Emmanuelle

Really Nuelle? Dimitri?...

I pulled the door shut and facepalmed myself. Whatever, Emillio will probably tell him that he was the one who had instructed me to wait in the office, I thought to myself.

His looks might have changed, but his attitude was still the same if not even worse. He used to avoid me and give me cold looks that made me feel like he did not want me here when we were younger.

I did not expect him to suddenly change and be happy to see me, but  somewhere deep down I at least expected a 'Hi' or something. But— nothing.

"Okay," I whispered to myself as I tried to keep myself from overthinking the whole situation.

I just wished that we did not have to stay for so long. I huffed in annoyance at my own thoughts before I turned on my heel and walked to the others.

They were all still sitting in the living room, talking and laughing. For a moment I stopped walking and stood in silence to watch them.

Tia looked happy, she was holding onto Marissa like it was the last time she would ever get to hold her. Anthony looked happy too.

I could not help but wonder to myself— what if we did not leave this place eight years ago? Would we have grown up together to be a happy family? But then I would not have met Anthony, though in this moment thinking about Anthony made me mad.

I was disappointed in him. There was a lot I wanted to know and if there was one thing I was going to make sure of it was to get the answers to the questions that I had.

It was the least they could do for making me leave and then come back to this place against my will. Well, sort of against my will.

I quickly fixed a small smile on my face when Tia and Marissa turned towards me. Marissa patted the space next to her on the couch, for me to sit. The moment I sat down she wrapped her arms around me again.

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"Anthony has been taking good care of you, right?" She raised her eyebrows before she turned to look at Anthony.

I nodded, not once looking at him.

Our attention got caught by laughter coming from the front door. A man dressed in all black just like Emillio, walked through the door.

He was laughing and talking to someone behind him. I pinned my eyebrows together as I tried to get a better look at the person he was talking to. The man moved to the side and waited for the person behind him to make his way through the door.

A young man dressed in black jeans paired with a black shirt and white sneakers walked in. He looked so full of life, showing off his perfect teeth as he kept on talking to the other man whilst they walked towards us. His dark hair was neatly styled back, his face was clean shaven.

Wait, is that?...

"Marco." Marissa voiced as she let go off me.

She got up, unintentionally blocking my view by standing in front of me as she waited for him.

"Hey sis." He said before he hugged her.

It was a quick hug. With her left arm still on his shoulder she turned towards Tia who immediately got up. Before he got to utter one word Tia had attached herself to him.

Tia is not a very tall woman and that is coming from someone who is 5'3. He hugged her back and rested his chin on her head.  He had his eyes closed and kept telling her to stop crying as he wiped away her tears.

Marissa sat down next to me again, giving me a better view of Marco and Tia. Tia pulled away but they were still holding hands when he noticed me.

Within less than a second between first noticing me and turning back to Tia, he had turned his face towards me again. His eyebrows furrowed as a warm smile appeared on his face.

He let go of Tia and his mouth slightly opened. It seemed as though he had trouble believing his eyes.

"N-Nuelle?"

I nodded with my lower lip tucked between my teeth as I got up.

"Hey," He whispered with the confused look still stuck on his face as he pulled me in for a hug.

"You—You have grown up." He said, shocked as he slightly pulled away to take another look at me.

We all laughed at his comment before he once again gave me another tight hug.

"Ah, brother, come join us."

I looked to my left. Dimitri was slowly approaching us with his hands in his pockets. My eyes widened when they briefly met his.

It was as though his eyes were letting me know how displeased he was with me, though I could not understand why. I slowly pulled away from Marco, but he held my hands in his. Dimitri's eyes quickly shifted to Marco before he turned to Tia and smiled at her.

We stayed together for a little while longer. Everyone seemed happy in this moment. Everyone was laughing and talking even Emillio and the other man that came in before Marco, Christoph was his name.

I studied my siblings' facial expressions and then Tia's. Everyone was talking to everyone, but not Anthony and me. That was not going to happen until the air was cleared, though deep down I had already forgiven him.

He was more of a brother to me than the two others ever were, but the way Marco treated me gave me the feeling that there was still hope for us to start over as brother and sister. Dimitri on the other hand did not once look at me.

"Ah, okay children." Tia breathed out with her hands on her hips. "Tia isn't the youngest anymore, so if it's okay... I would like to rest a bit."

"Of course Tia." Dimitri nodded. "Anthony will show you to your room."

"You should rest too, Nuelle." Anthony said.

"Yeah, my suit—"

"I know, come on." He interrupted me.

I awkwardly smiled at Marco and Marissa before facing Dimitri. Both, Marco and Marissa smiled back, Dimitri just looked at me with a straight face that only scared me.

I followed Tia and Anthony up the stairs and heard Marissa shout about how much fun we were going to have which made me look over my shoulder to smile at her.

I then noticed Dimitri, he was staring at me with the same facial expression as before. They did not notice him doing this because he was standing behind them. Even when I turned away from him I could still feel his eyes on my back, piercing through my skin.

I shrugged the feeling off when we walked towards the bedrooms. For a moment I had forgotten how incredibly huge the place was. It was at least five times bigger than our home in England.

We walked Tia to her old room, she waved me goodbye and then went in. Anthony and I then continued to walk towards my room. This was the same room that I used to sleep in before I moved out.

There was absolutely no reason for him to walk me there, but I was too tired to carry my suitcase so I stayed quiet. We stopped in front of a white door that had princess spelled on it in pink and gold letters.

"Wow." Anthony raised his eyebrows as he looked at the name plate on the door. A chuckle escaped his lips which earned him a sarcastic smile after which I rolled my eyes at him.

I opened the door and pushed my suitcase inside before he had the chance to do it. I then pushed the door but before I managed to close it in his face he stopped me.

"Nuelle—" His jaw tightened.

"Anthony, it's been a long day and I'm tired. Whatever you have to say, please— it can wait."

He gulped, giving me a small nod as he took his upper lip between his teeth. "Have a good night." He softly said.

"You too."

I closed the door and locked it. It felt like I could finally breathe.

"Wow," I mumbled to myself as I looked around the pink room. Everything was still the same as I had left it, but it had definitely been cleaned. My heart swelled up at my princess bed.

The sheets were the same pink ones that I had slept on the day before I got sent away. I gasped when my eyes met my stuffies. How I loved them with all my heart and soul. I picked them up and hugged them, swinging them from left to right.

"I'm sorry for leaving you." I whispered as I put them back on the bed, giggling to myself when I realized that I was talking to stuffed animals. I got up from the bed and walked around the room.

I stopped in front of the single painting that hung in the room. It was a simple painting of a lake and five swans that were swimming in it. The first one was the biggest and was leading the four others.

I remembered father telling me why he got it, because I did not like it at first. He told me that he got it because it reminded him of our family. He was the biggest swan and I was the last one, because that one was the smallest one in the painting.

I quietly sobbed as I wiped the tears from my cheek. I was so focused on replaying father's words that I did not even notice that I was full on crying until I felt the tears drip from my chin.

This was the first painting I had ever seen and in some way I think it had inspired me to start painting. Fourteen year-old Nuelle believed that she was making her father proud by making paintings of her own.

I took a deep breath and wiped my face before making my way to the small dresser. There were different pictures glued to the mirror. There was a picture of my father. Then there was one with me and Marissa, one with us and Tia and one of my biological mother.

"I love you mama." I whispered to myself as I touched the picture.

Too much had happened in just one day and to think that we had to stay for at least one more week only skyrocketed my anxiety.