A faint knock on the door next to them made the sibling duo stir from their tasks. "Leo?" A voice sounded muffled through Alexia's closed door. Alexia looked at Leo, who looked at her. "He's asking for you." Alexia chuckle lightly after seeing Leo sitting frozen there. Leo got up from Alexia's floor where he had gotten himself comfortable, then opened the door and stuck his head out to look in the direction of his own room. "Oh! hi!" The cheerful voice was louder this time. "I wanted to see if you want to come play with me." The redheaded boy, that was Leo's age asked as he came to stand in front of Alexia's open door. "Hi Alexia." He waved at her. "Hi Marcello." Alexia smiled at him. Leo looked back at Alexia with pleading eyes. "If you want to go play, go. You don't have to ask me for permission Leo." She said softly. Leo frowned before walking over and getting his phone and tablet. He hesitated. "I'll be fine." Alexia chuckled which seemed to pacify Leo.

Several hours later a knock came on Alexia's door and before she could say anything a voice full of contempt spoke up. "Miss, dinner is served and they are only waiting on you." Dinner? Alexia looked at the clock and was shocked to see it was already 10 minutes past 7. She shut her tablet off and went down to the dining room where everyone was looking at her when she entered. She noted Alessandro and Matteo were absent. "Sorry." She said as she sat down. "Lost track of time." "When someone knocks on your door to inform you dinner is ready in a few minutes I expect you to drop what you're doing and come down for dinner." Her fathers cold voice full of disapproval said. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. No one has knocked on my door before the maid did it and I dropped what I was doing and came down right away." Alexia said. "Riccardo said he knocked on your door and informed you dinner was ready and that you grunted your acknowledgment." Her father said. Alexia looked down the table to Riccardo who sat there with a small smirk on his lips. But he was sitting so their father couldn't see the smirk because Dante blocked his line of sight. Alexia looked back on her father. "I don't know what door he knocked on but it wasn't mine. No one has knocked on my door outside of the maid." Alexia said, maintaining her stance. "I didn't think I would have to clarify it as a rule, but I don't like liars or tardiness." Her father said. "But..." "Be quiet!" Her father cut off Alexia's attempt to speak up. "You're grounded for this weekend for lying." He said sternly. Alexia pursed her lips. She didn't care that she was grounded. Seriously where did he think she would go, she just fucking got here yesterday. But the fact that he is calling her a liar when the obvious liar is Riccardo pissed her off. Alexia however didn't say anything. It was clear he had already made up his mind that she was guilty and his precious son was an angel despite the spat that happened this morning. Alexia looked away from him and looked down in the plate, choosing not to engage with anyone. This family was as fucked up as Thomas and Kiara, just in a different way. The concern and actions that had been shown while at the mall had sparked a small hope inside her that maybe, just maybe, this family wouldn't be so bad. Clearly she had been wrong and the disappointment she felt knowing that, hurt more than she had expected.

Everyone dug into their food. Alexia ate two bites and then she was done. She had only been a little hungry when she came down but this whole interaction just spoiled her appetite. Everyone was having conversations in little groups, but no one included Alexia. Every now and then she could feel eyes on her. But Alexia didn't react to that. She just kept looking at her food, stirring it around. When she got tired of listening to the Scrooges little snide comments she excused herself and walked back upstairs to her room. The dining room fell silent when she got up but no one stopped her. She left a hair pin outside the door in the secret location where her and Leo had always had one hidden, then she locked the door. She went in to take a shower and then treat and redress her wounds. Once she was out she sent a message to Leo asking him to find out when meals were served. The reply came almost instantly. Breakfast was at 6.45 am. Dinner was at 7 unless otherwise told. Lunch was a fend for yourself unless otherwise told or at school. She set daily reminders so she'd never lose track of time again, then she turned off all the lights then got into bed. She knew she wouldn't fall asleep any time soon but she didn't want to do anything else and she certainly didn't want to see or talk with anyone. She put her phone into sleep mode with Leo being the only one that could by pass the mute. Any other messages from anyone wouldn't be received by her til tomorrow. Not long after she'd gotten comfortable did someone knock on her door. She ignored it. The person knocked a few times before giving up and leaving. As she was about to fall asleep another round of knocking started, this time it was softer. Alexia ignored whoever was on the other side of the door and let the darkness surround her as a traitors tear slid down her cheek and landed on her pillow.

Alexia sat up in the bed, sweat soaked and gasping for air. The clock in her room read 3.30 AM but she knew there were no way she'd be able to go back to bed after that nightmare. It was one of her worst ones. Instead of trying she got out of bed and got dressed in a pair of leggings, a sports bra and a hoodie to cover her bruises. Then she went to the home gym she'd seen on the house tour. She grabbed her headphones her way out the door as well as her phone so she could blast music. She walked quietly through the dark house, making sure to be extra quiet when she walked past her older brothers and her fathers room. When the door closed behind her, she flicked the lights on. She pulled up some music with a beat, making a note to herself to put together a playlist instead of this random stuff. She then started warming up by hitting the treadmill first. After five miles she got off and did some other exercises before hitting the punching bag. Ignoring the pain she found her rhythm.

At 6 AM she started her cool down routine. Her body was screaming at her and the pain was almost unbearable now that the adrenaline wasn't pumping through her body anymore. She walked back to her room chucking a bottle of water she found in a fridge inside the gym area. She showered, letting the hot water soak into her bones. Once she was done, she got dressed in a pair of sweatpants with a matching sweatshirt, then she walked downstairs and sat down by the dining table and waited. 15 minutes later it was 7 am and no one else was here.. 7.10 am a maid walked through. "Miss Romano?" She said timidly. Alexia looked up at the woman. "I was told breakfast was at 7am but it seems I was told wrong." She smiled self deprecatingly. The maid looked at her with pity. "On weekends most of the house sleeps in and they just come and go as they please." She explained. "Your father, uncle and oldest brothers and cousins come down for breakfast at 8 before going to work." Alexia nodded. "Can I get you anything?" The maid asked hesitantly. Alexia thought about it for a second. "Is there anything that is already made?" "No Miss. We are in the process of preparing the first round of breakfast." She said. "But we can make whatever you wish." She added with a smile. "Um. Am I allowed in the kitchen?" Alexia asked. "Of course Miss." The maid exclaimed. Alexia nodded and got up following behind the maid. All the activity in the kitchen stopped when they realized Alexia was there. They looked at her expectantly, like they were waiting for an order. "Um. Just ignore me." Alexia said and walked over to the fridge. She looked through it and pulled out the yogurt and several kinds of fresh fruit. "Where do you keep your nuts and seeds?" She asked looking at one of the maids. "In the pantry over there, Miss." She answered pointing to a door. "Thanks." Alexia said as she walked over to it. The walk-in pantry was fully stocked and it took Alexia a minute or two to find what she was looking for. She grabbed a various selection of nuts and seeds and was about to walk out when she spotted coconut flakes. She grabbed those as well and some honey. She got back to her bowl and fruits and picked out several good looking strawberries, a few blackberries and a few blueberries and washed them well. She then picked out a nice peach and a banana that suited her liking for ripeness. She scooped up some yogurt, then pealed the skin off the peach before cutting it as well as the strawberries. She then added nuts and seeds and lastly she cut up the banana and drizzled a little bit of honey over it all. She was about to put away everything she didn't use but one of the maids stopped her and told her she would do it. After thanking the maid Alexia grabbed her bowl and her glass of milk and went into the dining room and sat down. While she was eating she was putting together a workout play list. As she finished her last bite her father walked in and stopped in his tracks for a brief second before he continued to walk towards his chair. Her uncle and the two oldest followed not long after. Her uncle were the only one that greeted her but something seemed to trouble him so he wasn't as talkative as he normally was. Maids rushed in with their breakfast and poured coffee up for everyone before leaving the pot and rushing out again. Alexia grabbed a mug and poured herself some coffee and added a bit of creamer to it. Then she got up and walked upstairs to her room. As she was leaving she heard Stefano say something about their company having been hacked and needing to make sure the IT department would get it fixed ASAP.

Around 10 am knocking on her door brought her out of her hyper focus. "Yes?" Alexia said looking towards the door. "I'm sorry to disturb you Miss, there are some deliveries for you." A maid said as she carefully opened Alexia's door. "Thank you, um.." Alexia said. "I'm sorry, I don't think I ever got your name." The maid looked up at her in surprise. "Eva. My name is Eva, Miss." She said smiling at Alexia. "Thank you Eva." Alexia smiled back and got up to go get the delivery. Downstairs by the door were a lot of boxes. Alexia started opening them and realized it was everything she had ordered online the day before. Several maids had come and Alexia guided them in what went to her room and what went to Leo's room. "Do we have tools so I can put the things together?" Alexia asked looking at the two boxes their desks came in. "Don't worry Miss. Someone will get it all put together for you and Mr. Leo." Eva said. "Oh, okay." Alexia said feeling a little stupid. Of course her family would have people to do that. Alexia grabbed the box with the two laptops and walked upstairs to her room. Two guys she'd never seen before were already in her room putting together what looked to be one of her bookcases. She got comfortable on her bed and pulled out the Oryx and got it booted up. She was impressed with how fast it booted up and was ready to use. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, first setting up security measures for Leo so no one could get into his laptop or hack it. She then set up an alert system where she would get notifications if anyone started inappropriate conversations or anything else with him same as she would get alerted if Leo were to encounter cyber bullying. She installed several programs she knew he'd need and use. She then set up a code so that every time Leo got on, he'd receive a message to lift his spirit, funny, inspiring or sweet affirmations. Once she was done she sent Leo a message. "Your laptop is set up." She then pulled out her own and started it up. She set her own up with more advanced codes so only she could get into it. Anyone trying to get into it via the laptop itself would be met with taunting words and a lock out. Only a code would be able to unlock her laptop again. A code only Alexia would know. If they tried to hack her laptop, the intruder would start off thinking he or she got in only to be thrown into a hackers worst nightmare. Their own rig would get infested with several of Alexia's own viruses. One to cause havoc for the hackers eyes and brain while another virus stole everything the person had on their rig and uploaded it into a secure cloud space Alexia could then later look into and see what kind of goodies they were hiding. A third virus would track the location of the hacker and regardless of what the other person tried to do, Alexia could get the location of the hacker. A forth virus would spread to any and all camera devices within 100 feet of the computer being used to hack into her laptop, to identify the person or people behind it and finally a fifth virus that would delete everything of their computer so it can never be retrieved again and then the virus would go into hiding so, should the hacker be so stupid as to continue using the rig, Alexia could continue to monitor the hackers actions. Alexia eyed the two men in her room, they were done with the bookcases and her desk and where now working on her chair. She decided to do a background search of her family. According to the internet her family were among America's wealthiest. They owned several large chain business such as hotels, restaurants, food trucks, clubs and bars. They also own several shipping companies, dealer ships and laundry mats. That was an interesting sortment of business. They were all wildly popular among women of all ages. Several of her brothers had been named bachelor of the year or most wanted bachelor, same for her cousins. Her father and uncle were no worse off either, often referred to as DILFs. Their public image were squeaky clean. Her father, uncle, Lorenzo and Stefano were seen as cutthroat business men. Marco, the second oldest ginger was referred to as a no nonsense lawyer who'd yet to lose a case regardless of how tough the case was while Matteo were an outstanding doctor. The rest of the heard were seemingly following the footsteps of the older generation. Alexia dug deeper, found things no one, the Romano family didn't want to let in on their secrets, would ever be able to find. She's suspected it, but now she had confirmed it.

"Thank you." Alexia said when she noticed the men was collecting all the trash from putting together her stuff. They looked startled that she'd talked with them but they gave her a small nod in acknowledgment. The moment the door was closed Alexia typed a string of codes and a dark themed website opened up and she logged into an account. 'Welcome back Master.' was the prompt that came across the screen. Seconds later ding sounded and a private message popped up in a little chat box. "You finally back?" Alexia smirked at the message from her long time friend. "Mhm." She messaged back. "I need a fast job." "There are a few available that no one wants to do." Phoenix, the person on the other end said. "Oh?" Alexia raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, they either don't pay enough or are too hard." Phoenix sent back. "One is for a charity, their security got hacked but they can only afford 200k." He explained. "Send me the info, let me check it out." Alexia sent back and instantly the info was sent to her. She looked it over and it was a legit charity that did good work where all their donations went to their cause. "I'll do it." Alexia said and immediately got to work while Phoenix was chatting away. It only took Alexia 5 minutes before she'd fixed the problem. She sent Phoenix the confirmation of her work and then she decided to add more security to the charity's organization so they wouldn't be an easy target again and she also located where the hacker came from and sent it to Phoenix. He would forward the info to the person that had posted the job and they could do with it as they pleased. A notification told her 200k had been deposited on her account. She sent 20k back to Phoenix with a note saying commission. "Anything else?" She messaged him. 2 packages of information was sent this time. One was a private high school whose student and teacher information had been breeched and was now being held for ransom. The hacker had turned all their info into nonsense and it would stay that way unless the school paid 10 million to the intruder. They were offering 300k to get the job fixed. Alexia rolled her eyes. This was child's play to her. First she tracked the hacker responsible for the ransomware, then she kicked him out of the schools system and upped the security for them. She hated when assholes targeted kids. Then she worked her magic on the school information. They had quite a lot so it took a few extra minutes for her program to get it all sorted out, but within 15 minutes of starting the job she sent confirmations and information back to Phoenix. She then looked into the last package he had sent her. It wouldn't be a fast job and the level of skills needed for it was high, but so was the pay for it. Apparently the American government had realized they had some major flaws in their security department and despite having hired several highly recognized 'tech gods' they hadn't been able to fix the flaws so they are now offering 50 million on the dark web for someone that can do it. After a bit of research Alexia sent a message to Phoenix. "I will do this government job as well. I'll have it done before I go to bed." "Are you sure? Several of the others tried and couldn't crack it even tho they worked on it for days." Phoenix asked back. Alexia looked at the time on her laptop. "I'm sure. I only need a few hours but I have to be at a dinner at 7." She replied back "Oh." Phoenix sent back. Alexia could just imagine his stunned expression. She didn't know Phoenix in real life but they had been friends online for a few years now. Ever since she founded the dark web. Phoenix was one of the first to create an account. Alexia knew he was a well respected and fierce lawyer who used his hacking skills to help win his cases. Alexia also knew he lived in America somewhere so now that she lived here as well maybe they could meet up at some point. Alexia pondered that while her fingers flew across the keyboard. What she was doing right now was just muscle memory for her so she could think about other stuff in the meantime. She was deep within her work when the alarm on her phone went off indicating it was time for her to get down for dinner. She saved her work, sent Phoenix a message letting him know she'd be back after dinner along with the 30k commission from the school job. Then logged off and suddenly her laptop screen looked like a normal laptop again. She shut it down and left her room to go downstairs.