❝Are you honestly ready to die for this?❞
"STILL NOT SURE how I feel about my half-brother being a criminal." Sophia wonders around Ashton's hotel living room, examining the mess of things Ria's already left scattered across the coffee table. "Or my best friend's boyfriend."
Ashton rubs his neck and trails after her as she finds a seat. "Or that you even have a brother."
"That too." She points at him knowingly as he finds a spot on the sofa next to hers. "I also discovered that I have a half-sister." She expresses it so casually as she kicks her feet out.
His eyes widen and he sits forward. "R-really?"
"Yeah. My dad just likes to make families and not tell me about it. It's honestly a mess."
"I'm sorry." Ashton folds his hands over his knees, unsure how he should approach this situation. This is the first time he's had Sophia alone and his first attempt at having a relationship with a family member. The foreign feel of it drives electric nerves through his entirety. "How'd you find out about her? What's her name?"
Sophia ruffles up her already poofy hair and exhales her mental fatigue. "Her name is Amber. She lives in a different part of the city. I just...I decided to snoop through my dad's past and found my original birth certificate with your mom's name on it. I also found one that said Amber Tucker. I dug a little deeper and it turns out he was married before leaving his wife when I was in my teens. Guess he felt bad for living a double life."
"That's pretty shitty. How could he do that for so long?"
"I don't know!" She tosses her hands up and purses her lips. "Guess it's just as bad as your mom lying about having me and pretending you didn't have a sister for decades."
Ashton tries to ignore the way Sophia says his mom. As if they don't share the same mother. Perhaps she doesn't mean to disregard him as her sibling, but in a way, it sort of feels like she is.
"So besides having awful parents, what else do we have in common," he jokes.
"Well, we love the same women." She attempts to smile to which he does the same. "Ria and Dea. Their names are even the same." She laughs. "Holy shit."
"They're both Italian," he adds. "Are you sure you're not just a duplicate of me?"
She rolls her eyes and waves this off. "I'm older than you. If anything, you're just my male clone."
"We're both artistically superior."
"Cocky. I like that." Sophia nods and her smile grows. "I guess you're not so bad for a guy who used to kill people."
A grimace contorts his expression and his limbs weaken as he slouches into himself. Delicacy aligns his tone as he says, "Yeah. I guess so."
"I'm sorry! Is that a sensitive subject? I was trying to make light of it, but I guess that's pretty insensitive."
"No, it's fine." He waves her worries aside despite the aching of his chest. Impish memories attempt to conquer his fragile mind, but he shoves them aside before they can bleed over his plain of thought. "It is a bit of a sensitive subject for me. It's not something that I glamorize. I hated what I had to do, but..."
"You were protecting the girl you loved."
"Even then...after Viv and I were separated, I worked for Vincent again. I tried to escape, but he found me and offered forgiveness if I paid my debt."
"Did you do it?" she wonders, leaning in with curiosity. "Repay your debt?"
"Yeah. That night that Ria was attacked by that Brandon bastard...I was hiding illegal artillery in my loft. Vincent's men were picking it up. I was supposed to be finished after that."
"Supposed to?"
"Well, after what happened to her I wanted to find Brandon, so I asked Vincent for assistance. Instead, he killed him and called in another favor from me. I either had to turn in Vivian or pay him. If I chose neither, he threatened Ria."
A disturbed look morphs across her features. "Shit, Ashton."
"I-I know. That's the last thing anyone wants in their lives. I was sure I could protect her. If I wasn't able to, I would have left her. I'll always do what's best for Ria. I'd give my life if it meant protecting her."
This makes Sophia smile. Warmth flowers across her fair expression and she cocks her head to the side. "You two have a special kind of love for each other. Ria, I know, would give her life to protect you as well. The intensity between you two is unimaginable. No wonder she went all loopy when you left."
Ashton exhales a chuckle and scoots a little closer to his sister, feeling the ease in her aura. "How about you and Dea? How intensely do you love her?"
This earns him a dramatic roll of her eyes. "I'm sure I love her more than she loves me. She's always so flirty with other men and women. She acts so carefree sometimes and it makes me feel clingy or something."
"That's Dea alright." He grins. "She's a worse flirt than her brother, but I swear it's just her personality. She likes to be chased and desired, but I assure you, that woman loves you just as much as you love her. Dea doesn't date for long."
"Really?" Hope sparks in Sophia's eyes and she shifts closer as well.
"You've been together for nearly a year, right? Dea gets bored after four months. She tries to point fingers at Daniel, but she's just as bad as him. I don't blame her though. She's romantically passionate kind of like Ria. She's been obsessed with finding her soulmate since before I knew her."
The tamest of blushes cascades Sophia's cheeks and she raises her eyes to the ceiling. "Maybe she thinks I'm the one or something."
"Maybe." He nudges her leg. "If you really want to get to her, just stop being super affectionate for like a week. It'll drive her nuts. She's so spoiled sometimes."
Sophia bursts into laughter and shakes her head profusely. "She'd go nuts if I did that."
"Exactly!"
"You sure do know a lot about her. How long have you been close?"
"Nearly a decade." Ashton rests his cheek on his palm and simpers to himself. "I met Daniel first, but those two are like peas in a pod. I couldn't see him without her by his side. Dan was the only one in their family that supported her being bisexual so they kind of grew up closer than anyone else."
Distaste morphs across her humbled smile and she drags her eyes to the side. "If only he wasn't a bastard to everyone else."
"Wha?" Ashton laughs. "What do you mean?"
"The asshole hates me just because I'm with his sister." She throws her hands up before they fall to her lap. "He acts like I'm bothersome to be around. Like I stole his sister or something. He hardly was encouraging about bringing you back. It's like he wanted you and Ria to be separated even if there was a chance that Chris sabotaged everyone."
"That's Dan...he...he's a bit protective and not fond of change."
Sophia scoffs. "He's controlling and rude. I don't see why Dea loves him so much."
"He's her brother. He's my best friend." Ashton doesn't mean to grow defensive, but her animosity is starting leak over to him. Maybe it's because of the accusations Ria made, but he's more than determined to defend him.
Daniel is like his big brother. He's protected him and been there for him at all costs. There's no way in hell that he would do anything to hurt Ashton or the ones he loves.
"I don't mean to insult him." Sophia runs her hands over her thighs and stretches her fingers like exerting her stress. "He's just always a ball of negative vibes when he visits Dea."
"Well, I'll talk to him about it. I definitely think he's just unintentionally jealous that you whisked his sister away, but once I let him know, he'll loosen up."
"I sure hope so." She jerks her head back in surprise. "Look at that. Little bro already helping out his big sis. It's like we're already a family."
Ashton grins like a child and scratches the side of his head. "I guess so, huh?"
"If we're gonna do this family thing, we should do it right."
"Yeah. I'm guessing that means we should confront our parents about the whole situation."
The lines of her small face scrunch like a child's. "I guess. N-not anytime soon though. I don't think I'm ready to face my dad." She rubs her neck and pretends to smile. "Or the woman who gave birth to me. That'd be a bit awkward."
"Yeah..."
Though Ashton senses the fear underlying in her playful facade. A fear to meet the woman who she's probably longed for her entire life. If only he could tell her from his own experience that Charlotte James is a mother that never knew how to love her own.
A queasy silence extends from each beige wall. Dimmed lights make it impossible for life to seep into the room. Ria sits across from Chris at his dining table and stares at him through lowered eyes. He refuses to look at her as he shifts through the dinner he prepared.
"So," she breaks the stale air and swallows a forkful of pasta, "who tried to tear Ashton and I apart? How did you know about it? Did you have a part in it? Was it Daniel?"
Chris looks up abruptly with astonishment painted across his features. "Do you think I would actually tell you? I know the second you know everything, you're going to leave me."
"Chris, I'm not with you. We were done the second you used blackmail to keep me around."
"What am I supposed to do, Ria?" he demands hysterically. Anger feeds the fire in his eyes and he balls his fists. "How else am I supposed to keep you? I just want us to have a future and I don't want you to have that bastard's kid."
Ria leans back, incredulous by the words spewing from his mouth. "This isn't up to you, Chris. This is my life."
"That you're throwing away for a fucking baby! Why do you need to have a kid with him? He doesn't deserve a sacrifice like that from you."
"I wouldn't expect you to understand." She stares hard at her plate while trying to maintain the flood of emotions attempting to drown her as monochrome memories seep into the crevices of her mind. "You don't know how I felt when I woke up in that hospital. It was like a piece of my soul had been ripped out of me." Holding her hand out, her gaze traces along the lines in her palm and her fingers make a claw as if she can hold it's life. "That baby was ours. It was a life inside my body that I'll never get to meet. To nourish and love."
"Big deal?" Chris scoffs. "Get a surrogate and have a kid through them."
"It's not the same. What if they decide to keep the baby? I wouldn't be able to stop them or experience the process. A gift was snatched away from me, Chris. Before I even a had a chance to know them, they were gone. Was it going to be a girl or a boy? Would they have looked like me or Ashton?" She blinks back the tears burning her vision as her chest gradually hollows out. "Would they have grown up to be an artist? Would they like living in Italy?"
"Why are you doing this for him?" Chris' voice is suddenly soft, fragile. He bows his head, letting dark hair shape around his shadowed face.
"It's not for Ashton. It's for me and the child. Ashton is the only person I can imagine having a child with, and he deserves a chance to be a father." She smiles to herself. "It'll make him so happy."
"If he loves you even remotely as much as I do, he's going to hate you when he finds out."
"That's something I'm willing to risk."
"He will never love that kid if something happens to you."
Her smile saddens, nearly shattering just thinking about it. "He would. He wouldn't be able to help it. Especially if they came from me, he'd raise them and love them with all of his heart."
Chris laughs, a cold sound reaching from the depths of his chest and his eyes shine with tears. "I don't understand you. What the hell has changed in you to make you have such a dumb outlook? That man isn't worth it. Are you honestly ready to die for this?"
Her soul cracks at the despair in his fragile words, but she holds her doubts in. "No one said I would die, Chris. It's high risk, but I believe if I do this right I can make it through."
"Can you just be realistic for a moment here?" he growls in frustration.
"Did you bring me here to talk about this? It doesn't seem like you're trying to win me over."
He lifts narrow shoulders into a lifeless shrug and presses his lips into a firm line. "I just wanted to get an understanding of you. Maybe talk some sense into you. The Ria I fell in love with is not the woman who's sitting in front of me right now."
"You're not the same Chris I fell in love with."
He runs his fingers through his hair and leans his arms on the edge of the table. "Ashton has changed you so much. I don't know what to do anymore. How can I make you remember how good we used to be?"
"People change, Chris. Maybe the reason you can't move on from me is because you're stuck in the past."
"The past is the only time that I've been happy." He points at himself desperately. "My life was so empty until you came into it. I need you in order to be happy, to be complete. Imagining a world where you're with Ashton or worse, dying because of him, is a world I refuse to live in."
"Don't talk like that," she pleads, suddenly afraid of what lengths he'd go through to stop her. "We'll never be the same again, Chris. We'll never love the same. You're right. Ashton has changed me. He's changed me so much. He gave me something to fight for. He showed me how to love selflessly. I don't care how naive this sounds, but I know he's my soulmate."
Chris chokes out a laugh and rubs his eyes. He doesn't speak and he never looks at her. Not once. It's like their realities are shifting further apart and he's desperately thinking of a way to anchor her to his world.
But he can't.
Ria is a part of Ashton's world now. Ashton is a part of hers. There's nothing, not even death itself, that'll keep them apart.
Finally, Chris speaks, voice gentle and hopeless. "The person who wanted to tear you and Ashton apart...they're not someone you should trust. They think that what they're doing is right, that it'll benefit everyone. I'm pretty sure they're delusional. That's all I'll tell you for now."
Ria nods. "Thank you."
Chris doesn't respond, just lowers his head as grief swallows his words. "Just know, if something happens to you because of this...I will never forgive you."
"I know." She smiles.
That's just a risk I'll have to take.
Man, sorry this chapter was uneventful, but it was a little heavy on perspectives and emotions.
Ashton and Sophia were finally able to sit down and try to build a sibling relationship.
Chris doesn't want Ria to risk her chances with pregnancy vs her believing it's worth it to bring a life into the world.
I feel like everyone is changing so much!
I swear some exciting events are coming up guys! Like SUPER EXCITING!
I planned the rest of the book out the other day and man, it's going out with a BANG guys!
-bri😘