Alexander Nathaniel Rozzi

"Did you know Grayson, Elijah, Ezra and Everleigh moved out of the house yesterday?" Madison asks all of us but the question was directed mainly at me if there was anyone that should have known it was me.

But I hadn't known.

"What?" The frown on my face gives away that I hadn't been told this information. I hadn't spoken to Auriella this morning or last night. She had been vague in her messaging saying she was having a bonding night with her siblings.

She was telling the truth. She never outright lies, but she had missed some very crucial details in her story. We can't be going through this again.

"Yeah," Madi says softer this time, seeing how I never knew either. "Em hadn't told me much except there was a fight and Crew somehow got Lilianna and Nicolas to sign guardianship over to him and Olivia."

"Oh, thank God." Eleanor breathed, looking like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. I had never noticed how much the siblings behind in that house had worried her, but now looking back at it, it was apparent she always had all of them over here, feeding and trying to give them the nurture they all lacked.

I scroll through my notifications, seeing an alert that Auriella had been over at our cabin yesterday in the late afternoon. I had overlooked it, thinking she had just wanted some space away from her large family. I opened up the security cameras and saw she and Grayson had been over there, dropping off her suitcases. They had stayed there for a while, watching a movie before leaving as the sun started setting. After that, there was only a single message from Ella telling me to sleep well, to which I had replied, nothing about the drama of yesterday. I type out a message and sent it to her, reading the reply before pocketing my phone, and heading back downstairs so I could leave for school.

ANR: We need to talk, just the two of us.

AES: We do. See you at school.

ANR: Sounds good, I love you.

AES: I love you more <3

"Ready to go?" Madi asks me, looking guilty that she had dropped such a bomb on me, but it wasn't her fault.

"Yeah, come on."

Liam catches up to the two of us, he took the passenger seat while Madi slid in behind us. "I might not know you and your girlfriend too well, but I know that Everleigh's brain often gets ahead of her. I wouldn't take it personally."

He was right, but that wasn't the point. Auriella always told me everything. I was almost always on the listening side to every single one of her rambling tangents, and if she didn't tell me something as big as this, that meant we were drifting.

It was already hard essentially regressing our relationship from where we were with each other all the time to having limited time together and it was monitored save for the few moments we could sneak behind everyone's backs.

Right now we had so much on our plates that it was so hard to maintain our relationship where it was, let alone grow it.

"Don't worry about it. I'm not upset with her." I see Madi deflate at my statement. She hadn't wanted to cause any issues.

"I'm glad," my little sister grinned at me. "I'm also happy they're out of there. Lily and Nick might be good parents to Emmy and Gabe, but they aren't the best to the others."

"Yeah, I don't know how parents can pick a favourite." Liam agrees. "Let alone have so many kids if you're going to choose a favourite."

"Trauma sucks, it makes you do things you don't want to, and it rewires your brain completely differently. I'm not excusing Lilliana and Nickolas's actions but I can guarantee they didn't have the favouring issue before we were taken. They held onto the only daughter they had left, Gabe I think was included because he and Emmeline were so close and because he looked nothing like Evie, the others all share at least one characteristic with her."

They sit quietly for the rest of the ride, processing what I was saying. They might have been the closest to Emmeline and Gabriel out of all the Taylors but they knew of the injustice in the household, I was sure even Emmeline and Gabriel were well aware of how much better they were treated by their parents, but in fear of loosing that bond with their parental figures.

It was a cowardly thing but fair, they were all young and clinging onto the love that they should get from their parents, a love that isn't meant to be conditional.

All the Taylor siblings were going to need intense therapy in the future, and I hoped they could get it before it damaged their future relationships and families.

"I'm going to check on Em, can check if the others are okay for me?" Madi asked quietly, not letting the other students around us find out about what was happening. rumours spread faster here than you could ever imagine.

Liam had already headed off to where Juliette was waiting for him. He had asked her out a few days ago with the persuasion of my girlfriend and had been living with stars in his eyes.

"Of course. I'll see you after school." She waves back at me as she heads towards the blonde-haired Taylor as I make my way towards the other twin.

Auriella doesn't flinch as I wrap my arms from behind me. Instead, she sinks back into my body, tilting her head to the side so I could place a kiss on her neck before I step back, interlocking our fingers. It was a much more appropriate form of affection for where we were.

"Hey." I greet the other brothers who were standing around their sister looking a little lost. "I heard you guys had quite the night last night."

Ezra pinned a look at Auriella. "I knew you wouldn't last a couple of hours before telling him things. Pay up."

And it all clicked.

"I didn't tell him." Auriella crossed her arms looking at him definitely and the three brothers look at me for confirmation and I shrug.

"I found out from Madi, who found out from Emmeline." Auriella sank back into my body and even though I couldn't see her face I could bet my entire inheritance that she was staring at them with the cocky little smirk she always had when she was right which unfortunately for everyone around her was far too often.

"We'll we're going to class. See you idiots later." She gave them a finger wave before escaping the trio, grabbing my hand and pulling me along with her. We had our first class together today, so we were quiet as we headed through the busy hallways to the class, and when we were safe in the enclosure of the deserted classroom is when we started our conversation. "I'm sorry."

"For what, love?" I truly needed to know what she was apologising for to make it all make sense.

"For not communicating." She pressed her finger to her lip, pressing down on it softly between her teeth, a nervous antic she had had for many years but had gotten better at not using so much as it was a gesture that often gave away her true feelings. "Yesterday was....a lot, not for me but for the boys, so I just pretended everything was fine for the night and didn't talk about it. Truthfully, I wanted to tell you, but we were unpacking and I'm sharing a room with Grayson. Did you know how annoying it is to share a space with someone?"

"You're getting off track, my love." I smile. "We shared a room for years, we did as children, often had sleepovers and then we shared a room for two and a half years when we lived in London."

"It's different. When we were kids, we had no choice, and I liked the comfort of having you right there. As kids we had sleepovers only twice a week but we still had our own space and when we lived together, we were hardly ever home for one, two the room was massive I had enough space for all my things, and we can both agree I get certain perks with sharing a room with you I will not get with Gray."

"I would hope not."

Ella's nose scrunches up in disgust. "We just dropped some things off at the cabin, watched a movie, ate dinner, and then played a couple of board games to try to bring the mood up. I wanted to call you, but again, sharing a room sucks."

She reaches her arms out to me for a hug, which I hasten to her granting all her demands. She whispers again into my neck. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, my love, we're okay."

We needed to work to be okay, but for now, we were fine and that's all that mattered.

<><><>

Auriella had left me.

She was currently on a flight that would take her two thousand five hundred kilometres away from me.

"Are you sulking?" Liam tossed the basketball at me with a ton of force that made me take a step back. I passed it back even harder, making him grunt.

"Why would I be sulking?"

"Because your girlfriend is leaving you, for like an entire week, and you two are never apart for longer than like five hours when you have to sleep. And honestly, I don't blame you."

"We've spent time away from each other, we aren't joined that the hip." Liam makes a sound of disbelief. "It's true, we often travel, her more than I and are used to being away from each other for a couple of days."

"You just let her travel by herself?" I wait to answer, grabbing the ball from him and dribbling to the hoop, letting it slip through the net. Liam catches it as it falls and tries to get it in.

"I don't let her do anything. She's her person and she can make her own decisions. But yeah, I don't always go places with her. Sometimes she wants to go with just her friends or I have something going on. Other times I just don't want to go. She travels so much and I'm sometimes too tired to go with her."

I know she's always safe but sometimes we need independence, not for too long, but we are human at the end of the day and we might murder each other, especially when we have been getting on each other's nerves.

"Why are we always talking about my relationship? You're in one too?"

"You and Everleigh fascinate everyone here. Don't take it personally." I roll my eyes and try to snatch the ball, glad to know everyone thinks of us like an ancient artefact. "My relationship isn't half as interesting as yours."

"I doubt that. Ev is now friends with Juliette and my girl tells me a lot of things."

Juliette didn't have a good home life. It was something Auriella had noticed immediately and had used her resources to help. I had also helped make arrangements, which is why I knew a couple of details. Juliette knew we had pulled some strings, but didn't know the extent to which we had been a part.

"Jules told me you and Evie mentioned something to the cops. They helped her." Liam whispered. "Thank you, I... I didn't even know."

We both collapse on the grass, sitting next to one another. We had a view of the house, Mom and Dad weren't home yet and Madi was with Emmeline so it was just the two of us.

"It's okay Liam, you wouldn't have."

"But.. I knew her. We were so close last year and then her dad came back and she just disappeared. I never made enough of an effort. Everleigh just knew straight away"

"You wouldn't have known, Liam. And that proves you came from a wonderful home, so I'm thankful for it. You don't know what to look for, Evie knows because she has seen the signs, both on herself and people around her, and she helps because she has trained on how to, you don't. You can't beat yourself up about something you were unaware of."

"You know if you keep being this mature, people will think you're the older one."

Liam changes the subject, and I let him. Liam was truly a softy that hid behind the football captain stereotype. He had been getting a bit of backlash from the students for his relationship with Juliette for the past few weeks, and that had made him on edge. I had never realised how fickle these people were, like seriously criticising someone's relationship because they had different colour skin tones was disgusting and these people needed to learn how to view things in a better light before they made it into the real world otherwise they would be buried alive.

"You're only fourteen months older than me." I scoff but carried on more seriously. "But seriously, don't compare our situations, Liam. They are so different. I have a lot more worldly experience."

"It's just you seem to have everything I want, you have a steady relationship, you have money and you just don't care what others think about you, I hate living in this town, I have to do everything for everybody and I try because the moment I don't then it's going around town how horrible I am."

"It will come," I promise him. "One day you'll wake up and just be so exhausted that you don't have the energy to do it, and you know what? That's okay. You can't be living your life trying to meet the expectations of humans, otherwise, you'll just work yourself into the ground."

"See, that's the mindset I'm talking about, the one I want."

"What did I sacrifice for me to be the way I am, Liam?" I ask, noticing the dark-haired girl walking towards us. "My childhood, and as much as we tried, I never got it. You had that, so stop comparing yourself to kids who had to grow up too fast and just be thankful you had parents who loved you enough to give it to you." I let what I was saying sink in for him. "Hi, Juliette."

"Hey Nathaniel, Hi Liam."

"Hi, sweetheart." He smiles lazily at her. He looked completely in love.

"Well." I stand up. "I need to call, Ev. Her flight should have landed by now."

"Wait." Juliette stops me, pulling out a container. "I made cookies. Would you like one?"

"Thanks, Jules." I grab one and let her take my place on the grass. "I'll see you guys later."

Next chapter is Grayson's and Ella's escapades in New York so look out for that!!!

Hope you all have a great rest of your week.

Please vote and comment, and happy reading

Ara <3