Chapter 51 Therapy

Chapter 51 Therapy
SOFIA'S POV

My phone rings on in my hands.

I'm in rhe back seat of the car I was assigned along with a driver.

A Rolls-Royce isn't exactly, low profile if you ask me.

I bring it to my face and the caller ID makes me answer hastily.

"Oh my God Mila! I've been calling you all day." I say impatiently.

She sighs.

"I was on a family vacation. Hiking is SO not a vacation." She explains making me chuckle.

I've really missed her.

Part of me thought she'd been caught up with her life in Milan.

But that doesn't sound like the Mila I know.

"You could have called..." My tone lowers.

"I'm sooo sorry Sof Pow. If I could invent network up those mountains I would have."

I chuckle.

"I'm sooo sooo glad you're awake! I've missed you terribly since I last visited you. I was so scared of bad news I agreed to the trip with ly parents."

Right.

I was the one in a coma.

They were rhe ones waiting.

"I love you so much Mila. Thank you for being my bestfriend." I feel my voice break a little.

"Tell me that in person. I'm waiting for Paolo at the train station. We were planning to surprise you so act surprised when he yells."

I laugh.

"Okay. I can't wait to hear about you two since I was gone." I say and she blows kisses through the phone before the line cuts.

Maybe I wasn't as lost of a cause.

"Ma'am were here." My driver says making me scrunch up my face a little.

Ma'am ?

I'm only three years younger than him.

"You can me sofia you know."

"Not professional, Ma'am. "

"Then miss Vescovi. That's less agitating."

He responds with a thin pressed smile.

I preferred the family driver I grew up with.

I walk into the building with a few people seated by the waiting area.

"I'm here to see Dr. Philips." I say at the receptionist desk before she checks something.

"Name."

"Sofia Powell-Vescovi."

She checks the monitor seriously.

Then picks up the office phone.

"Your 3pm is here."

I tab on the desk with my index finger, waiting.

"You can go in." She says before going back to whatever it is she was doing on her computer.

I knock on the door gently before I enter.

"Miss Vescovi, I've been expecting you."

He clears his lap before getting up and walking to his desk to grab a fresh notebook.

He sits back in his chair gesturing for me to seat on the couch.

"Do you know why you're here?"

I nod.

He tilts his head.

"Yeah. I have thoughts of dying and somehow that links to my medical emergency."

He jolts something down before looking up again.

He got all that from my short statement?

"That's part of it."

I lean back in my seat.

"Tell me more about you." He says his eyes never leaving me.

"Uh okay. I'm Sofia, my bestfriends have different nicknames for me. I'm done with my junior year and I– I recently got heartbroken." I say letting it float in the air now.

I was heartbroken.

There's no need to just call it hurt.

"Tell me more about this...heartbreak. was it a friendship or a romantic connection?"

I sigh.

I can already feel my eyes gloss up.

I haven't really talked about it with anyone.

My dad would just try his hardest to not look relieved that Nova is no longer in my life.

My bestfriends' lives never stopped moving.

But mine did.

For that one month.

"The first time I saw her I thought she wasn't the exact version people on campus talked about. Then she moved into my apartment that I shared with my bestfriend. I really thought she was stalking me." I chuckle.

"But she was just...existing and i happened to there. I started liking someone i hated. And when I admitted it to myself, no one wanted us to be together, not even her. She lied to me...in a way...that no one ever has. I felt so betrayed and it was my fault."

I break down and he pushes the box of tissues infront of me.

Being strong is expected from me as the daughter of a Vescovi.

But I also do share similarities with average people my age.

"I'm sorry....I haven't talked about it since it happened."

"Since the coma?"

"Yeah."

The session continues with him asking the light questions and i answer honestly.

I want to be better.

I want to stop feeling like living is a punishment.

I want...to be hopeful again.

"What was your family like when you were little?"

I snuggle up on the couch now.

Maybe I've loosened up.

"Well at firdt it was just me and my mom. She did everything possible to give me opportunities. Then she met my step-dad and life just felt promising for her. A few years later my twin sisters were born. It might sound crazy but I started learning all the girly stuff so when they're older, I'd be the firdt person they'd come to for fashion advice. It's not common to be rhe older sister and the bestfriend to siblings. But I tried to be that for them."

He jolts something on the notebook again.

This time silence sits in the room. The only noise is from how strong the pen are against the paper.

"Sofia, what I've heard from you sounds like a really brave person to me. You know your diagnosis and that hasn't stopped you from living life like everyone else. You have a support system that cares about you." He adjusts himself in his seat.

"The heartbreak however, that paired with silent grief can cause so much damage. You weren't in control of either. Death happens...it doesn't select. Love happens too, it doesn't choose. And you're human. I want you to think about this when leave....were you expecting the outcome when you loved that person?"

He hands me candy and I take it because a joke to my driver would make the session I just had less reflective.

Did I pursue Nova knowing that she'd hurt me or was it purely unconditional?

She didn't have to give back anything to me, just....honesty.

In the car I give the candy to the driver and he surprisingly takes it.

He's on a job after all...not a robot.

The drive back to the house is quiet.

Somehow I miss sir Nick, the family driver. He knew all our playlists by heart.

And now, he's in retirement.

At the house, my step-dad isn't home yet so it's just me and the staff.

Mila and Paolo are coming so that calls for a sleepover.

Or an itinerary.

I wonder if Nova graduated.

If Luca graduated as well.

I inform the family chef of the guests and what to make alongside the scheduled meals.

Being back here feels more calming than I thought.

I was walking on eggshells in Milan.

Hiding my identity.

Chasing Nova through repeated humiliation.

And designing for my stepdads legacy.

How did i ever do all that and still keep up with the hospital appointments?

Would Nova have told me the truth about the dare if she didn't find out about my condition or did she just.....have that plan all along?

I mean those were the friends she chose to surround herself with.

And she defended them more than once.

I decide to settle in the living room instead of going straight to my room like I usually do.

Mom always sat on the couch with the TV on watching news in any other language that wasn't English.

Something about keeping her attention span in tact.

I flip through channels, trying to find one that works but just settle on the usual ital reports.

The name draws my attention when I spot it.

Victorrio Castiello.

The man behind Nova's upbringing.

It's a business segment so it makes sense to have him as the topic.

I increase the volume a little because it's easy to miss words sometimes.

"Business mogul Victorrio Castiello has given out a formal statement that his daughter has been battling alcohol and drug addiction. And because of that the wedding that had been set to happen last month has been postponed. This comes after Nova Castiello failed to show up to the alter."

My heart races.

That doesn't sound like Nova.

She might have drank alot but she was never was addicted to drugs.

Why would her father rehabilitate her last minute?