Adriano pov

I was horrified. Those scars on her body made me feel so scared, thinking of what might have happened or who might have harmed her. My blood boiled. I won't be leaving the person who did this to her. But right now all I could do was stare at this closed refrigerator door. She just left saying that we both don't have any right over each other, so I should not question her. How can I not question her? After seeing those marks all over her body, her arms, her legs, her back, how the fuck am I not supposed to ask her. I couldn't stop her from leaving as I was too busy processing what I have just seen. Those weren't the marks you would get from falling, slipping, or getting hurt by an edge of a table. They were clear signs of abuse. They were marks of someone's beatings. God, I seriously hope I am wrong but that's not the case here as I am quite sure those were marks from a leather belt or a fireplace poker. Those scars were surrounded by bruises. Nobody would try to hurt themselves with a belt or a poker. It was clearly someone else who did that to her and once I find that 'someone' I WILL KILL HIM!

I stood in front of the fridge for more than a minute, just processing the things I just saw. No! I can't let this topic slip. I have to confront her but I am sure she won't be telling me anything. She would try to push me away but I have to know what happened to her these past 6 years. I was so occupied by the thoughts of being betrayed by her all those years, that when I saw her it was like I was living all of it again. All the pain I went through because of her. The betrayal she gave me was weighing me down for all these years but now I am questing what might have happened to her these past 6 years. Nobody knew where she went or with whom she was. We searched for her for months but couldn't get any information about her. None of my agents were able to find her. She wasn't with any of her family members or friend. No one knew where she was. We stopped trying to find her as we thought that she didn't want to be found and I was too broken to continue doing that. Where was she? Oh! I am so stupid. I shouldn't have stopped searching for her. I shouldn't have listened to any of them. I loved her for god's sake! I didn't realize that I had tears in my eyes thinking about what might have happened to her.

I have to know the truth. I need to know the truth.

******

Alice pov

I couldn't look at him. He was sitting across the table and kept staring at me while talking with my father. It was as if he had no interest in the conversation they were having. I know that right now he has lots of questions, but I can't answer them. They shouldn't be answered. It's for the best. I can't risk his life. No! He won't know anything. He can't know anything. He shouldn't know about anything. I couldn't eat my breakfast. Though the breakfast was delicious and if I was not here being a victim of Adriano's accusing stare, I would've enjoyed it but after the events of last night and now him looking at me like that, was making it difficult for me to swallow my food. I lost my appetite.

"Mr. Angelo, the guests have arrived," the guard said without any emotion, like some sort of humanoid robot.

Adriano nodded and told him to send them in. Everyone stood up to welcome the guests. It was like I was having a déjà vu. The only difference was that this time I had no appetite left to continue eating my breakfast. I still had to finish drinking my glass of juice and the scrambled egg but I decided to leave them as it is.

"Hello everybody! Missed me? Oh! Of course, you did." The person said in a cheery voice.

"Grams" I whispered with tears blurring my vision after looking at the person who was entering the house through the big main doors.

"Oh grams stop jumping around like a two-year-old, you are almost 70" Jake replied carrying a few sweet bags in his hand.

"Oh shut up old man, I am very much young and still beautiful" grams replied. She then froze when she saw me. Her eyes became watery and she almost ran toward me to engulf me in a hug.

"Oh my god! Rosy is this really you. I am not dreaming, right? I missed you so much, sweetheart. Where were you? Didn't you miss your grams? You didn't even call me once for 6 long years!" She started crying so hard on my shoulders while engulfing me in a bone-crushing hug.

'Rosy', I heard this name after so long. My grams always called me rosy as she told me that I had rosy cheeks when I was small and was not given a name, so she'd started calling me rosy. It has never changed since then. She broke the hug and put both her hands on either side of my face, "You are so grown up. You've turned into a beautiful woman. But I couldn't see you grow up." She started crying again.

"I am here grams. I am sorry for leaving you. Please don't cry" I tried to stop her from crying. She gave me a soft smile and nodded her head. She let go of my face so that she could wipe the tears off of her face.

"Right! no more crying. We should be happy that you are finally here. This family is finally completed after such a long time. I missed you Rosy"

"I missed you too grams" I replied and hugged her again.

My eyes then met my brother who was awe-stricken and still frozen on the same spot. Silent tears were falling from his eyes and he clutched the bags tightly.

"Do. Not. Throw. The. Ba- ..." before grams could complete her threat, Jake threw the bags down and came rushing towards me, tears now falling from his eyes like a waterfall. He almost jumped on me. I stumbled back due to the force but somehow stopped myself from falling and hugged him back. He started crying so hard, while hiccupping. I rubbed his back in a soothing manner and we stayed there for a while just like that. Tears were now falling from my eyes too. After what seemed to be an hour but were just a few minutes, he finally calmed down and looked at me with puffy eyes and a red face.

"I missed you gummy bear," he said with a soft smile.

"I missed you too jelly bean" I replied using the nicknames we gave each other. I loved to eat gummy bears and he was fond of jelly beans, so we decided to call each other by these candy names.

"You've grown so much. You're even taller than me" I said admiring my little brother whom I last saw when he was 10. He chuckled at my response.

"You young man, have destroyed all the sweets!" My grams said with a threatening voice.

"Oops," he said and ran away while grams glared at his retrieving back.

"Mom you should go freshen up, you would have been exhausted from the journey." My dad said.

"Oh, that I am. I'll see you guys later and Rosy, welcome back sweetheart" she kissed my forehead, waved to everyone, and left.

"I have no idea why you people are treating her like she has been gone for war and came back after making her nation and family proud. She has done nothing of that sort. How can you people forget what this bitch did? She shouldn't be exactly 'welcomed' here." Aunt Melissa spit these words with venom.

"Oh Aunt, don't use that little brain of yours searching for such metaphors, it might blast from overexertion," I smirked at her and left without paying another glance at her. I won't lie I heard a few very diverse curses from her while heading towards my room.