Chapter 679: Not Everyday.

The apartment door opened to raised voices, something that rarely happened here.

"What’s going on?" Leo said, then stepped inside, carrying a couple of grocery bags in one hand and a smaller paper package in the other.

He had barely closed the door when he heard Mia’s voice coming from the living room.

"I already told you, I’m not going!"

"?No me vengas con eso, Mia! ?No me estás escuchando!" Sofia’s voice snapped.

Don’t give me that, Mia! You’re not listening to me!

Leo paused after that.

Sofia had switched to Spanish, and in the number of times he’d seen her do so, it was rarely a good sign.

He hadn’t even managed to spot Mia before hearing the sharp slam of a bedroom door.

A moment later, the apartment fell quiet, save for Sofia’s frustrated muttering.

"Dios mío..."

My God...

She sighed and turned towards the entrance.

Her eyes found Leo, then dropped to the things in his hands.

"What’s all that?" she said, sounding a bit exasperated.

"Things you asked me to get."

He lifted one of the bags slightly.

Sofia nodded, but her attention had already returned to whatever had just happened.

She rubbed her forehead and muttered another sentence under her breath while Leo looked at her with one eyebrow raised.

"What happened?"

Sofia shook her head.

"Nothing."

He looked towards the closed bedroom door and then came further into the room.

"Doesn’t sound like nothing."

He set the groceries down on the kitchen counter, taking a moment to arrange the bags before walking back towards her.

"What’s the matter?"

He asked in Spanish this time.

"?Qué ha pasado?"

What happened?

Sofia exhaled through her nose.

"Acabo de descubrir que Mia lleva un mes hablando con un chico de veintiún a?os."

I just found out Mia has been talking to a twenty-one-year-old boy for a month.

Hearing that, Leo’s expression changed.

"Ah," he uttered as Sofia continued before he could ask anything.

"She’s not even sixteen yet, Leo. Not even sixteen. I let her do a lot of things. I give her room to go out, see her friends and make her own decisions.

But an adult taking an interest in my teenage niece is something I’m not going to sit back and allow."

She switched back to English, her frustration making her words come quicker.

"She came to me about the weekend. Apparently, she and her friends have been planning an outing.

I was at work when she mentioned it, and one of my colleagues overheard her speaking on the call. She’s a nice girl, but she’s also much more in the loop than Mia is.

She knew about the particular party Mia was talking about, and she told me what usually goes on there."

Leo listened without interrupting.

"So I started asking questions. I wasn’t even trying to make a big deal out of it at first. I just wanted to know where they were going, who was going to be there, whether there would be adults around.

But it’s just a whole lot of degeneracy that goes on there. And then there was that 21-year-old rat that was trying to get her and her friends to go there with him."

Sofia shook her head.

"Twenty-one, Leo. He’s twenty-one. And she’s fifteen."

Leo raised his head slightly, taking in what she had said.

Sofia looked towards Mia’s room.

"It’s a dangerous age to be a girl, Leo. There are so many people who know exactly how to make a young girl feel special.

They know what to say, how to make her feel older than she is, how to make her believe she’s in control of something she doesn’t understand yet."

Her voice softened, but the frustration remained.

"And sometimes, girls don’t realise how vulnerable they are until something happens. They think they’re old enough to handle everything. They think they know people. Then they find themselves in situations they never should have been in."

She paused.

"That’s what I’m trying to prevent. I don’t want her learning some of these things the hard way."

The last few words came out quieter than the rest.

Leo noticed the change in her expression.

Sofia blinked, looking down as she tried to gather herself.

Her eyes had begun to water, and Leo knew the reason for the strong reaction.

He stepped closer.

"Hey," he said, but Sofia shook her head, attempting to dismiss it.

"I’m fine."

"Come here."

He opened his arms, and Sofia didn’t argue.

She stepped into him, allowing him to wrap his arms around her shoulders.

Leo held her there.

"It’s okay," he said quietly. "You’re doing what you’re supposed to do."

Sofia let out a small breath against his shoulder.

"She thinks I’m trying to ruin everything for her."

"She’ll understand."

"When?"

"Soon enough."

Leo gave her another moment before loosening his arms.

"You know her. She’ll calm down."

Sofia nodded and stepped back, wiping beneath one eye.

"Thank you."

"Don’t worry about it."

She looked at him properly now and then looked behind him as if expecting someone else to walk through the door.

"Where’s Vittoria?"

"She’s spending the day with a friend."

"Oh, right."

Sofia nodded before turning towards the kitchen.

Leo’s attention, however, had shifted to the closed bedroom door.

He looked at it for a moment, then started walking.

"Leo?"

He glanced over his shoulder.

"I’m just going to talk to her," he said and then went on.

"Go away!" Mia’s voice came through after he’d knocked.

"It’s me."

After he said that, there was no response.

But there was also no second demand for him to leave.

He took that as enough of an invitation and opened the door.

The room was dim, with the curtains partly drawn.

In the corner of the room, Mia was lying face down on her bed, her arms tucked beneath the pillow.

The pillow itself was slightly damp, and her breathing came in uneven, muffled sounds.

Leo stepped inside and closed the door behind him.

He didn’t say anything, and instead, he remained near the corner of the room, watching her for a while but making sure his presence was felt by his sister.

Mia had expected him to start talking, perhaps to repeat whatever Sofia had already said.

She waited for it, keeping her face buried in the pillow, but nothing came.

Eventually, she turned her head.

Her eyes were red, and her nose was visibly congested when they came up from the pillow.

She looked at Leo, who was still standing in the same place.

While she continued staring, he tilted his head slightly.

"Wow."

Mia frowned, and then Leo clicked his tongue.

"And I thought I liked older."

For a second, Mia simply stared at him until she couldn’t help but snort.

The sound came out awkwardly, partly swallowed by her blocked nose.

She quickly wiped her face with the back of her hand.

"Shut up."

"There she is."

Mia rolled her eyes and turned back towards the pillow and then fell back onto it.