Elijah's next words shocked me.

"He was in jail…"

****

"Wha-what!?", I asked him completely shocked.

Grandpa, in jail? MY GRANDPA IN JAIL!?

"But- I… how?", I asked him again with wide eyes.

He looked at his food, so did Julian. Riley looked very uncomfortable.

"Yes Lijah, why?", Alex asked him.

"You-you don't know?", I looked at him.

He shook his head.

"I knew that he was in jail, but I never knew the reason. Elijah and Riley never told me. And the last time I saw grandpa was 5 years ago. I don't even properly remember his face", he told me with sad eyes.

I was even more shocked now.

"Grandpa doesn't love us?" Chase asked Riley with watery eyes.

"Of course he loves you! He loves you all very much", Riley told us.

"That's why he never bothered to see us", Cayden scoffed.

"Not even on Christmas!", Rayan slammed his fork on the table.

"Baby Rose, you will not meet him. He doesn't deserve to see you", Chris told me.

"No Chris, you can't make that decision. She will meet him, that's final" Julian finalized.

"No she will not! That man never bothered to see if we were dead or alive!", Chris raised his voice at Julian.

"It was not his fucking fault! Do you even know how badly he wanted to see you!", Dean shouted at Chris.

He was the one silent in this whole conversation and now he spoke for the first time.

"THEN WHY DIDN'T HE!?", Chris yelled at Dean.

And then all my brothers started arguing. Calling each other names, screaming and yelling at each other.

"SHUT UP!",I yelled at all of them, making them go dead silent.

"I am so confused right now and instead of answering me, YOU'RE ALL FIGHTING!", I sniffed. I was so pissed off. My period just worsen the situation.

"Shit, don't cry", Cayden patted my back. He was sitting on my right.

"Why did grandpa never came to see you?", I asked him, wiping my tears.

"I wonder the same thing", Rayan told me with a sad face.

"Lijah, I am confused", I looked at him.

"Yea, Lijah I am confused too. Enlighten me", Chris remarked sarcastically.

"Chris, why do you not know?", I looked at him.

"Because 'it's not the right to time' ", he tried to mimic Elijah's manly voice.

"Only Riley, Elijah, Julian, Max and Dean know about what happened. Rest of us don't. And when I tried to force them to tell us, he grounded me for 3 weeks", Alex pointed at Elijah.

I shot Elijah an accusing look.

"Ugh, don't look at me like that. I didn't have a choice, little sister", he had a conflicted expression. As if he wanted to say something but was restraining himself.

"Now that you're here, grandpa wants to tell everyone what happened and why he was in jail. But he wants to do that himself, so just wait a little. Okay?", Riley asked looking at me.

I nodded my head. But the curiosity was killing me.

"But I'm curious!", Alex exclaimed.

"Cat killed the curiosity lil bro", Chase tsked.

"Do you mean curiosity killed the cat?", I asked him.

"Whatever."

Rayan face palmed at his twin.

"Moving on, there are few other things we need to discuss", Riley looked at me.

"Okay", I nodded for him to continue.

"I was thinking that you should start school from next week", Elijah told me.

School, the term seemed foreign. I completely forgot about that.

"But it's ok if you're not ready. We want you to be comfortable", Julian gave me a small smile.

"No, it's completely fine. It's already been two months and I think I'm ready to go to school again", I smiled at them.

My brothers started school a month ago. I wanted to go with them but Elijah and Julian insisted that I can join later. I need to rest because of my old bruises and malnourishment.

They also took me therapy every week.

At first I thought I didn't need it, so I objected. But honestly, it helped a lot. My nightmares have been decreasing.

My brothers have been by my side the whole time, always showing me so much love and care.

"Okay, so me and Julian will take you shopping for school supplies this weekend", he smiled at me.

I nodded.

"Why doesn't I get to go with her?", Chase huffed.

"Because you little assholes are irresponsible as fuck", Dean smirked at them.

"Rose, I am your legal guardian. But I will never use my authority in an unfair way. There are few things I need you to understand, okay?", Elijah asked me softly.

"Okay", I looked at him.

"You'll be new to school, so ask your brothers for help with anything. Okay?", He asked me.

"Yea, whenever you need something, come to me. You'll find me in the C building where I bunk classes because no one goes there", Chris smirked.

"Shut up! I don't want her innocent eyes to see you making out with that blonde chick", Rayan spoke. Chris glared at him.

"Come to me, whenever hungry. I have my bag stocked with food all the time", Chase said proudly.

"Okay", I giggled.

"Next thing-", Riley begin, "- you are allowed to date, as long as we meet the guy and you promise not to do anything weird. You're only turning 16 soon", he finished.

"Don't worry, I don't think I'm going to date any time soon", I laughed at the stupid idea of dating.

Alex had smiled and I saw that Elijah and Chris seemed relieved.

"I wanna ask something", I looked at my older brothers.

"Go ahead", Julian smiled.

"When is my birthday?", I asked them.

"What?", Riley was shocked.

"You-you don't know that?", Cayden asked me in a whisper.

"No-no. Jack and Gini never told me. Every year, on 1 January, I assumed that I'm a year older", I told them while keeping my gaze low.

"12 December, you and Alex were born on 12 December", Elijah told me with a small smile.

I smiled brightly, "I finally know my birthday! And it's near new year!", I exclaimed happily. My brothers chuckled.

"You're so cute sweetheart", Elijah said while looking at me with adoration. I gave him a toothy grin.

"Last thing, whenever you wanna go somewhere or need anything, you have to inform one of the older one of us, including Dean, Julian, Riley and me. Okay?", Elijah asked me.

"What if you are not available?", I asked him.

"Then Chris, Rayan, Cayden, Chase and Alex can help. But they're not very responsible, so I prefer telling older ones", he told me.

"Hey! You're so mean", Cayden said with a fake hurt expression.

I giggled.

"Rayan, Chase and Chris, you're all 18. Who's older?", I asked them.

"I'm older by 8 months", Chris smirked at Rayan and Chase. They glared at him.

"I am 1 minute older than him", Chase widened his nostrils.

"58 seconds", Rayan corrected him with a bored look.

"But still older. O-L-D-E-R",he smirked at Rayan.

"Yeah, but I have more brain", Rayan smirked back. Chase's smirk was gone.

"Okay okay! Stop!", Julian told them before they could argue any further.

"Rose, I bought a little present for you", Riley smiled at me.

I tilted my head at him, "what?"

"You seriously didn't think that I would come to meet my long lost sister empty handed", he asked me with an expression that said 'seriously?'.

He put his hand in pocket and took something out. It looked like a paper or something.

"Here", he said, handing it to me.

"What is it?", I asked him, taking the thing in my hand.

"Just see it", he smiled brightly.

It was a... picture?

I looked at it:

"What- who's this?" I asked him completely confused. Why was he giving me this random picture?

"You and your mom."

*****