Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Sofia’s POV
“It’s alright, I guess.” I replied to her before turning back to Ryan who had an unreadable expression on
his face. He always had this same expression on his face so there was no way someone would be able
to figure out what he was thinking or how he was feeling by just glancing at his face.
“Um, how about tomorrow? It would be really nice if the both of you could have dinner here, so when
you leave here at almost midnight, you wouldn’t have to get dinner again.” I proposed to him and
watched as he leaned against the kitchen’s door before replying.
“I am afraid that won’t be possible, ma’am. Mr Ricci wouldn’t be cool with it.”
“Why not? There’s no harm there, is there?”
I demanded, flabbergasted by the amount of unspoken rules that were in the mafia.
“I don’t know, ma’am. It’s kind of a disrespectful act from us to you if we eat together.” Ryan explained
and I gaped at him unbelievably for a few seconds.
“Are you kidding me?” I demanded before turning around to glance at Matilda to confirm if she had
heard what I had heard. She didn’t seem unfazed one bit, she only shrugged like it was a normal thing
everyone was suddenly supposed to know.
“That’s the truth, ma’am.” He echoed once again and I puffed out a deep breath. Which made me start
to reminisce back to my life growing up how the guards had never sat with us to eat at the table.
But I had never been fond of any of them so it has never really occurred to me why they never ever sat
with us.
But this was totally different.
“I’ll speak to Luca about it, don’t worry about it.” I finally ended up saying as my teeth worked my lower
lip around and my fingers fiddled with themselves inside the warmth of the jacket.
I didn’t know how I was actually going to speak to Luca about it, since he had after all only been
returning home from work late in the night when I’d have been fast asleep.
I was going to find a way though.
Ryan finally left for where he said he was going to and I exchanged a few words with Matilda until the
food was ready.
“Where’s Sarah?” I asked her once she started dishing the food and setting up the table.
“Oh, she’d be down soon. In a few minutes, probably. She went to take a nap.” Matilda explained and I
nodded my head slowly in understanding as a quiet ‘oh’ escaped my parted lips.
“You know she isn’t all that strong anymore, like the way she used to be… long before you came here.”
Matilda continued and I watched her glide effortlessly across the kitchen, into the dining room and back
to the kitchen once again.
“How long have you worked here?” I asked her as I stood up from my seat, tired of watching her
working and making me feel idle as ever.
She smiled knowingly at me and picked the bottles of water before I could reach for them and made
her way past me, straight into the dining room. I pouted at her when she came back into the room and
she grinned while shaking her head.
“You’re injured, and shouldn’t stress yourself one bit. Just stay here, the table would be completely set
up in a few minutes and we’d all have dinner together.
I sighed and sank back into my seat, grateful that she had insisted I don’t do a thing. I was starting to
feel weaker than I expected I’d ever get just from a sprained arm.
Who knew a sprained arm could weaken someone’s whole system?
“So when did you start working here?” I asked again, needing something to talk about so I don’t sink
into my lonely thoughts swirling around in my mind.
“I started working here five years ago.” She replied and I waited patiently before she continued. “When
I started working here, Sarah guided me so much because it was all new to me back then. She was
also really healthy back then, compared to now.”
I wanted to ask about Sarah’s health and if what was wrong with her was really severe, and if she was
going to be alright but I swallowed the worry and words that was on the tip of my tongue. I had a feeling
that despite how loud Matilda was and how she loved talking, she wasn’t going to want to talk to me
about whatever it was that was wrong with Sarah.
I was going to have to end up asking her myself.
I made my way to the dining room with Matilda leaving the way once she done settling the table and
sank into one of the seats. Matilda excused herself to go get Sarah and I nodded my head and waited
on them. It took longer than I expected for them to emerge back to the dining room and I stared
pointedly at Sarah as secretive as I could without being too obvious while trying to see if there was a
way I could figure out what was wrong with her health by just staring at her.
Unfortunately for me, it only looked like she still looked a little bit sleepy as sank into the seat opposite
mine. She smiled at me once she noticed my face and shielded her mouth with the back of her hand as
she coughed into it before putting her hand away and staring back at me.
“Is something the matter, Sarah.” I inquired, feeling genuinely concerned as I took in her facial
expression and tried to figure out if there was anything off about how she looked at the moment.
But she looked pretty much the same… except for the sleep still lingering in her somewhat dim eyes.
It could only be because she wasn’t fully awake yet.
“No, there’s nothing wrong, Sofia. Everything’s alright with me. I just decided to get a late nap because
I was feeling tired this evening, that’s all.” Sarah explained with a small smile tugging at the sides of her Content is © by NôvelDrama.Org.
lips. I was almost about to believe her had it been I hadn’t caught the glance Matilda and she had
exchanged just as she dismissed my worry.
Which pinged my radar in my head immediately.
Something was definitely wrong, somewhere.
But she didn’t want me to know… yet, at least.
And I wasn’t going to force it out of her.
“How’s your arm now? Is it still hurting the way it was this morning?” She asked, changing the topic
immediately and moving it towards my direction. I acted like I didn’t know what she was trying to do and
shook my head with a dismissive wave of my left hand which was peeking out of the jacket I still had
around me.
“It’s better now, I guess? And no, it doesn’t hurt anymore. It doesn’t even feel anything for now, so I
have a feeling I am going to feel the actual pain tomorrow morning once the drugs injected into me
must have probably waned off.” I replied as I slowly shrugged the jacket off my shoulder and placed it
in the empty seat beside me.
“That’s the master’s suit jacket.” Matilda said to Sarah while pointing at the discarded jacket and a quiet
laugh escaped my lips, Matilda was so unbelievable.
“It is? She took it from his closet because she was cold? Would the master be cool with that?” Sarah
asked Matilda with a worried expression covering her face in her instant. I made to reply but Matilda
beat me to it.
“That’s the thing! The Master gave it to her himself.” Matilda continued and Sarah just looked confused
once Matilda’s words sank into her head.
“He came back home while I was taking a nap? And you could come wake me up.” Sarah said the last
few words to Matilda as she hit her arm and I watched as Matilda scowled and rubbed her wrist before
continuing.
“No, he didn’t. He went to see The young Mistress in the hospital, and he gave the jacket to her himself
because she was feeling cold.” Matilda explained further and I watched as Sarah smiled softly before
turning towards me. I started to shake my head before she could start to say something.
“He only gave me the jacket because I was feeling cold and was only in a sleeveless top. That’s all.” I
said to her but her smile only widened, making me groan silently in my head.
“Sounds like someone’s starting to become a favourite of the master.” Sarah murmured as she reached
for her bottle of water and unscrewed the cap before pouring a little of it into a glass cup.
I wonder what their reactions would be if they realized that it wasn’t what they were both thinking
because we barely talk. How did I become his favorite without us talking at all? Back there at the
hospital was the only place where we had both talked, apart from our wedding night…
I wonder what their reactions would be like if they realized that I was still a virgin and that their master
dto haven’t taken what was his from me… just how would I become his favorite without him doing that
to me at least?
Did he even seem like the type to keep favorites?
Do I even look like I want to be tagged as his favorite?
No, thank you.
They were both huge, ridiculous romantics.
“It’s not like that, believe me. He just felt obligated, that’s all.” I reassured Sarah as I reached for my
fork and tugged the plate of food before me.
“You do know that the master doesn’t ever feel obligated to anyone or anything. He only ever does
something if he wants to.” Sarah said in reply and I paused my fork midway with the food clinging to it.
Lowering the fork slowly back on my plate, I unscrewed my bottle of water and filled up my glass cup
before picking it up and taking a huge gulp from it.
“Oh.” I mumbled quietly after I had taken at least two mouthfuls of water.
Matilda only shrugged with a small smile and Sarah sat still while watching me quietly as well. I ignored
their gazes, not knowing what to say and finally settled on pretending like I didn’t know they were
waiting on my reply as I picked up my fork of food and shoved it into my mouth.
They thankfully dropped the subject and focused on eating their foods. After a while, everyone was
done eating and Sarah along with Matilda cleared off the table. I tugged the suit jacket over my
shoulders once again, pointedly ignoring Sarah and Matilda’s long, knowing stares as I made my way
into the cold room to grab a small carton of juice.
The meal Matilda had prepared consisted of spicy beefsteaks and spicy sauce. It wasn’t something I
couldn’t handle and I was kind of glad it was spicy, as it had managed to chase the cold that had
managed to seep into my body through the pores on my skin, in the form of perspiration.
I wasn’t feeling cold any longer but for some selfish reasons, had still decided to hang Luca’s jacket
around me once I was done eating.
It was probably because I was going to return it to him tonight and would most definitely never get to
feel the warm texture of his jacket against my skin.
So I was savoring my last moments with it.
Making my way into the cold room, I welcomed the cold which seeped into my skin and through the
jacket around my shoulder before picking up a pack of juice from the row of juice arranged in a small
fridge located in one part of the cold room before exiting it.
I bid Sarah and Matilda a good night, thanked them for taking care of me and the nice dinner before
making my way straight to my bedroom and shutting the door quietly behind me.