CHAPTER XXVIII
~~~
SOPHIA WALKED DOWN the stairs, a light frown on her face as she walked towards the kitchen. She was still a bit upset about her short conversation with Chase from the previous night regarding her going to college. After she had told him she wanted to go to college, he had simply told her he didn’t have time for any of her shenanigans and when she kept on insisting, he just scooped her into his arms, stole a kiss as usual and told her to go to sleep. That had been the end of the conversation.
It was still very early, and she was happy Chase wasn’t in the room when she had woken up. otherwise, he would have been a hindrance to her going to see Alvaro.
Sophia peeked round to be sure no one was looking at her and made her way towards the servant’s quarters as she left through the backdoor. She needed to see Alvaro. At least, his well-being would be able to sooth a tiny part of her heart and she would stop worrying about him.
When she got to the servant’s quarters, she stopped in front of the guards standing there. “Uhh hey,” She waved at them. They both didn’t move. “I-can you both, please let me see Uncle Giuseppe? It’s really urgent”
The two men looked at each other, communicating through their eyes. One nodded at the other, and he spoke into the device he was holding in his hands. “Cosa facciamo? La ragazza e qui per vedere Guiseppe, e il Don la vuole lontana da loro. Dovremmo lasciarla entrare?”
{“What do we do? The girl is here to see Giuseppe, and the Don wants her nowhere near them. Should we let her in?}
The person at the other end spoke up. “Hmmmm. Lasciala entrare. Il Don sa gia che lei sarebbe andata li. Quello sarebbe comunque il loro ultimo incontro perche ha chiarito le sue istruzioni ad Alvaro,”
{“Hmmmm. Let her in. The Don already knows she would be going there. That would be their last meeting anyway because he has made his instructions clear to Alvaro. “}
“Sicuro,” He then turned to Sophia. “You may go in now. Sorry for the delay,”
{“Sure”}.
At first, Sophia was surprised they let her in, but she brushed it off to bask in her happiness. She smiled at the both of them. “Thanks” She walked into the building.
She made her way towards Giuseppe’s part of the building and stopped in front of the door, then knocked.
Immediately, the door was opened, revealing Giuseppe, who had a horrified expression on his face. “Bella ragazza, what are you doing here?”
{“Pretty girl”}
Sophia passed the slightly old man a small smile. “Can I see him?” When the old man didn’t say a word, tears welled up in her eyes, and her head dropped. “I’m so sorry for whatever he must’ve done to him because of media didn’t mean for it to happen, I swear,” She them looked up at him. “Please just let me see him”
The old man wasn’t scared for what would happen to him even though he was well aware of the fact that the Don had threatened his grandson with his life. He was even much more scared for Alvaro. “Bella ragazza-”
{“Pretty girl”}
Sophia clasped her hands together. “Please, Uncle Giuseppe”
Giuseppe swallowed, then nodded his head before moving from the door so she’d be able to enter.
“Thanks,” She blinked back her tears and walked into the house.
Sophia blanched when she stared at Alvaro’s unconscious figure on the bed. He was all battered up with bandages literally all over his bare body. He looked like he would have died if he wasn’t taken care of earlier.
“He’s okay now,” Giuseppe said from behind her. “The Don made sure he got the best treatment, and I’m very grateful for that. I don’t know how it would feel to lose my only family”
Sophia turned to him. She didn’t understand Chase. He was the one that made him all battered up and ended up paying for his treatment? What kind of a person was he?
“I-,”Her words stuck in her throat. “I-I’m very sorry for this. I didn’t know Chase would do something like this. He-he promised to spare his life. He told me he would!” She almost shrieked, hot tears cascading down her cheeks. “I’m a bad person. Bad bad person. I should have just told Alvaro. Now, look what I caused. He-he was treated badly because of me,”
Giuseppe moved closer and placed his wrinkled hands on her shoulders, then gave her a small smile. “The Don told you he would spare Alvaro’s life, didn’t he? Look, he did it. He spared his life. He didn’t let him die. He even paid for his treatment”
Sophia shook her head and wiped her tears with the back of her palms. “It doesn’t matter, Uncle Giuseppe. He still hurt him,”
“Wait up,” Giuseppe smiled and walked towards his kitchen. He walked back with a glass of water and handed it to her. “Have it”
“Thanks,” Sophia whispered out and took the glass from him. She drowned half of it in her throat, then passed it to him. “I-I’m sorry I behaved like that. I was just so upset”
Giuseppe dropped the cup and turned to her. “Why don’t you go back to the main mansion and have some rest? You can come in later, so we’ll talk. By then, Alvaro might be awake, and you’ll discuss it through. You can also apologise for what happened since you think you have a fault in this. It might help you feel much more better,”
“Thanks, Uncle Giuseppe,” She said. “I’ll leave now, but I’ll be back later,”
“Sure, Bella ragazza,”
{“Pretty girl”}
~~~
“Owww!,” Sophia winced as she hit her forehead on a wall. No. She thought as she saw that the walls had shoes on. It was someone’s chest. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t see you earlier. I wasn’t looking -“Her eyes fell on his face. “Luciano?”
“Yeah, Sweet cheeks,” He smiled at her. “What were you thinking?”
“I thought it was Lucas, and uh-the last time I bumped into him, he snapped at me,” She said.
“Ahh! forget about him. How have you been?” He then looked towards the backdoor where she’d gotten in from. “Where did you go? The servant’s quarters? To see your friend?”
She fidgeted with her hands. “Uhh-”
“You know I don’t bite. You can tell me the truth. You went to see Alvaro?”
Sophia nodded. “He was in a bad shape”
Luciano pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered out. “That’s how our world works”
Sophia’s head snapped up. “What world?”
Valerie’s cheerful voice helped Luciano very much at that moment because he didn’t know what to say to Sophia. “Look who we have here! Aren’t you excited to go to college?”
Luciano let out a silent breath of relief.