Sophia

We were in Don's office. Only Don, Ricardo, Chuck and I. I was sitting on the couch with my forehead in my hands. "Now this is what we call a great team. Brother steals from us and sister manipulates her way to riches. A gold digger and a thief , ofcourse you are of same bloodline." Ricardo commented with all his hatred. It hurt me, it really hurt me, after everything I still thought of Ricardo as my brother. Such words from him really hurt me deep. I really miss the cheerful Ric who use to call me Cinderella for fun.

"Watch it Ric" Don said in warning but Ricardo just rolled his eyes. In a way he was correct, my brother did steal from Don. If he hadn't been caught , he wouldn't be repaying the debt. The question bugging me was why?

"Who between the two of you will tell us the story" Ricardo said while leisurely sitting on the desk chair. Don was leaning onto the desk with his arms folded.

"Why?" I asked Chuck. "Why did you owe money to a Mafia Don?" I wanted to know how the hell did he get involved with people like Don. I was feeling so disappointed, it felt like everything was in vain. "Princess I.." He tried to explain and it just felt more insult to me that he actually have something to justify it. "Drugs, that too drugs Chuck. You promised me you will never do drugs, you knew what we lost because of drugs" I asked him crying and he crouched in front of me saying "No Princess, please don't think that, I never would have crossed my line. Trust me please, I would not hurt you." he said rubbing my palm, knowing what I was thinking about. "How much do you owe Don?" I asked him and he got up stealing his eyes from me and turned away from me. "How much?" I asked a bit sternly. "Eighty grand" Ricardo told.

I got up and reached to Chuck. I turned him pulling his arm "Eighty thousand dollars, were you selling drugs? " I shouted at him. "And then you say you didn't cross the line, what was your fucking line?" I said in a scolding tone. "It wasn't me alone Princess, two of my friends Tyler and Jules were also there." he said as if giving a counter. "And where are they, huh?" I asked him and continued without letting him answer. I was pushing him in anger and punching his chest "What happened to your basket ball, huh? You wanted to join that big and famous high school in New York so that you could get selected in the Ivy league colleges. You told me you had the scholarship based on your sport to join that high school. This is why you wanted to join it, to do drugs?" God!! I was so angry at him. "Oh c'mon Princess , you know how it is? That was a big school in a big city, how was I supposed to gel up. I cant be an outcast, these things help you to be accepted". "And being the captain of the sports team couldn't do that for you!!" I literally screamed at him. For God's sake he needed drugs to be popular. What kind of sick explanation was this? My comment earned a chuckle from Ricardo. I looked at him and then at the floor a bit embarrassed. "Well buddy, I will give this point to your sister. If being a jock couldn't make chicks drool over you, I highly doubt being a stoner kid would have done it. Unless you have a stoner chick to impress" he said with a wink. "Is it? Did you get into this for that girl Jules, the one you mentioned? Where is she now?" I said frustrated and sat on the couch again

"You knew Chuck, you knew mom left us because of drugs, still you did this. I don't even know where she is, right now? Hell I don't even know if she is alive. All because she needed drugs so much she chose it over us and today you did too" I looked at him accusingly. "No, Princess, I would never do what mom did. I was just trying to--" Trying to what???" I stood and walked towards him . I was so loosing my patience. "You won't understand it Princess, you chose the easy way of homeschooling through high school , how would you know the pressure?" he retorted. "Woah, I thought you weren't graduated." Ricardo said while getting up. "Liar Liar Pants on Fire!" he said teasingly while circling me. I looked at Don, I know how much he hate lies. His frown was confirming my point . I spoke in a low voice to him "I-I did not lie". I guess Chuck heard me as he questioned "What do you mean? What do you mean you are not graduated? When did you drop out?" but I can't distract the topic to me right now, Chuck had to give me the explanation about this sickness happening

"Do not turn this up on me Charles Richmond, you are not off the hook. I still need a proper explanation of the mess you are into. And what is this working your debt off? Are you insane? What work will you do in Mafia, huh? Will you kill people now?" I said shouting at him "What should I do then? You tell me. Do you think some petty job will give me eighty grands to pay off? I came to you for help, but when I reached you weren't there." he said and I looked at him surprised.

"You came back?" I asked surprised and regretting I wasn't there. "Yes, I did. Didn't every child run to his mom when in troubled, I came to mine. But you weren't there. " "Oh Chuck, I am so sorry, I wasn't there" I know what he meant, I was playing the role of his mother since many years now. I felt bad that I wasn't there for him. I would have done something I never would have let him work like criminal. "But where were you Princess? I mean nothing was there. The mansion was burnt. There was one guard who said Adrien died, how did he die, Princess? Even Sheriff said he didn't meet you in all these year. How is that possible? Aren't you and his son Scott were like inseparable. You liked him since kindergarten, didn't you? " "No, I don't like anyone." I blurted cutting him off, too fast. My eyes went to Don, he was looking with anger filled in his eyes "I-I mean that was a childhood thing. I never liked him, he was my friend." I was talking to Chuck but I was explaining more to Don. "I didn't even meet him since...you know dad's.." He cut me in between "How did you end up marrying Don? Why you left home, how you reached here? That guard, he also told you left with some Marc DeLuca, the day Adrien died. Who is Marc?" He bombarded me with questions and I got nervous at , I did not want him to be dragged in my mess. But Don's look told me I have to tell the truth sooner or later.

"No one" I blurted out. And I move past Chuck trying to be on topic. "No tell me, if you left with him, he must be someone you trust. How come I didn't know? Does Adrien knew about him?" he said holding my arms. "Enough" I said jerking his hands off my arms. "I said no one, it means no one. You will never say that name again you will never meet him or even think of him. You will stay as far from this as possible. Its nothing that you need to worry about" I said to him agitated. I tried to calm myself down a bit "And anyways how I could have paid out such a big debt?" I said to him. "What do you mean, how? How couldn't you? 'Princess' is not just your nickname. I mean you are a real life Princess. You own all our properties, our home was as big as this or even more, hell even the name plate of our mansion said "Sophia's Castle", ofcourse you could have paid off the debt." he said as if stating the obvious. In a way he was. "You are what??" Ricardo blurted in his astonishment. I sat on the couch again "Its not like that anymore Chuck"

"What do you mean?" Chuck asked me crouching in front of me. "Nothing. You don't have to worry about anything, we will do something. We will manage to pay off this debt, huh, don't worry". I tried to comfort him. "No, tell me what does that supposed to mean? What do you mean its not like that anymore? Tell me what happened? Why was mansion burnt down? What about the other properties." He pressed on the issue and I choose not to reply to him and kept looking down.

"Do I really need to ask for you to speak the truth?" I heard Don's voice. It was less of a question and more of a warning for me to get going. I looked at him and gulped. "I-I D-Don pl-please, please let it go." I tried to plead him not wanting to go down that lane.

"Enough of this reunion." Don said irritated and moved forward he picked me up from my arm and said "You will tell everything, and you will tell it now. Who are you?"