Chapter 7

• "She was your daughter too..... don't you think it hurts her that you never go there?" It's out before Sophia can stop herself. Years of this bubbling inside of her, and his mid-walk pause and instant tense posture give her an inkling of satisfaction. A flicker of emotion from him is so rare that she clings to this, even if it's an unhealthy way of getting it from him. She knows this is toxic, and they're dysfunctional. She just can't stop it.
• "Why are you like this?" He turns his head and glares at her over his shoulder. His eyes are dark with anger and deeper emotion that might be sadness, but she can't back down. She never can. That's been her problem for a long time. They push, pull, and are always at cold war even when the surface is calm, and things seem pleasant.
• "Because you act like she never existed. Because you're like this." Her voice trembles, and her throat aches, but it sounds like venom rather than genuine pain. Sophia accusing once more, and Leon hears only her shirking blame to him for everything. All he ever sees from her are daggers and bullets, and he doesn't think beyond that.
• "Me? Are you really.......? Jesus Christ, Sophia. You're really something; you know that" He breathily laughs in disbelief, shaking his head, and turns to her fully. His face hints at the internal rage, but he would never lose his cool completely. It's not how he was raised. He's the outstanding and impeccable head of the Hale family. Master President of POLO and a respected mature, calm businessman who shoulders everything for his entire family without complaint. His mask is as fake and full of lies as hers. They're products of bad parenting with non-existent coping mechanisms.
• "You're the reason she's dead. Don't come at me with this nonsense. I'm not the one who went back to work before we even laid her in the ground, Sophia. I'm not the one who never shed a tear or seemed to care about her and got rid of every speck of her existence before her name was on a headstone. You're cold and dead inside, and you took the one thing from me that might have made us...." He points at her, then himself in a flicking gesture, "... worth something. You have no right to come in here and throw nonsense at me about how I am and how I never go to her grave. You don't know anything about how I live." He doesn't wait for her, just storms off in haste without looking back, and she knows he won't come back to the office today, slamming the door in his wake. Not now.
• Sophia stares blankly after him and yet doesn't react. She doesn't follow either, but instead, leans over and adjusts the files he left strewn on his desk and straightens his pen before brushing down her dress and fixing her appearance to go back to her office. Ingrained in her that impressions are worth more than emotions.
• Sophia should never have come in here and started this because everything he said is accurate, and she knows it, and she despises herself, but she can't help it. They were ill-fated from the start, he and she. Pushed together by force, so any genuine affections were always trampled to death by one thing or another over the years. Death came at them from all angles.
• Her mother broke down and became a mere shadow of herself while trying to raise Sophia to an impossible standard that she could never reach, and she's somehow etched her broken soul into Sophia's. Her husband's death shattered and splintered them all as much as her own parents' death did.
• Johnny was introverted and couldn't help hold up the crumbling walls all around them to help his brother, becoming more emotional and withdrawn as a person and clung to Sophia, so Leon did it alone. Leon had to become the one to shoulder all things. Silently, without complaint. He lost his entire childhood and had to take a position before he was an adult that would make most men crumble.
• Sophia was on her own path of self-destruction and so immersed in appearing to be the worthy Hale daughter to take her father's place that she stopped being a human. She stopped having feelings. She couldn't show her wounds or weaknesses while being a woman if she wanted to succeed in this business. It's a man's world, and you have to become like them if you're going to survive. It was easier to pull on a persona and leave everything she couldn't face somewhere else.
• Their baby, she wasn't planned. She was a miracle that Sophia never acknowledged because she didn't fit her goals and timeline. They had only been married a few months when she found out and still trying to find their feet as a couple, battling the resentment he felt for being pushed this way. Sophia never appreciated what she was or why she was sent to her, and she ignored her body and her health despite everything Leon begged of her. His father had recently passed, and they were all dealing in their way with their issues and not ready for more fallout. She was supposed to be their healing miracle.
• Sophia worked, she carried on pushing herself and disregarded everything they say a pregnant woman should do because she was carrying so much inside of her that she couldn't put down. Leon and she fought relentlessly over how she was being, trying to get her to step down until she was born, and yet POLO mattered to her more. His sanity and need to mourn mattered to her more. Their initial happy first months of growing closer came ripping down around her ears so fast because of the choices she made.