Sofia’s POV
“Whoa, I most definitely didn’t expect him to be this talented, that’s a lot of skills the little guy has up his sleeves.” Ryan started to say after a moment and I snorted a little before turning my head around and staring at him.
“Did you say little? He doesn’t look that little, he looks really older than his age, he even looks older than I am even though I am three years older than him.”
“Oh, now I guess I can understand how he’s able to figure out how to pick locks himself, that’s really impressive of him, your father must have been really proud.” He mused and I shrugged a little, of course my father would be really proud about it, after all, he has been the one to be encouraging my younger brother to start training in different kinds of things all at ones even before he clocked the age of six, all because Lind I had overheard him say a countless times, he was training his kid and bringing him up to be a strong and fearless person when he grows up.
But then he hadn’t bothered to try anything with me, all because I was a girl and obviously wouldn’t be needing any of those things up my sleeves, since I was going to end up getting married off to some man, and then he’s going to continue to protect me and care for me, taking up from where my father had stopped immediately.
I moved a little in my spot on the couch and even managed to find some sort of strength in my body which I used to sit up into a more straight position so that I wasn’t as slouched down as I had been moments ago, even though I wasn’t fully sitting up like the way I was supposed to be sitting in before a man, and I was sure my mother would have a fit if she could see me right now, being slouched down on tne couch with my legs folded and buried beneath my body on the couch. She’d try to throw a fit because all she was going to see at first glance was her daughter, the wife of the mafia lord, sitting in such an informal and uncaring position before someone who had some kind of class here in the mafia lord.
I mean, Ryan along with Ethan might be bodyguards, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a huge honor to the families in evifg they were going to end up taking wives from. Why? Because it was a really huge honor to be given the opportunity to guide and protect the mafia lord, and I had a hunch that it was almost going to be the same when it comes to the wife of the mafia lord.
“Is he planning on becoming a bodyguard?” Ryan asked and I shook my head immediately, remembering when that same topic had been brought up back at home, and how shocked my father had been the moment after Angelo had brought that topic up.
I had thought that he was going to be excited and amazed about thst piece of information, but I was still it had been the complete oppopposite of what I had been expecting, and he had then proceeded to to order Angelo to push all those kinds of thoughts relating to protecting his mafia lord in form of a body guard, out of his mind at that very moment, and that he already had better plans for Angelo, and Angelo had obeyed immediately as he was expected to.
I hadn’t find it weird at that moment because it was my father and his anger issues was one of the things which he had little to no control over, and so I hadn’t think twice about the way he had gottrn angry about the whole topic concerning Angelo becoming a body guard – not knowing thst he had only gotten angry for a complete different reason.
Now, the whole thing was all starting to make sense now.
He had obviously gotten angry about it and demanded that Angelo push all those thoughts relating to that completely out or the window, because he had already promised his only daughter to the same mafia lord when she was still a little girl, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with that same mafia lord, immediately after his daughter gets married off to him.
My gosh, it really was starting to all come together and make more sense right now.
Can I afford to hate my father more than I do at the moment, along with how I had hated him while growing up… yeah, I can, and that’s exactly what’s happening in my head right now.
Now thst I was starting to think about it and connect the whole dots together, I had a feeling that Angelo would have connected it all together and figured it all out days ago, if he hadn’t figured it out yet, which I really doubt because my brother is one smart boy.
And the promise which Angelo had made to me on my wedding day started to echo in my head after a moment. I moved a little in my seat, pushing my hair out of my face with my hand and dragging a deep breath into my lungs, liking how the air was going into my lungs smoothly the way it was at this moment.
I turned my head around and stared at Ryan with my head tilted a little when I realized that he had been speaking to me for a while and I had managed to completely miss everything he had been saying for some moments.
“Huh?” I murmured in a small voice.
“You do love your brother, don’t you?” He echoed out and I figured out that it was because he had indeed not been speaking to me before and was only repeating what he had said to me before. I nodded my head immediately, moving a little in my spot on the couch and started to stretch my head around a little, moving my fingers upwards and using my index finger to brush my hair out of my face. I moved backwards in my spot on the couch a little once again, moving my legs a little beneath my weight because my calves were starting to go numb right there on the couch.
Once I was comfortable enough without having to tug my legs from beneath my body, I moved in my spot on the couch once again before craning my head around until I was staring at Ryan once again. “Of course I love him, I do.” I finally replied, cocking my head to the side and trying to figure out why Ryan was suddenly asking me such a stupid question… because I mean, why wouldn’t I love my brother? Also, wasn’t it obvious enough that I love him?
I watched as he gave a small shrug of his shoulder in reply before leaning back in his seat until his back was resting against the backrest of the couch and I stared at him for a few more moments before shifting slightly in my seat and leaning my head against the backrest of the couch which I was currently sitting on.
“Must be a nice feeling.” He finally muttered and I nodded my head without thinking, wondering what it was that was currently going on in his head at that very moment.
“What about you?” I asked after a few more moments and I watched as he turned around on his couch a little so that he was staring at me not just with his face, but also with half of his body. I lifted a part of my shoulders a little before continuing what I had started to say before. “Do you have any siblings?”
I watched as he started to lean back against the back rest of the couch before finally giving a single shake of his head.
“Oh.” I mumbled, leaning towards his side of the couch and watching as he nodded once again.
“I’m all by myself, it’s just me.” I echoed out after a few moments, right before he pushed his back off the backrest of the couch and leaned forward to place his hands his thighs, with his head bent forward and staring down in the middle of his legs, his eyes watching either his eyes or legs at that moment.
I bit on the lower part of my lips and moved my legs beneath my weight around a little once again, with my eyes still locked on Ryan’s bent build.
I had no idea how I knew but after he had replied to my question about if he had siblings or not, and after he had finally supplied me with an answer, it had almost looked like he was at that very moment, relieving some kind of ugly memory in his head, immediately after he had given me an answer.
And I had wanted to do something to him at that very moment, in order to offer him any kind of comfort, in any way I can, because I had really hated that facial expression that had been written over his face when he had mumbled out that second bout of reply.
But then he had pushed off the backrest of the couch and was leaning forward before I could even start to carefully think of anything which I could do, that could hoped help in any way it could. I watched him as he moved his arms on his thighs a little, his head still bent forward and his eyes still staring straight down at his feet all these while.
“So, er, Ryan? ” I called out and only had to wait for a few moments which was all it took Ryan to use in moving off his formerly bent position to finally push himself into a sitting position once again, and he stared at me almost immediately after his back was once again resting against the backrest of the couch.
“Ma’am?” He asked in a low voice, and that was the signal that he was starting to shut down, when he had only been able to tell me about the fact that he didn’t have any kind of sibling.
“Can you tell me about yourself? Can you tell me about what it feels like for you to grow up without a sibling? I want to know how it felt for you.” I heard myself start to say after a few minutes had passed between us in a comfortable silence.
“I can’t know the difference between growing up with a sibling and growing up without one, and that’s because I’ve never had one.” Ryan paused a few seconds after he had started to reply to the quest which I had asked him and I watched as he waited for a few more moments before continuing. “I haven’t ever had a sibling before, I can’t know what it feels like to have one, so I can’t differentiate between what it would feel like to have a brother or a sister and what it would feel like to not have one, so… yeah.” Ryan finally concluded what he had been saying with a small puff of air slipping past his lips.
“Oh.” I said in a small voice and watched as his head gave a nod which looked somewhat tense.
“Yeah. ” He echoed after me.