

"Darcy..." Lorenzo trails off.

"I said don't-"

"Right sorry," He corrects himself, cutting me off. "I just can't imagine calling you Sin, you'll always be my little Darcy," He says, sitting down on the edge of bed.

"Yeah can't we just call you Darcy as like a nickname?" Luca asks hopefully. I just nod, knowing I'll be gone by the end of the night and will never have to hear them call me anything ever again.

"Look, we're so sorry for what you must have gone through over the years, and we know it's our fault you ended up in that situation but you have to understand that we tried everything in our power to get you back," Arlo says, holding unflinching eye contact with me.

"I want to leave now," I say, completely ignoring his whole speech and attempting to get up, only to be gently pushed back down by Dante.

"You want to go back to Volkov, the man who held you captive and tortured you for years? That's what you want?" Romeo raises his voice.

To be honest I don't know what I want.

Sure Ivan and his men damaged me in ways I'll never be able to recover from and stripped me of half my childhood but for some reason it never compared to the mental anguish I experienced knowing the closest people in my life betrayed me.

Both options look like grim ones. I could return to Ivan and best case scenario, continue doing whatever he says for the rest of my life or worst case scenario, he cuts my head off to set an example of what happens to people who fail him.

Or I could stay here, living with the brothers who held such a big secret from me for so long and placed my life at risk numerous times. At this point I can't imagine either, I'm too used to my independence and I know if I stay with Lorenzo that'll be stripped away.

"Don't yell at her Romeo, she's obviously undergoing some form of Stockholm syndrome," Luca reprimands, talking about me as if I'm not there.

I laugh, finding his diagnosis amusing as I begin to stand up, just about ready to leave this shit show. Lorenzo leans in to push me back down but I slink away from his hand.

"Listen I'm leaving," I say sternly, leaving no room for argument. "If it makes you feel better I'm not going back to Russia but I'm not staying here," I say, stretching out my numb legs.

"Darcy you can't, you're not in your right mind," Lorenzo says softly, speaking to me as if I'm a second away from breaking.

"Stop talking to me like I'm crazy," I command, now irritated. "I don't need your help, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself," I say confidently, now standing up and heading to the door.

"I think you're forgetting Lorenzo's your legal guardian, and therefore it's his responsibility to take care of you," Dante rushes out, following me into the hall.

"Darcy just wait a minute, we can talk," Luca calls out from behind me but I'm already on a mission to get out of this maze-like house.

I spot the front door and breathe out a sigh of relief, knowing freedom is almost in my grasp.

Clearly I celebrated too early because not even a second later I feel a pair of large arms snake around my stomach and lift me off the marble floor.

"I'm sorry but you're clearly not listening to reason right now," Dante apologises while I struggle in his grip, hating it when people touch me.

"Ssh Darcy relax, I'm just bringing you to your room," He explains, sensing my rising distress. I put up a fight but eventually except that I'm not going to win a fight against this six-five man.

He eventually places me down in my room.

A sense of nostalgia washes over me as I observe my surroundings. My room looks exactly how I left it, the walls are still pastel purple and my belongings remain untouched. My art journals even lay on my desk, exactly where I left them.

I turn back towards the door, ready to argue with Dante but the door is shut in my face. I reach out to open it but it's locked.

Great.