"We were scared of women."

'Oh.'

"...D-do you want to talk about it?" I asked and they all nodded.

"Of course, we need to tell you everything. *sigh* ..When we were young, our parents along with Maro's went on a family vacation. We were left behind at the coast while the adults had fun on the yacht. Maro's parents forgot something at the shore so they rode a separate yacht back, in that time the yacht exploded while our parents were in it."Devereux explained. I feel like I know this..

"Wait..are you talking about the Blackrock Beach explosion from 13 years ago?" I asked.

"Yes..that was- the one." Alicai nodded his head. Obvious sadness reflected in his eyes.

"I-..I was there that day." I think I witnessed it all happen. I was 8 years old, I was on a yacht with my family as well but instead of swimming, I played with my binoculars to find dolphins.

We were near-shore since we were about done. As I played with the binoculars, I saw a couple in a boat reaching the coast and as they step foot, the yacht exploded. We reached the pier and my mother hid me from the scene. I heard kids crying, I closed my ears and rushed off somewhere.

I saw the couple again but they had the most terrifyingly calm and unfazed expression on their faces. It scared me as a kid, what boggles me is they said they forgot something? But they didn't do anything. They had an idle chat as they watch the fire and children groveling on the sand.

"I- I lost my parents, Calixto lost his father, Alicai lost his mother, Devereux' father's legs were crippled. The parents that survived went into a depression, we were all in a dark place. Soren's parents were busy managing all the businesses that they didn't have time for the children." Revere said.

"That's when Revere's aunt, M-Meredith Hendrix had the idea to take care of all of us herself since she explained that us kids will have a better environment if we were all together. My parents thought that she was such a great help so they said yes. She gathered all eleven children together and brought as to a remote place in the outskirts." Soren stated.

"She was horrible. She abused us relentlessly, Calliope showed you her scars, right? That was also the time I got the scar on my lip. Meredith slashed a knife in my face when she was drunk, well..we all have scars we don't want to show anyone." Calixto Revealed, I wondered where he got it before. I never expected that would be where he got it.

"She would bring women, women we found scary as children at that house. T-They'd..touch us, in places we didn't want to be touched. Make us do things we didn't want to do, much less know it was bad. Back when we were children, we were surprisingly innocent.. We were glad it was women since they didn't take an interest in our sisters." Devereux smiled brokenly.

"We wanted to fight back but, she always had a gun with her. She was a tall and strong woman, much taller and stronger than we were considering the oldest among us at the time was 13 and Revere was a late bloomer, no offense Vere." Viktor explained.

"It was hell, we wanted to die but we had a breaking point. she thought it would have been a good idea to brand us. She wanted to try it out on 5-year-old Madeleine who is Devereux's sister. Viktor managed to hit her in the head with a large brick and she collapsed on the floor. That was the day she died. We panicked and escaped into the woods. Starved and scared." Alicai said.

"We were found after a day by Maro's parents but what we didn't know was that it was all planned by them. They took advantage of the fact that our parents were not in the picture. Their plan was to let Meredith break us and have them play as the heroes."

"It was all because of Greed. Aera, your great grandfather was switched at birth, right? The one with who he was switched was Seamus Cane Wilson, Maro's great grandfather. You are from the rightful line of the Wilsons. Seamus knew he was switched at birth but didn't tell his parents, he didn't want to split his inheritance with the real son (Maximo Whitfield). He confessed to his "mother" right before she died and then proceeded to make a plan with his family and the generation after that."

"They are a family of liars, they knew that if we knew they weren't from the Wilson bloodline, we would have dropped our partnerships with their company. That was why Maro's parents planned that, to manipulate us. Which did work, reason why we are here at this position now."

" I met you before the day you were playing as a ghost in a movie. I just got out of my company, as I headed to the parking lot you bumped into me. I avoided all contact from women that time so when we bumped into each other. I was surprised when I didn't feel disgusted but felt the soulmate connection instead. I was both terrified and ecstatic. You were too distracted since you bumped into a pole with your forehead." Calixto chuckled.

"Wait we've met before??? Seriously??? and in such an embarrassing way as well?! Ah, the heck."

"*chuckle* ...I thought I was mistaken but when I saw the birthmark on your nape, I was proven wrong. Though I never told them about the birthmark, I told them I was certain that you were our mate."

" I saw your ID and by chance, you studied at the University my sister owned. I was going to hand it to you but I was overwhelmed by anxiety. I was too afraid to talk to you or even face you so I left. I first consulted with Maro's parents with the guys. Our parents just supported whichever decision we went on." He added.

"We were confused since there was never been a record in our bloodlines that a soulmate outside of the 7 families. Maro's parents said it must have been a mistake. They convinced us and gathered wrong information about you that you had the worst personality. That you were just like the women that abused us. We believed them before, we didn't have a reason not to. Even though we said we wanted to give it a try with you, they strongly denied it. So we rejected you...who knew it would have been the greatest mistake we would have made in our lives."

That's..fucked up in soo many ways. One, Mr. Torrin's parents are walking demon red flags. Two, I want to find the women that abused them and shove them to the ground myself. Lastly, I don't know how to react.

"Truly, soulmates are soulmates for a reason. After years, we met again. Calixto became your professor and the rest followed. We never regretted something so much in our life except rejecting you, Aera. We have already broken off all ties with Maro and his family. We are trying to start anew. It's fine if you can't accept us now, we will wait. We want you to know that we love you. I know it's too early to say but we know what we feel, and that is we deeply are in love with you." Devereux confessed.

"You can't say it's because of the soulmate connection, you have been hiding it from us for a long time. Avoiding to touch us, wearing special contacts, even gloves when you were being extra. We fell for who you are." Soren defended.

"...*sigh* You are right, I can't accept you yet. But that doesn't mean I'm not willing to try. It might take some time, are you ready for that? " I'm serious, I have pride in myself. Even if I come to love them, I will not say yes. I know they've gone through so much but I will not just forget all the things I've gone through. The Bullies, my depression, the scrutiny of the media.

"Of course, even if it will take years. We will wait for you."

.

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"..I'll take you on for that." We'll see..

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"Well, there goes my plan to lose my virginity this year." I joked.

"Your plan to lose what now??"

To be Continued. . .

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