It took me three hours to write this chapter.

Please Vote. I need encouragement right now.

(1.59k words only, writer's block sucks)

Rose's POV.

"In that case, I get to have her the most", a deep voice boomed from behind me.

I turned around and saw a man standing at the door of the kitchen.

I don't think I've ever met him before. For the fact I am sure I've never even seen him before.

He wore a black turtle-neck sweater with dark blue jeans. He had light grey eyes. His face neatly shaved with hair properly combed. He looked well kept.

He looked nearly Elijah's age.

"Riley!", Chase exclaimed. He looked excited and then he suddenly launched himself on that Riley dude.

He chuckled and caught Chase just in time before he would've fallen down and broken his bum.

He then pulled away after a few seconds and looked here and there. It seemed as if he was searching for something.

Then his eyes stopped and landed on me. He stared at me, his light grey staring in my blue ones.

"Rose", he whispered slowly. He came towards me and held me in a tight embrace. Not letting go, as if scared I might disappear.

Everything happened so fast, I didn't know how to react.

So I just stood there, silently waiting for him to let go.

But he didn't. So I spoke, "Umm, sir, can you let go off me?"

He pulled away and looked at my brothers, "Sir?"

"Uh uh", Chris laughed nervously.

"Don't tell me you didn't even mention me. I will beat the crap out of you Elijah", he looked at Elijah.

Elijah rolled his eyes and said, "It's not my fault that we were taking care of her."

"Rose, remember I told you about our cousins who helped us run away from Joseph?", Alex asked me.

I nodded.

"He is him, Riley, who saved me from getting stabbed. He is our oldest brother, 2 years older than Elijah", Alex told me.

I looked at Alex and then back at the stranger, who was my oldest brother.

A big smile made its way on my face. I hugged him tightly.

"You saved my twin, Alex, thank you!", I spoke. My voice came out muffled because I was hugging him so tightly.

He seemed shocked for a moment but then he recovered quickly and squeezed me in his arms.

"Bambina, don't thank me. I am very lucky to have you and Alex as my baby siblings", he said while squeezing my cheeks with his both hands.

He was smiling widely, showing dimples on both his cheeks.

I grinned.

"You grew up so beautiful", he said.

I could see the moisture in his eyes. He was trying to control his emotions.

"Oh look! Our big bad brother all emotional. I might click a picture, you don't get to see this everyday", Dean said while taking out his phone.

"Shut up", Riley rolled his eyes.

"Wait, can I ask something?", I said out loud.

"Yes little sister, what do you wanna know?",Riley asked me, smiling.

"Alex mentioned 2 big brothers. You and um, what was his name? Mathew? Matt? No wait! Max! Yea, where is he?", I asked.

Riley stiffened a little.

"It's ok, you don't have to-", I started but Riley cut me off.

"It's alright. You're my sister, you deserve to know everything about your family. He is in the hospital", he told me with an unreadable expression.

I looked at my other brothers, they all had a sad expression on their faces.

"Oh…", I wanted to ask the reason but I didn't.

"He had a heart transplant recently", Riley told me.

"Actually, we didn't tell him about you",Julian spoke lowly.

"Oh…", I didn't know what to say.

"He has a very fragile heart condition right now. Doctors said too much stress or excitement isn't good for his heart. We weren't sure if it was really you, so we didn't tell him. He wouldn't have been able to bear the pain of your loss, again", Elijah told me with a hard expression.

"But now we will take you to meet him very soon. Actually, I think we should take you to meet him on his birthday, which is 5 days from now. It would be the best surprise", Rayan said with a hopeful expression.

"I think that's an awesome idea", Chase nodded to himself.

"Alright, than it's decided", Riley smiled widely and continued, "and I didn't come to meet you sooner because someone had to be with Max."

"It's ok and I'm sorry about him", I said with a little sad smile.

"No sweetheart, don't be. It's not your fault and Max loves you alot", Elijah came near me and hugged me.

"Yea…", I nodded. I don't know why, but I felt very sad.

He is my brother and I don't want him to be in pain.

"I must warn you-",Alex started with a very serious expression, "-he is nothing to joke about. Do not take him lightly. He will cuddle the life out of you", he finished with a dramatic shiver.

Everyone started laughing.

"That's the reason I love him so much!", Chase jumped up and down.

Everyone laughed even more now.

And I found myself laughing along.

You can count the times when I felt happiness, from inside, on your fingers.

This is one of those times.

I can't imagine my life getting any happier, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

"I am hungry, can we have lunch?", Chase asked Elijah with a hopeful expression.

"Please", he added with puppy dog eyes.

"Aw, of course lil bro", Elijah said with a small chuckle.

Then we all settled down at the dinning table and filled our plates with food.

"Rose, are you just gonna eat that little?", Riley eyed my plate and then looked at me.

"Um, I am not really hungry", I told him.

"Bullshit, you say the same thing everything", Elijah narrowed his eyes at me.

"Babygirl, it's not healthy. You're so light, you need to gain some more weight and be strong", Julian said with a worried expression.

"Exactly! I get so scared whenever Chase hugs her. I feel like she'll break and be crushed under his fat ass any moment", Rayan said while looking at all of my brothers.

"Hey! I'm not fat. You're just jealous that I am so sexy", Chase said with an eye roll, like stating the obvious.

"BAHAHAHA, JOKE OF THE DECADE", Rayan rolled on the floor because of laughing too hard.

Cayden rolled his eyes at them.

"Anyway, I want to ask you Rose, are you excited?", Riley asked me.

"Um, About what exactly?"

Riley looked at Elijah and Julian. Elijah shrugged and Julian looked nervous.

"I see you didn't tell her that too", Riley looked at my other brothers accusingly.

"I didn't want to stress her when she just returned from the hospital",Elijah told Riley.

"Tell me what?", I asked them.

"We are holding a party here. Me and Max live here too. We weren't here because I was with Max the whole time", Riley told me.

"I'm sorry", I lowered my gaze.

"For what?", Cayden asked me.

"You all had to be in Miami because of me. You were supposed to take care of Max. I'm so sorry", I said, with my eyes now watery.

I feel so bad right now.

Max needed them more than me.

"No sweetie, it's not your fault. Don't say sorry", Riley sweetly told me.

"Yes baby, you needed us as much as Max did. Okay?", Elijah said with a smile.

"Okay", I gave him a small smile.

"So, about the party, it is your welcome party", Julian said while looking at me.

"Welcome par..ty?", I asked them completely confused.

"Yeah. You will meet the rest of our family. Including our uncles, aunts, grandpa and cousins", Elijah told me.

"Family? We have more family?",I have no idea what was happening.

"Yea, it's not alot. Just brothers of our dad and his cousins", Julian said to me as if it was no big deal.

"When is it?", I asked them.

"4 days from now", Chris told me.

4 days, 4 DAYS! AND THEY ARE TELLING ME NOW!

I looked at my brothers in disbelief.

"It's ok, it's ok! Don't worry Rose, they will love you, just like we do. I will be there with you the whole time", Alex gave my hand an assuring squeeze.

"Ok".

"Great. Also, we need to work on your eating habits. I'll let it slide this time but it's not over yet", Elijah said with narrow eyes.

I shrugged.

"Can I ask you guys something?", I asked them.

"Go ahead", Dean encouraged me.

"You said grandpa. I'm sorry but I thought he was dead. I mean, why didn't he take you all in?", I asked them and immediately regretted my question because I could see them stiffening.

Their cold expressions. Their body language, the proof that it was not an ideal lunch topic to discuss.

"It's uh", Dean looked as if he wasn't sure what to say.

"Tell her!", Alex whisper yelled to the older ones.

"I'm sitting right here", I raised my eyebrows at him. He scratched the back of his neck.

"Alright, just don't freak out. Okay?", Riley asked me. I nodded. Then he looked at Elijah.

Elijah's next words shocked me.

"He was in jail…"

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