Chapter 4

• "It was an accident. They would never choose to leave you. They loved you more than life, Sophia."
• "I should have been with them. I shouldn't have stayed home. They asked me to go too....why didn't I go?" Sophia's guilt at letting her parents leave that rainy night to watch a movie weighs like a steel ball on her heart. The regret at staying back for that one night, because she was tired and didn't want to spend the time with them after getting home from finishing school in London only days before. Resentful that they made her go and tried to give them the cold shoulder for making her live away from home for a full three months. She had been punishing them by refusing them her company, and now she can never get that back.
• "Don't say things like that. We're only able to hold it together because we still have you. They wouldn't want you to be gone like they are. They would want you to go on and live your life as intended." Leon continues cradling, swaying, patting, and holding her, but nothing eases the agony. It's growing so big she feels like she might die.
• "Sophia, please listen to Leon and come with us. I think my mom will pass out if she stays here any longer. You need to lay down, and you need to eat. I'm really worried about you." Johnny's voice breaks into her hysteria, and she pushes her face up in the crook of Leon's arm to see him. The now handsome fifteen-year-old, leaning over his brother's shoulder and looking so devastatingly like him while retaining all the cute and sweet that is so Johnny. He reaches out to stroke her hair as he moves close, and she can see his face is tear-stained too. Pale and worn out. He's been sobbing all day, standing at the back and unable to do anything for her except watch and wait.
• "Go. Both of you. Take her home. I'm not ready. I can't leave." Sophia despairs again. The tears now set free are relentless, and her nose runs, and her throat clogs with the sheer volume of them.
• "I'm not leaving without you. Neither will she. You're our family; we won't abandon you here." Johnny holds Sophia's hand tight, squeezing it until his knuckles whiten, and she knows she's being selfish, but she can't help it. She's not the only one in pain, but hers is so big it overshadows everything else. She can't help them. She can't care about anyone else's heartbreak when she can barely handle her own.
• "Take mom home with dad. I'll bring her when she's ready. Just go. Let Sophia have time here alone while all the guests leave. Let her say her goodbyes without people watching her." Leon takes control, the commanding and mature side kicking in. For being only eighteen, he has long felt like a man in Sophia's eyes, and she leans into him looking for shelter, relieved not yet to be torn away. Despite their usually formal and awkward interactions, he's been a rock by her side since the moment she found out her parents perished. Someone to cling to when everything else she knew was washed away in the storm.
• "I'll stay with her. You go. I'm her best friend." Johnny tries to slide Sophia out of his brother's arms, but Leon tightens his grip and hauls her in closer.
• "And I'm her fiancée. Know what's proper, Johnny. People don't stop judging and whispering just because we're mourning." Leon pulls Sophia with him to standing, taking her weight easily. He wraps his arm around her protectively, pulling her face against his chest, and leans into Johnny. "Be her brother. Empty the hall, see our parent's home, and do what you should do." It's a low and calm command. One that dares Johnny to challenge his older brother, and he knows better, relenting and nods. When it comes to hierarchy, Leon is the one who should be obeyed.
• "Don't stay here long. It's cold; she gets sick easily at this time of the year." Johnny can't help himself from being that caring and reliable boy Sophia depends on almost daily in everyday life. These past years he's been her shadow and kept her sane in a society that's often cold and shallow. He's probably the only real friend she has since Leon grew up faster than them and viewed them as little kids.
• "You think I don't know her?" It's a snappish response, and Sophia, even in her dazed, silent crying, glances up at his unusual attitude towards Johnny. Shocked out of her grief at his irritation. She catches him frown, and then he swallows hard with regret at his harshness as his features soften. Johnny is visibly scolded and wide-eyed as he stares at him with definite hurt on his sweet face.
• "I'm sorry. We're all raw and in shock. Ignore me. I know Sophia as well as you do; I can take care of her, so trust me to do it. Please don't do this today. She doesn't need it. Take care of mom and dad. For me, Johnny, I'm depending on you." He reaches out and rubs Johnny on the side of his face and ear with genuine affection to soothe the bruised feelings, and Sophia quietly allows herself to be maneuvered with his own body. Like a limp rag in his arms and too numb to even react to this unusual physical contact between them. The last time Leon hugged her this way was her eleventh birthday before they told her about their fate.
• Johnny watches Sophia with a wary gaze, seemingly upset that his brother has assumed the role of comforter and best friend in his stead. Sophia knows Johnny like the back of her hand, and he takes pride in the fact that they're often as inseparable as twins. He's hurting too, and he likely believes that being together would ease their shared pain. However, Leon is correct. All eyes are on them, with every media outlet broadcasting her parents' tragic accident. The hall is still teeming with guests, and rumors spread like wildfire. If her official fiancé were to step aside for his younger brother, the papers would be rife with scandals by tomorrow, adding unnecessary drama to an already unbearable situation. Such is the harsh reality of this world driven by money and status.
• "Hand her over to me. Right now, she needs a mother more than a fiancé or a brother." Leon's mother interjects, appearing behind Johnny, gently moving him aside, and extending her hand to Sophia. Her face is pale, streaked with tears, and drained of color.
• "Leon, the press is still outside; go handle them. Ensure everyone leaves. Escort your father home. He's a wreck." She directs her eldest son, who exhales heavily before reluctantly transferring Sophia from his arms to hers. Sophia's body instantly cools without his enveloping warmth, even through his suit. As if she's a doll with no will of her own, she welcomes the softer figure pulling her close, enveloped in the musky perfume and familiar scents of a woman who has been like a second mother to her all her life. She needs a motherly embrace right now. Sophia buries her face against her chest and allows her to fully envelop her as fresh tears start to fall. Despite never having been embraced this way by this woman in her life, it feels as though she's somehow safe and sheltered. It feels like she can take a few more steps if she just won't let go.
• "From now on, Sophia, you'll be with us. Our home is yours. My hugs are yours. You were always the girl I envisioned as my future daughter, and now you'll live that way. I won't let Tayha down. I'll raise you, love you, stand in her place, make her proud, and try my utmost to be what you need. It's what she would have wanted. I'll stay here for a while, and we can say our goodbyes together. I want to say goodbye to them too." She wraps her arms around Sophia tightly, and Sophia tries to blot out the world, oblivious to Leon leaving to deal with the lingering press, to take control, or that Johnny walks off looking lost. That Mr. Hale is a walking zombie who doesn't know how to cope with the loss of his best friend and business partner who built their empire.
• His intimidating aura is non-existent, and he hasn't been sober in seven days. The staff, family members, and distant relations all gradually drift away, lost in their grief and misery, because her parents were truly good people, the glue that held them all together. Unaware that this would be the first day of the future changes that would forever haunt her and alter her path.
• The only thing Sophia is aware of is her need to anchor herself to Mother Hale and to cling on desperately. She knows this is just the beginning of the pain and grief she has to face, but it somehow lightens the burden, knowing she doesn't ever have to return to that empty house where her parents will never appear again.