Chapter 219
Chapter Two Hundred Neen
Misha
I could see something was different about Giana when she and Armando walked into the office while
the doctor was talking to Sephie. Giana had a look of contempt on her face watching Sephie talk that
she’d never had before. I didn’t like it. I could feel myself starting to get angry as I watched her
watching Sephie talk to the doctor about brawn.
When the doctor asked Sephie how she had experience with the original form of brawn, her entire
demeanor changed. It was obvious. She immediately looked at the floor and her shoulders slumped.
Adrik didn’t even need to see her to know it happened. He just turned his chair toward her and
extended his hand toward her. She got up, her eyes still on the floor, and moved to hisp. Before she
sat down, she just said “my uncle.”
This week has been rough on her. We’ve all seen it. She’s looking like she looked after she and I were
attacked, just without the concussion. How she looked after the ball, just without the ho le in her hip.
She was struggling. Adrik and Ivan seemed to know how to help her best, which was good, but Andrei
was right. It was frustrating for the rest of us. We wanted to help her too, we just didn’t know how. It
was even making Stephen angry and that guy rarely gets angry.
I noticed Giana’s eyes went wide when Sephie mentioned her uncle. Armando looked at her, a stern
look on his face, almost like he was silently saying “I told you so.” I waited for her to look at me. I knew
she would. She was practically incapable of not staring at me at some point anytime she was around
me. I’d caught her staring so many times it should’ve been embarrassing for her, but she kept doing it.
Even after she got with Armando. It was soical that I’d discussed adding it to the wh ite board bet
pools. How many times I could catch her staring in one day.
When she did finally look at me, I made it obvious that I’d seen her look of disgust and I gave her my
own look of disgust in return. It did not matter to me if she was with Armando or not, she was going to
find out that when it came to Sephie, all bets were off. She quickly looked to the floor, but I kept
watching her until the doctor got up to leave.
Once the doctor was out of the office, Adrik moved Sephie to one of the couches, but I kept my eyes on
Giana. She was arguing with Armando, but they were speaking Italian and talking quietly. I’m assuming
so Sephie couldn’t hear what was being said. Giana got up quickly and rushed out of the office. We all
looked to Armando. Clearly something had just happened. He looked frustrated, and maybe a little
angry, but he made an excuse about her not feeling well.
That’s bu llshit. If she didn’t feel well, he would’ve gone with her.
In the way that only Ivan can, he called her out. “Embarrassment will do that.”
ConTEent bel0ngs to N?v(e)lD/rama(.)Org .
Everyone was waiting for him to expand on that when Viktor walked back into the office. Ivan smirked,
enjoying the moment, then said, “na left herest night convinced Sephie knew about withdrawals
because she was a user. She found out today
that wasn’t the case and now she’s embarrassed about it, but she’s not mature enough to own up to
her mistake yet, so she ran
instead.”
Nailed it. I knew Ivan was wise before the attempted kidnapping of Sephie, but somehow that
experience made him infinitely more so. Or he’s finally just letting us all see it. Ivan has always been
insanely private, but it’s clear that he’s opened up to Sephie. They share simr trauma. It can be
comforting to find someone who can rte, even if it’s just a little bit, to what you’ve been through. I
know Ivan has been through serious trauma. He talks in his sleep when he’s troubled, just like Sephie
does. He has ho rrible past experiences with a doctor, just like she does. I don’t know the details, but I
know I likely don’t want to know the details. It’s hard enough knowing what happened to Sophie.
Armando looked to Ivan, surprised. “You’ve been hanging around Sephie, haven’t you? How did you
know that?”
Sephie smiled her smile that could light up the room at Ivan. “Ivan has a very special set of skills,” she
said.
Armando nodded his head in agreement. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then looked at Sephie
and said, “Sephie, I want to apologize on behalf of Giana. We argued for several hoursst night. She
was convinced that you’d been on drugs because you have so much knowledge about them.”
I felt my anger rise to the surface. This bi tch. How could anyone think that about Sephie? She doesn’t
even drink alcohol! And what does it matter if she was on drugs at one point? She’s clearly not
anymore, so who the fuc k cares? Doesn’t she know that people can change and improve their lives?
Before I really thought about it, I said, “and if she was? What then? Does that mean Giana gets a
license to be a bi tch to her? It changes nothing about who Sephie is today if she was or wasn’t.” I was
angry, but I shouldn’t have said that to Armando.
Surprisingly, he agreed with me, telling me he’d said the same thing to her the night before. He also
said he wasn’t sure where any of it wasing from in respect to Giann. I saw Sephie and Ivin having
a silent conversation. I think he was checking to see if she was okay. She’s had to deal with so much,
this week especially. We were all worried that her nightmares were going toe back. Sephie nodded
once to Ivan, letting him know she could handle it. He looked at Armando, his face serious. “I do. She’s
still so insecure with herself that this is her way to tear Sephie down to make herself feel better. You
need to be careful with her, Mando,. She’ll eventually do the same to you, if you don’t stop it. She
wouldn’t havested five minutes in Sephie’s life over thest few years. She doesn’t know what
happened, but on some level, she knows Sephie is stronger than she could ever be and instead of
letting it inspire her to be better herself, she lets it make her more insecure about herself. She’ll drag
you down to her level if you don’t demand she rise to yours or get lost.”
Armando looked somewhat surprised at Ivan’s words, asking how he and Sephie got to be so wise.
When you’re forced to live a life full of hardship, you learn more lessons about life in general. This was
true of both Sephie and Ivan. Sephie, in her own always sarcastic way, told Armando as much.
I’ve always been the youngest of the group, until Sephie came into our lives. I was excited at first,
because I finally felt like I wasn’t the baby. Then I realized that she might be younger than me in years,
but she’s much older than I am in terms of experience. Sure, I’ve got experiences that she doesn’t
have, but that woman has been through more in her young life than I’ll likely experience in the rest of
mine. I find myself looking up to her. Just like Ivan pointed out, Sephie inspires me to be better. All of us
to be better. I don’t know how she’s done it, but she’s brought the best out of all of us. Even Stephen.
None of us knew that guy was carrying around his secret for that long. We were bing used to the
idea that he may or may not be a serial killer and we were all strangely fine with that fact. Turns out he
was just ufortable to tell us that he was g ay. But because of Sephic, he’se out to us and now
he’sing out of his shell around us. That guy is fucki ng hrious and none of us knew it because he
was afraid to be himself around us. Sephie showed him how much better life can be when you just
decide to always be yourself. I constantly question whether that would’ve ever happened if Sephie
hadn’te into our lives. I question whether a lot of things would have happened if she hadn’te
into our lives.
And now this insecure bi tch is trying to tear Sephie down because she’s too scared to put in the work
to make herself better. I didn’t realize I said it out loud, but I cursed in Russian, my anger taking over for
a moment.