Sofia had never been in a plane before, and reading all those articles about past plane crashes did not help with her nerves in the slightest. To make matters worse she felt incredibly awkward sitting next to a grumpy looking man, though he thankfully made no attempts to make any conversation with her.
As the plane began speed, her panic only increased, until she looked at the view from the window and instantly became entranced. She was quite shocked to see the ordinary place she grew up in looked so beautiful from above. Until now Sofia had not thought much about leaving this city, but seeing it like this made her remember more and more fond memories.
The shorcuts she took to school so she could sleep in a bit longer.
The nice lady at the bakery who would give her discounts each time she came.
The best view she got of the fireworks display each New Years by sneaking onto the roof.
The happiness nine year old Sofia felt when she won her first music contest.
The 16 year old wondered if she would make any good memories at her new home. Once she was served her meal by the flight attendant, she found she could barely finish half of it and resorted to fiddling with her necklace to pass the time until she fell asleep.
When she woke up it was now morning, and the plane was about to land in a few minutes. Before the seatbelt warning came back on, she quickly went to the toilet to redo her appearance so at least her brothers wouldn't think of her as scruffy. To her dismay, it was taking longer than she had previously thought.
Goddamit, why was her hair so knotty?!
An hour later...
Sofia had a member of the airport staff assist her, so getting through the airport was no problem. Now came the toughest part, meeting her brothers, that's assuming that they would come all the way to pick her up. She checked her phone to see a message from an unknown number.
Come to where the car park entrance is...?
Like she had any idea where that was. Luckily, a nice staff member gave her instructions and she made it without getting lost. Just as she reached, she noticed a tall, handsome man wearing a suit standing there. He had light brown hair, but Sofia couldn't see his eyes since he was wearing sunglasses. There was no way she could be related to him, so she decided to look around for who was going to pick her up and walked straight past him.
"Hey! Wait!"
Sofia continued walking, he must be calling someone else.
"Sofia!"
Ok, maybe he was calling her. She turned around to see the man had taken off his sunglasses and was waving frantically at her, so she slowly walked back to where he stood, still feeling suspicious about him.
"Sorry I should have told you how I looked like or something. I'm Luca, you're second oldest brother." He smiled and before Sofia could even respond he hugged her tightly .
"I-it's fine." Was the only thing she could say once he let go. She felt a bit embarrassed yet safe in his presence, but told herself that she still can't trust him or anyone else yet.
At a closer look, Luca had a similar eye colour to her mother, although his was a more beautiful emerald colour whilst her mother had a more murky shade of green. He also had a charming smile, and she could tell it was a genuine one towards her.
He immediately took her suitcase and bag from her and ushered her towards the front passenger's seat in a very expensive looking car before getting in the driver's seat. Once he started the car and drove them away, he began to talk.
"How was your ride on the plane?"
"It was...nice."
"Vince said to tell you that he's sorry he could only book an economy ticket, it was one of the last ones left and he wanted you home as soon as possible."
An apology over a plane ticket? Sofia wondered how rich her brothers were to think something like that.
"No I didn't mind at all. And...whose Vince?"
His eyebrows were knitted together in confusion.
"You don't remember Vincent? He's our oldest brother, the one who adopted you." Seeing his sister's blank face made Luca frown, did she even know about the rest of them before yesterday?
"Hey Sofia, did you know you had any brothers before?" She shook her head, and his thought was confirmed.
"Right...By the way I'm sorry about Maria's death, this all must be so sudden for you."
"It's fine, I'll get over it." Well that was not the response her brother expected, he thought she would be a lot more upset, so was surprised so see her so nonchalant about it. Luca sensed Sofia wasn't enjoying talking about Maria, so he once again changed the topic.
"You're not much of a talker are you sorella."
"I guess." Sofia noted that her family must be Italian, however was too tired to ask about it.
"It's going to be a long ride so you can sleep and I'll wake you up when we reach."
It was like he read her mind, or just saw the dark circles under her eyes. Sofia simply nodded before drifting off, she was mentally and physically exhausted.
She was woken up with a shake on the shoulder by Luca, who smiled at her before making her get out of the car. Whilst he got her stuff from the boot Sofia had a good stretch and was going to tell her brother that she'd carry her bags. Then she turned to see the house she was going to live in and became speechless.
SHE DIDN'T KNOW THEY WERE THIS RICH!
What the heck, she had only ever seen houses, no mansions, like these in movies and couldn't comprehend that she was now going to live here.
"It's nice isn't it?" Said Luca's voice from behind her, she could only nod.
"I'll give you a tour in a bit, let's just go inside for now."
"I can take my stuff!"
"It's fine Sofi." He winked at his sister, who was still in shock.
As they went inside, Sofia could only begin to imagine how many times she would get lost in this place. Luca led her to the dining room, before going into the kitchen to get some snacks.
"I just need to put your stuff away and call Vince quickly, so just sit here and eat something till I come back, got it?"
"Got it." She mumbled.
Once he left the girl saw what foods he had brought. There were some snacks, and stuff she had never seen before, and at long last she settled on a green apple. Back at her old home she never had enough money for enough nutritious food so she should probably have more of that now.
She was full by the time she finished, and decided to scroll through Instagram to relieve her boredom. Her phone was pretty old and glitched every now and then, though since she used to be poor she didn't really mind.
After waiting for a few more minutes Luca finally came back. He was not happy about how little Sofia ate, and made a mental note to make her have a proper meal later. He had already called Vince, who said he would be home by evening.
"Everyone else is out, so I guess it's just us for the next few hours."
"Are you going going to give me a tour then?"
"Yep!"
Luca took Sofia to all the different rooms on the ground floor alone, and she was internally freaking out about how wealthy the family was. Why did her mother leave this life in the first place?
They even had a cinema room, a swimming pool as well as several lounges. Luca was explaining everything with great detail as though she was a child, but Sofia found she did not mind that much. In fact she quite liked hearing his voice, it was soft and caring and most of all it was directed towards her.
At last they reached the front of the house again, and went up a fancy staircase to the first floor where there were only bedrooms. Luca let her glimpse into each of the bedrooms, which were in age order, and he told her the name of the brother each room belonged to.
Vincent's was the biggest, and was classy and elegant, with few decorations but still lavish looking. Though it did look more like an office with a bed at the side.
Luca's room was filled with cooking books, which was apparently his hobby, and like Vincent's room, had a stylish look.
The next one belonged to the third oldest brother called Remo, and she noticed there were notes taped all over the walls and piles of medial books on his desk, he was a doctor so it made sense.
After that, it was Dante's room, and the walls this time had impressive drawings and paintings taped all over. Luca told her he was a part-time tattoo artist, and so had a love for art.
Marco, the older twin, had a gaming chair and a massive TV. Sofia also noted that there was a basketball jersey hung up near his bed, making her assume another one of his interests were sports.
Then it was Rocco's room, which looked more like a library than a bedroom. But what stood out the most was all the clothes and other possessions that completely covered the floor and bed.
Luca was not impressed and sighed, "I'm gonna make him tidy this pig sty up when he gets home."
The final room, was Sofia's, and she had to admit she was a tad excited to see it. She opened the door to discover a neatly made twin sized bed opposite her, with a desk on the far right and a small corner on the left which had a comfy looking armchair. There was a door on the left side of her room which led to a walk-in closet and the door on the right side had a huge bathroom with essentials already stocked up. The walls were light grey and the windows were massive with curtains of the same colour. There was even a TV!
"I know it looks a bit bare since we took out all your stuff from years ago- I don't think you would want to keep all those toys anyway- but once you decorate the place I'm sure you'll love it."
"I think it looks great already but I'll keep that in mind."
There was a pause before she turned around and looked at Luca in revelation, "wait I used to live here?!"
He chuckled with amusement in his eyes.
"Yeah...until Maria took you away when you were just four." His smile faded and a flash of anger came over his eyes, which he swiftly covered up.
"You can unpack and get some rest, then come downstairs for some food if you feel like it, ok?"
"Sure." Satisfied with her answer, Luca closed the door and left.
Sofia felt too lazy to unpack right now, so she threw herself onto the soft bed and yet again let sleep consume her.