"I didn't know we're going to have a guest today," Francesco said the moment when he appeared.

"It was a spontaneous invitation, wasn't it?" Valentino asked, probably thinking it's funny to see two paralyzed in fear teenagers.

Sofia nodded in response.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Francesco's attention shifted to Bruno, his voice from irritated shifted to cold and formal.

"B-Bruno Neri, sir"

They shook each other hands, Bruno clearly has been intimidated.

"My sister said you helped her to find us. Our family owes you a favour" Francesco said in a formal voice that Sofia didn't recognize. She realized that he never spoke to her that way. It was cold and unpleasant and she wanted to run when she heard it. Suddenly she understood that fear of Bruno was not exaggerated or unfounded. Her brothers were really scary.

A favour. In a casual person's voice that would be something innocent, just a polite way of exchanging another person's kindness. But here in this family, it meant something different and Sofia understood it by now. Not fully, but to some extent.

"Can we talk for a bit in my room?" Sofia asked trying to quickly evacuate Bruno from Francesco's freezing gaze.

Francesco gave her a long warning look but finally said "Leave the door open"

Sofia nodded and then said"Okay," she said quickly and grabbed Bruno's hand to pull him towards the stairs. It didn't escape anyone's attention.

Sofia lead Bruno to her room but she saw Valentino following her so she decided to act. She knew it's a bad sign and that he probably decided to be really annoying about the whole situation.

She addressed Bruno first "Get in here and wait," Sofia said strictly pointing to her room as the place for Bruno. He gave her a questioning look but nodded and went inside. In the meantime, Valentino said "The door was supposed to be left open"

"Yeah, when I am inside, right? I'm not. It's only Bruno there so they can be closed" Sofia pointed out.

Valentino rolled his eyes. "What do you want?" he asked reluctantly.

"Please don't bother us. Please?" She pleaded.

"Oh so you want to ruin my fun?" He asked with his arms crossed over his chest as if she had to repay him for taking away his afternoon entertainment.

Sofia blinked twice at his shameless admittance.

"How about... what if..." okay. She had no idea what he might want.

"Can I owe you another favour then? In exchange, you leave us alone today"

"A big one" he warned.

"Yes, okay" she agreed quickly. "Now go away"

"Fine, fine I am going," Valentino said with his hand raised up in a sign of defeat.

⚜️⚜️⚜️

When Sofia entered the room Bruno was checking out her bookshelf with curiosity. The moment she entered the room his attention shifted to her.

"I'm sorry for bringing you here Bruno. I really wanted to help" Sofia said in an apologetic voice.

"It's okay," he said warmly. "Thank you for trying to save me"

"It's because of me you're in this situation in the first place," Sofia said bitterly. She didn't deserve his kindness.

"That's not true. If I hadn't decided to go against your wishes I wouldn't be here. Now from the perspective, I realize I was wrong, I owe you my apologies" he said in a gentle voice sitting next to her on her bed.

Her eyes widened. "What? No. I should apologize to you?" she protested.

"And I should respect your wishes instead of breaking your trust and telling you about the situation for you," Bruno said regretfully. He realized that it's Sofia decision if she's ready to say something or not.

"And I should've told them it's just hard"

"I guess we were both wrong but in different ways," he said with amusement.

"We will focus on fixing what we can. The situation with Alessio"

"This is the least fixable issue about this whole situation," Bruno said shaking his head.

"Listen, I will find a way to fix it. I will speak with Alessio and explain to him everything"

"You will speak with Alessio" Bruno repeated slowly and then he shook his head in disbelief.

"What?" Sofia asked not understanding his reaction.

"Remember what happened during the time you tried to approach Valentino for the first time?"

"What? Alessio carries a gun too?" Sofia asked with doubt.

"I'm sure he has a knife at least. Even if he doesn't have a gun he's still dangerous, so please don't test him"

"So what we're going to just leave it like that?" Sofia asked. She had no intention to watch how her friend is getting hurt.

"Yes. We will. That will spare us any additional trouble.

"I can believe that he's my brother and I can't even tell him that" Sofia muttered, her eyes cast down. "I don't even know how many brothers I have, can you believe it?"

"Seriously. I'm glad that I have a semi-normal family" Bruno snorted.

The corners of Sofia's lips lifted. "Semi?"

"I mean, yes. My parents are a bit too obsessed with mountain climbing thus their extended absence"

"Where are they now?"

"Nepal. They're trying to conquer the K2 summit. It's their what... third try by now? Crazy stuff" Bruno said shaking his head.

"Oh... wow that's awesome," Sofia said. She admired people like that.

"Listen, I don't know how to start talking to you about this without stressing you out but... We need to figure out what to do with Cynthia situation" Bruno started awkwardly.

"I don't want to talk about it" Sofia shut him out.

"Okay" Bruno sighed heavily, looking at her with compassion. "Just know I'm here for you"

"Thank you, Bruno," She said and hugged him.

He hugged her back and they were just sitting on the bed for a long while. At some point, Bruno pulled away and said: "The last thing I need right now is to your brothers see us like that"

Sofia looked at the empty corridor nervously. She didn't want to get him in more trouble. "You're right, sorry"

"I think I should go, granny is probably wondering where I am at this hour" Bruno pointed out.

Sofia nodded and walked with him downstairs in case he needed a human shield from her brothers.

But to her surprise, she noted that Valentino's car was gone. Did he leave the house?

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Valentino came back to the house around 1 am. He was drunk.

Instead of going to sleep, he went to the basement. Their basement wasn't a normal one. It was more of an entertaining area that's why other than the pool they also had a separate room for martial arts training. It was covered with soft mattresses and it had what Valentino needed now: a punching bag. He always used physical activity to calm himself down and today he needs it very much. Even after getting drunk, he couldn't stop thinking about what happened today.

"What's going on?" Francesco asked standing in a doorway. He knew his brother we and seeing how he takes the frustration out in the training room he understood that something is wrong.

"You're not asleep?" Valentino asked gruffly, he wanted to be alone. But Francesco didn't care.

"I was working. Talk"

"Alessandro took the worst moment to leave the city" Valentino responded to his brother's order with a vague remark.

Francesco's eyes narrowed

"Why is that?"

"I'm worried about Sofia" Valentino admitted.

Francesco's silence was a prompt for him to elaborate "I don't know if something is wrong for sure, she's just acting weird"

"Weird in what way?" Francesco asked.

"I don't know. I think she's worried about something. Maybe it's just her normal behaviour? I have known my sister for just two weeks how the hell can I tell anything about her for certain?" he said bitterly. He was mad about it.

They should've met sooner. So much time was lost.