Beyond the lies

Chapter 10

Sofia nodded and left, her brother's eyes lingering on her until she was gone. It must be painful walking around with all those injuries, yet she never complained. A sad sight for someone supposed to be the Carmine princess.

The girl made her way to near the back of her house, usually she'd go straight down to her favourite room, though this time she turned right towards the lounge where Mel was waiting. The woman was sitting with a straight posture on the couch, her back turned to Sofia. 

She was looking through a file, however immediately shut it as she heard footsteps. The officer stood up and turned to see Sofia, and gave a small smile.

"Sofia, lovely to see you again."

The girl nodded and they shared an awkward hug; Mel grabbed her hands and had her sit next to her.

"How have you been doing?"

"Good. I'm still getting used to living here."

The woman gave a short laugh, "well it is quite a big place. I thought I came to the wrong place when I saw it at first."

Probably because Mel had seen her old home.

Time passed rapidly as Mel asked her questions and noted down the answers given. Near the end of it the officer closed her notepad and looked Sofia seriously in the eyes.

"I wanted to ask you personally about how you're finding it. I know you weren't very excited about coming here at first."

The girl looked at her lap and contemplated about what she should say. If she had really wanted to, she could expose the family business right here, but something inside of her stopped her from wanting to hurt her brothers, loyalty perhaps? Or she could tell the officer that she absolutely loved it here so she wouldn't worry.

In the end, Sofia decided to tell the truth.

"I guess I've had my ups and downs. No one's mean as such, apart from when there's small arguement. I think maybe that's normal among siblings? Apart from that, I'm learning how to deal with all the rules and school's not too bad either."

She looked up to see Mel's face, which was focused and calculating. A few more moments passes and the woman nodded firmly.

"I'll assume you will continue to stay here then."

"Yeah."

The officer smiled, relieved. "Good, your brothers are filthy rich too, so you're probably being well protected here anyways."

Sofia frowned, "what do you mean 'well-protected'?"

Mel's smile faded and her face morphed into an expression that told the girl that she was not to know of that detail she had accidentally let out.

"It's nothing," the woman got up, "I'll get going now."

Persistantly, Sofia grabbed her hands and forced her to sit again, "it's not just nothing, please tell me."

Mel contemplated for a few minutes and the curious girl kept begging her. Was she in danger? Finally she used her last resort.

"Please tell me, otherwise I'll tell my brothers-"

"Fine! Fine, I'll tell you, but this is highly classified information. No-one is to know of this conversation Sofia."

She inclined firmly, "it's a secret."

The woman bit her lip nervously, "Sofia...when I told you that your mother died from a hit and run case, it was actually more than that."

The girl's hands became clammy and she paled. Nonetheless, she wanted Mel to continue.

"We're investigating the case because we suspect that it was planned."

"You mean to say...she was killed?"

"I can't go into more detail about the actual accident, though I can tell you it was too coincidental to just be a hit and run case. There's too many signs saying otherwise."

"Like?"

"Well, we interviewed a witness and they happened to see a tattoo that was one one of the people in that car that ran over your mother. After they identified it, we realised it belonged to a gang in the area. We did some more digging, and turns out your mother owed a lot of money to several gangs, which she would use for..."

"Drugs," spat out the girl.

The officer nodded and looked at her in pity, "I'm sorry, it must have been horrible living with her."

You have no idea.

It was silent for a bit before Sofia perked up, "wait! Why does that mean you were considering me being under police protection until you came here? If the gang killed my mother, doesn't that mean they've got their revenge?"

She shook her head, "that was one gang, unfortuantely your mother made a lot of enemies. I'm sure there are many gangs who aren't happy with this outcome, Maria never paid them back and they'd probably try and come after the closest person to her."

She spoke quietly, "it's very dangerous for you Sofia, it's best you stay here where most probably nobody else knows your past, or your mother. I'm sure your family has the best security so I was relieved to hear you were doing ok here."

"I understand..." She didn't.

Sofia was scared about what would happen and at the same time she was furious that her mother's cruelty had still managed to reach and affect her even though she was dead.

The two made their way to the front of the house, where they found all six brothers seated. Had it really been so long, even the twins were back home from school.

Only Vincent got up and made his way towards Mel, although their entire conversation could be heard by everyone.

"Officer Ross," he greeted, "I hope everything went well."

Mel shrunk under his scrutinizing gaze, however did her best to stay composed.

"Yes it did," she glanced at Sofia, "I find it suitable for Sofia to be staying here permanently, or at least until she's 18."

Almost everyone had a reassured expression at the woman's words, except  they also wished that she had left the last part out. That, Vincent did not fail to convey.

"Sofia's family. We have no intentions of kicking her out after she becomes an adult."

Yet again the officer wavered and became scared, nevertheless kept her professional front.

"I was referring to if Sofia wishes to stay here once she turns 18."

There was silence as Vincent for the first time had a look of uncertainty and the brothers looked at the girl who stood there uncomfortably and willed for this to be over soon.

Mel sensed this and cleared her throat, "I'll be leaving now."

She mouthed at Sofia to 'stay safe' and went.

Luca hurried over to the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder, "Sof, are you-"

"I'll be in the music room." And with that the girl hurried away, not caring if that had meant breaking a rule.

Her thoughts were in a disarray with everything that she had learnt and  she settled on distracting herself by practicing the piece meant for the competition.

Why was life always so difficult?