"Sofia won't be going to school on Monday"' Alessandro announced.

"Why not?" Valentino asked, confused. That news woke him up, it was really late but suddenly his desire to fall asleep disappeared.

"I'm taking her to the psychiatrist" his eldest brother responded.

"What? Why?" Valentino was confused.

Alessandro shortly explained how his conversation with Sofia went down to his younger siblings.

After they learned about Sofia's mental state Valentino said "I knew something is wrong because she wasn't sleeping at night I just assumed it's because she's now living in a new place" Valentino said, his eyes cast down. He was feeling guilty.

"You should've told us," Francesco said with his arms crossed.

"Let's not cry over spilled milk. What's important is that Sofia gets the help she needs. This is not the main reason why I called you here" Alessandro responded.

"What's your plan of action? There must be something we can do" Francesco responded. Sending her to a psychiatrist wasn't enough, he wanted to know how he can help her.

"Tomorrow, we will tell her what our family is" He responded simply

"Pardon? What did you say?" That was not a response Francesco expected.

"To make sure we can keep her safe, she should know," Alessandro said with leveled voice.

"How is that knowledge keeping her safe? I don't understand, shouldn't we keep it hidden from her for the sake of her safety?" Valentino asked, his brows furrowed. Alessandro's decision just didn't make any sense.

"She needs to know her life is constantly in danger. The nature of our business would come out sooner or later I want her to learn about it from us, I want her to ask questions to us. Trust goes both ways"

"We had plans for a late celebration of her 17th birthday, can't it wait?" Francesco asked.

"Nothing changed in that matter, we will celebrate as planned. The sooner she knows the better"

Alessandro decided to not bend with this one, this needed to be done. The sooner the better.

❤️❤️❤️

"And what do we have here?" Valentino was coming back to his room from Alessandro's office when he saw Sofia sitting on the balcony. It was her favorite spot in the house, he assumed because she was spending a lot of time here, especially in the evening when she should be sleeping.

"Leave me alone?" Sofia said miserably.

"Leave me alone" He mimicked in a high tone of voice, how annoying.

"Very funny" Sofia pouted and rolled her eyes.

"You're making the face," he said using the voice of an expert.

"What face?" Sofia asked.

What is he talking about? Sofia looked at him with confusion.

"The face of a person who just finished having a difficult conversation with Alessandro" he explained as if it was obvious.

"This is very specific. People really are making some sort of face after that?" Sofia snorted.

"Anyone makes a face of a kicked puppy after they get scolded by Alessandro" Valentino explained.

"He really knows how to get into people's hearts, doesn't he? When he looks at me I feel like he's reading my mind" Sofia asked.

"Yeah, reading people like an open book it's his annoying ability"

"He should be a psychiatrist or a psychologist with this skill. Eventually professional CIA interrogator" Sofia listed.

Valentino snorted at her last idea.

"Unfortunately he couldn't choose his profession. Since he was born he was meant to be the family company's CEO. In this family, we can't just do what we want. Family business comes before our dream and plans" Valentino explained

"That's sad," Sofia said and Valentino chucked.

"What? What's funny?" Sofia asked.

"We're still billionaires. If I'd have to be honest I've heard sadder stories than this one" Valentino pointed out.

"But money is not everything, right? If you can't do what you like it's okay to feel sad" Sofia said.

"Sounds like some cheesy bullshit to me but let's say I agree for the sake of it" Valentino responded.

"What about you though? What would you do if there was no company to take care of?" Sofia asked hoping to learn something more about her brother.

"Simple. I would become a soccer player" he responded right away. That made very much sense, he was after all spending the most time at Soccer School after classes.

"And what about Alessandro?" Sofia continued her questioning.

Valentino snorted. "He's definitely not interested in becoming a soccer player"

"C'mon you know what I mean" Sofia responded.

"Hard to say, Alessandro doesn't speak about his dreams, but he used to play piano a lot. He was even giving lessons for a moment"

"What about me? Do I need to work for the company as well?"

"No, you're an entirely different case. You will be able to do whatever you want"

That made Sofia furrow her brows, it didn't feel right to be singled out like that.

"Why am I different?"

Why? Why was she different? It's because you're not considered one of them, a mean voice in her head said.

"Everything will be explained to you soon"

"Okay" Sofia responded with her gaze cast down. She didn't want to push Valentino he probably was trying to be diplomatic right now.

"It's late, you should go to sleep," He said, and then he did something very cute. He gave her a quick hug. "Goodnight Fia"

"Goodnight," she said quietly and went to her room.

She can't sleep but at least she can pretend that she does.