Two Weeks Later...

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"Has she eaten her breakfast yet?" Domenic asked his brothers as he walked into the kitchen which was too quiet even though all his brothers, except for Mark, were present there.

And he knew pretty well the reason behind the strange silence and gloominess that had taken over their lives and home.

"Yeah! As usual, she finished her breakfast within eight minutes and once again disappeared into the library." Shadow answered instead of his brothers as he kept looking for something in the fridge.

"That's good. At least, she's not avoiding food. That's still a plus point in this situation." He murmured as he took a place around the dining table where Simon, Crist, and Leo were also sitting.

"You are wrong, Dom. It's not a plus point. Nothing about her current state is a plus point. You won't even believe it but yesterday we asked her to play a VR game with us and rather than rejecting our offer like she used to do, she accepted it and played with us till the very end. And she doesn't even like VR!"

Leo was almost on the verge of tears as he complained about Emily's current behavior towards everyone and everything.

The kitchen was filled with silence for the next few moments as they all got lost in their own world of thoughts.

"Mark has been asking for her since he woke up this morning. I don't think we will be able to fool him any longer. He's already talking about returning home this weekend." Domenic finally broke the silence as he told the others about Mark's constant complaints and threats.

His eyes were fixed on Shadow who was taking out box after box of vanilla ice cream from the freezer.

"I'll visit the hospital with Crist and Leo later today. Don't worry too much about him. He's almost ninety-five percent healed." Daniel said as he patted his elder brother on the shoulder before he once again busied himself in preparing the soup for Mark.

"What are you doing?" Crist asked Shadow as the latter was ready to flee the kitchen with the ice cream boxes filling his large hands.

"It's for your baby sister," Shadow replied without even turning around.

"All five of them?" Simon questioned as he eyed the boxes of ice cream that the man was holding in his arms.

"Why? Is there a problem?" Shadow threw the question as he kept walking towards the entrance of the kitchen, but before he could leave the room, he was stopped in his tracks.

"Shadow.....are you really not aware of what's going on with her? I mean, you are really close to her, and you stay with her all the time....maybe she has told you something?" Crist asked as he looked at the man with hopeful eyes.

Even though everyone knew what his answer was going to be, they still turned to look at him as they waited for him to reply to Crist's question.

A sigh escaped Shadow's lips as he found four pairs of eyes trained on him. The only person who was not looking at him, waiting for an answer, was Domenic and that was because he already knew what Shadow was about to say next.

"Trust me, Young Masters. This time I'm just as clueless about the reason behind her detached behavior as the rest of you all. Whatever has happened, it has not happened in this mansion. If you are forgetting, then let me remind you, she's been like this ever since she returned from Kaiden's place. But even he has no idea about what's going on with her." Shadow replied with a small shake of his head before he gave a quick look to the brothers and then walked out of the kitchen.

"What exactly happened to her? I seriously can't see her like this anymore. She's behaving nothing like my Em!"

Leo once again complained as he glared at the empty doorway of the kitchen. And he was not the only one.

Just like him, the rest of his brothers were also confused and worried about the sudden change that had appeared in their little sister.

Domenic brought her home the very next morning after the incident since none of them wanted to keep her away from the mansion more than necessary.

At that time they did not question her quietness and sad mood because they all thought it was because of the incident and the shock that she received from it.

However, as time passed, they realized that it was not just as simple as they were thinking.

She was genuinely happy when Domenic informed everyone that Mark was finely out of danger and he would be back to full health in less than three weeks but that was the only time they saw her smiling in the past two weeks.

She would eat her food without any complaints. She no longer requested to stay awake past nine o'clock. She would wake up exactly at six o'clock. She no longer stepped out of the mansion even though Shane and Rylan called her many times to take her out for shopping or just a simple lunch.

She would stay quiet all the time but would reply whenever one of them asked her something.

She no longer denied their (her brothers) requests for anything. She would do anything that they would ask her to do.

She would watch a movie with them if they asked her to. She would help them in the kitchen or cleaning the house. In short, she was being as perfect as a little sister ever could.

But that was the exact problem! She was being too perfect and in the midst of that, she had long forgotten to be like herself, the funny, caring, and innocent little girl whom they all loved with all their hearts.

The girl who was now present in front of their eyes was no longer the same little sister that they had known for the past year.