TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS.

Chapter 4

SYLVIA.

It's quiet... again. In fact, it's so quiet that I can hear this dummy's heart beating right out of his chest.

"Why don't we all introduce ourselves? I'll start first" my Mom says trying to clear the ever growing tension that's brewing in the air.

"My name is Patricia Mancini but you can call me Mom, you little cutie" she whispers that last part but we all hear her.

Ugh, it's not like we're a married couple or something and I'm not going to get married, let alone to this dimwit sitting right next too me, never.

"Thank you so much... Mom" I knew he said that last part just too get on everyone's nerve and it worked.

"Why you little—"

"Babe?" Mom says with a smile but her eyes tell a completely different story.

Dad clears his throat and says the following words with little to no spunk "Luciano Mancini... don't call me Dad".

"Sure thing Dad".

I give his arm a good pinch, because he's asking for it now.

"I am Alexander Mancini and I would appreciate it if you would not sit so close to my little sister".

"Hello Alexander, it's nice to meet you but I'm afraid that it is simply impossible for me to accept your request" Brandon replies and pulls me even closer to get him all riled up.

"How dare you—"

"Introductions! No one can talk again till everyone has finished introducing themselves!"

Leave it to Mom to shut everyone up, I don't know much about her but she can be pretty scary when she wants to be.

"Sylvie, I say we ditch this whole fiasco and go on up to bed" Brandon suggests in a tone only I can hear.

"Hey! Stop that, whispering is not allowed".

Mio Dio, how are going to survive living together?

The Introductions are complete and so far, I've learnt that I have four brothers. Alexander, Romano, Carlos, and Luca being the youngest brother.

What they failed to say though, is that this family aren't exactly law-abiding citizens of society.

That's right, you guessed it, my family is a crime family. I'm not sure on how I should break this news to Brandon though because Lord knows that he would not be happy.

BRANDON.

Everyone's done introducing themselves including Sylvie which means I'm the only one left, might as well get on with it so that I can get Sylvie to bed.

"I'm Brandon as you all may know by now, don't have a last name. Maybe I do though, but I just don't remember it. I'm ten years old and—"

"Aha!" Alexander, one of Sylvie's older brothers rudely says and interrupts me in the process.

"Sorry Braxton, but we do not accept boys that are older than Sylvia as a possible suitor" he announces with a smug look on his face.

"Why not? Age is but a mere number when it comes to love? Isn't that right amore?" I turn to face Sylvie who casually shrugs.

She already looks bored and tired of this whole conversation which I don't particularly blame her for because all the men in this house are quite slow when it comes to comprehending information.

"I don't accept this, my daughter is only six years old–" Mr Mancini starts.

"Well Sylvie doesn't have a problem with it and that's all the confirmation I need" I say and go to the sofa to pick her up because she's already dozing off.

I adjust on her my back so that she's more comfortable and gently approach the staircase, being especially careful not to wake her up because she's a relatively light sleeper.

"Besides, as far as I'm concerned, all of you should start to consider me as a member of this family starting today. Have a Goodnight; Mom, Dad, Brothers" I say with a smirk before I start climbing up.

That was quite the bomb I dropped because I can still here them arguing from all the way up here.

Not my problem anymore but where should I put Sylvie? There's a long chain of doors that line the corridor on each side and I'm completely confused on which room to enter.

"Young Master Brandon" a voice calls out from behind me. I turn around to find a maid who looks to be in her teen years.

"Please follow me and I will lead you to Young Miss room".

Arriving at Sylvie's room, it looks nice but I'm way to tired to admire the scenery.

I find her bed and drop her down on it.

"If you could follow me Young Master then I will also lead you to your room".

Yikes! I didn't know she was still there. She's like one of those creepy looking dolls that speak in monotone and say the same phrases over and over again.

"Alright... just give me a minute please". I tell her and she bows.

Strange. I have a lot of questions that need answers but for now I settle on waking up Sylvie to go to the bathroom to freshen up.

She does so begrudgingly and only after she's brushed her teeth and taken a shower do I begin to take my leave.

SYLVIA.

The light from the curtains peek through, blinding me but also waking me up in the process.

I do a couple stretches and do a double take because this room is humongous! I really do feel like a princess!

The bed is so fluffy too. This stuff has to be better than memory foam, it's like they stuffed feathers in here or something.

It takes me a good five minutes to get down from this tower of mattresses and when I do, I land with a thud.

Ouch. Why is it so hight though? Going to the other side of the bed, I see a stepping stool and it all starts making sense.

I really do adore my room though! I don't like to admit it but I would actually consider myself a girly girly.

Flowers, dresses, ribbons, things in the colour pink, all that jazz and I'm happy to say that my family got the memo because every square inch of this room is covered in different shades of my favourite color!

I go to a door that leads me into a huge walk in closet with so many clothes, shoes, and jewellery as far as the eyes can see.

No way! They couldn't! It's not possible! Every single thing in here is in my size, I'm speechless. But how would they know?

Looks like I'll need to have a very long talk with my family because it just doesn't make sense.

Did my family abandon me? No, I don't think they would do that because when I put the fact that all of them are overly joyous to have me back and that I own this room that's almost the size of a department store... it just doesn't make sense.

Kidnapped perhaps? The sound of the door opening and closing distracts me from my thoughts.

"Hey there pretty girl! You sleep well?" My mother asks peeking her head through the door.

"Sì, buongiorno mamma" I tell her with a genuine smile on my face.

"Buongiorno bambina" she says and embraces me in a warm motherly hug.

This is nice, I could get used to this... people caring about me.

"Let's go downstairs for breakfast okay? Wouldn't want your father and Brothers to murder my only son-in-law".

"Madre!" I yell and she explodes into never ending fits of laughter.

"Don't worry, we'll talk about that later" she says winking at me.

Just great.

We get downstairs right on time because it looks my father and brothers were in the midst of strangling Brandon.

It's quite an interesting sight because each of my brothers have pinned all of Brandon's limbs to the floor, while my father has his hands on Brandon's neck.

"Sylvie! Help! They're trying to kill me!" Brandon says but has a large grin on his face.

"What on earth is going on here?!"

Looks like someone's in trouble.

"I am so so sorry for their behaviour Brandon, I'll make sure that their punished accordingly" my Mom says with a pretty mean glare on her face.

"Meh, it's quite alright Mrs Mancini, I've experienced things much more worse than that" he says so dismissively.

Everyone immediately freezes after that last statement, now my father and brothers have a guilty look on their face.

The maids who I've now just discovered about come in wheeling mouth-watering trays of food to put onto the table.

"Look Sylvie! They have pancakes! And Waffles! I can't wait to try it out! Aren't you excited?" He asks while fawning over all the food that is placed on the table.

I won't lie though, I am a little bit excited, because I haven't had most of these foods here.

I know what they're all called... I've just never tried them because at the Orphanage, the most we had was bread, eggs, milk, and some bone broth.

It was only when we escaped that me and Brandon tried pizza for the first time. It was delicious!

"Here you go love" Brandon says after placing three large stacks of pancakes onto my plate.

I hope he doesn't expect me to finish all three of them when one pancake is almost the same size as my head, if not bigger.

Cutting into the fluffy pancake, I use my fork to stab into it and shove the whole thing in my mouth.

One word, delectable. It's so good that I don't even realise that no one's started eating yet because they're all looking at me.

"How does it taste neonata?" I recognise Papa's voice and look to see him chuckling a bit.

I give him a thumbs up because my mouth is full and there's absolutely no way on earth that you'd ever see me talking with food in my mouth, never in a hundred million years.

The sounds of cutlery, chewing, swallowing, and gulping soon start to fill the room when out of nowhere my youngest brother Luca asks.

"Why do you call her that? Love?"

All eyes turn to face Brandon but I'm much too occupied at the moment with a plate of croissant sandwiches! How crazy is that?

It is only until he finishes chewing his food that he answers.

"Well because to put it simply, she is".

"And what does a little kid like you know about love?" Alexander sneers.

"Enough to educate you on it, but don't feel bad just because you haven't found the love of your life... yet".