𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐈

~Childhood~

-"Blood doesn't make a family."-

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Starr bagged the bloodied shards of the crystal vase with one of the black dead roses. Along with the note they found in the casket. She put it all in a box that would be labeled as evidence with all they had to go on to find the King.

The triplets and Katrina told everything they remembered from their childhood that involved Aria as everyone around them listened intently.

Before they knew their parents as 'birth-giver' and 'sperm-donor', but Katrina said their actual names were Vera Karlsson and Hugo Karlsson. But the triplets said that the alternative names were better.

"When Elias, Felix, and Milo were born, Vera and Hugo didn't care enough to actually take care of them when they had a six-year-old daughter that could do it for them. Sick bastards put all chores on her. From taking care of the babies and being the person they sent to get their drugs. No six-year-old should go through what she did

I helped all I could but I was only six too. And I also had my own difficulties with my foster homes. We were brought up in the same part of town and it wasn't a very good one. All the people who lived there were living in poverty.

I snuck in whenever I could to help when Vera and Hugo were out doing god knows what. The time came when both of us needed to go to school and we had no one to take care of the triplets. We entrusted a nice old lady that lived a few blocks away in the better part of town. She loved kids since she could never have ones of her own. We never told her about our situation and she never asked.

When we got into high school, the old lady died and we were all our own. But good thing they were old enough to go to school and it was better. As Aria got older, Vera and Hogo became more dependent on her. She had to do all the shopping for food and clothes with what little money she could muster up from her jobs. Eventually, it got to where Vera and Hugo got into debt from gambling and she had to pick up extra shifts and jobs.

She worked hard in school though. It was like her sanctuary where she could take a breather but school stress took a lot from her too. The Columbia scholarship took major stress off of her.

But then her grandmother died and you know how that went," Katrina explained.

Luca looked away, holding the diamond ring that was attached to his chain. As her words sunk in, he found it harder and harder to breathe. Katrina nodded to the triplets, silently telling them to tell what they remembered.

Everyone listened with sympathetic looks on their faces, some with tears welling up. They were in pure astonishment at how anyone could go through what she did.

"From what we could remember, Aria raised us. She taught us all we needed to know. Manners and all that, it was all her.

When we needed help with school, she was the one to help us. When we were hungry she was the one to scrape food off of her plate and give it to us with a smile. When we were cold, she was the one to pay the heating bills. When we got scared of Vera and Hugo's tempers and habits, she was the one to reassure us and tell us everything was going to be okay. She was the one who comforted us after a storm or a nightmare or when a shooting was going on in our neighborhood. She was the one who showed up to the parent-teacher conferences.

She and Kat were the only parental figure we had growing up," Milo spoke.

"And It wasn't just her chores and her responsibilities that took her energy. It was the abuse too. But she never let Vera and Hugo touch us no matter how much we told her that we could take it. She would lock the door to our bedroom when she knew that they would hurt her and attempt to hurt us.