I heard you correctly.
I heard you correctly.
The dog looked really adorable as she slept peacefully. Mia understood now why people said dogs were adorable and cute.
"Well, I think I've been leaving Tara to fend for herself too much lately. She had a really terrible indigestion" Leo said with a sad frown as he looked down at Tara.
"Oh! That must have been painful for her" Mia said in a low voice as she followed them out.
"And she hasn't been playing much lately. I think she was sick of being locked inside the room all day. Thanks for saving her. I don't know what would have happened to her if you hadn't been at home." Leo said with a small smile to Mia.
"Why do you lock Tara up in your room?" Louis asked curiously.
Mia suddenly felt guilty. She knew it had all been because of her.
"I'm sorry." She said in a small voice with her head down. She felt really guilty.
Leo turned to look at her in surprise. "You don't have to apologize. None of this us your fault." Leo assured her.
"It's all my fault." Mia said shaking her head.
"How is it your fault?" Louis asked from the side. He was s slightly hurt that they weren't giving him any attention when he had been the one to drive Mia and Tara there.
"Dogs scare me." Mia said with her head still down.
It took Louis a few seconds to understand what she was saying.
"You mean dogs scare you so he had to take Tara to his bedroom?" Louis asked in surprise as he turned to look at Leo who was looking right back at him with displeasure.
"Just leave already. Thanks for bringing Tara here." Leo said as he eyed Louis. He didn't get why he was still lurking around.
"You are scared of dogs? But you held Tara" Louis said with a confused frown not bothering to pay Leo any attention.
"You did?" Leo turned to look at Mia in surprise. He knew whenever Mia saw Tara, he was going to be watching a live version of temple run. So how had she managed to carry Tara?
"He was driving and Tara looked like she was dying so... I carried her." Mia said with a shrug.
"Aww.." Leo said with a proud smile on his face. "I am so proud of you." He commended and ruffled her hair while holding Tara with one hand.
"Stop it! You're using that dog hand to touch my hair." She said as she tried to clean off any fur that was probably stuck to her hair.
"Shut up and come here." He said signalling her with a finger to come closer but she kept ducking away from his reach.
"I don't want you to." She said with a laugh as she moved further away from him.
"Come on, come here. Just a little ruffling." He pressed.
"You're going to get it messy." She complained.
"It's already messy. I just want to ruffle it a bit" He said with a displeased frown.
Louis shook his head as he watched the both of them from the side.
"I'm going back to the hospital." He announced while Leo happily waved him off.
"I'll call you later, Mia." He said to Mia with a wink and smirked when he saw Leo glaring at him.
"Good night." He said with his back to them as he went to where his car was parked.
"You should block his number." Leo said as he walked towards the passenger seat of his car to open the door for her.
"You don't have a good relationship with your brother?" Mia asked as she got into the car.
Tonight was the first time she was actually standing with both brothers together and watching them talk even though Leo had ignored Louis for most of it.
The other night, she hadn't been herself so she hadn't really taken note of the both of them. But tonight, it had been a bit exciting standing in between two people who looked so much alike.
"We do get along. Sometimes we are just like this." He said before going to hop in his seat with Tara still on his thigh.
"So are you going to hold her?" He asked looking down at Tara who was still sleeping but opened her eyes lazily with every slight movement.
Mia shook her head immediately. "I am scared."
"But you held her earlier."
"Because she was sick and I thought she was going to die. Now she has been treated." Mia said nervously.
"You don't have to panic. She won't bite you. I promise." Leo said to her and waited for her to say something but she remained quiet and continued to look at him curiously.
He looked deeply into her eyes and asked in a very quiet voice...
"Do you trust me?"
Mia looked into his eyes. Something inside her head reminded her that Leo was not to be trusted. In fact, he was never to be trusted. But surprisingly, she slowly nodded.
"Yes." After a few seconds, she added...
"I trust you."
He was slightly taken aback by the way she had said it. He couldn't tell what was wrong or why he was startled but there was something about the way she had said it that made him slightly excited and uncomfortable at the same time.
He managed to smile at her before he gently carried Tara from his lap to hers.
***********
Mia was uncomfortable with the silence inside the car. Leo was awfully quiet tonight and she couldn't tell what he was thinking.
She looked down again at the little dog sleeping on her lap. She was still very uncomfortable but she chose to believe Leo that Tara was not going to harm her. Even if Tara did, at least there was Leo there to save her and he wouldn't hit her the way her mother did years ago when she was bitten by a dog.
She kept wondering why he was still quiet. Did she do something wrong? She searched her brain for anything she probably would have done to make him so quiet and remembered something.
Earlier when she was narrating what had happened with Tara and how she found the dog crying, she noticed how the look on his face changed when she mentioned she had entered inside his room. Was that it? She wondered but still wasn't sure since he had played with her just a few minutes back.
"Are you mad that I went into your room?" She suddenly asked in a very quiet voice.
He turned to look at her and gave her a confused look. Where was that coming from?
"I'm not mad at you. Why would you think so?" He asked before turning back to face the road.
"I don't know. I just think you've been acting weird tonight." She pointed out.
He was quiet a bit before he spoke again..
"I just have a lot on my mind. Sorry if it's making you feel uncomfortable. But it has nothing to do with you entering inside my room."
"But I noticed the way you reacted when I mentioned I went inside your room."
"Well... I don't really like it when people go into my room especially when I'm not around."
"But you enter inside my room everytime."
"Well..." He had wanted to say 'It's my house.' But he swallowed back the words.
"So when you bring ladies home, where do you take them to if you do not like people inside your room?" She asked curiously but paused when something registered inside her head.
"By chance... is it... my room?" She asked with wide eyes as she remembered the first day Leo came to the house. He had a room but had brought a lady into hers.
Was that like his brothel?
Leo blinked a couple of times as he looked at her before looking ahead.
Why was she suddenly asking too many questions? He asked himself as he began to shift in his seat.
"Those are all in the past." He managed to say without looking at her and quickly changed the topic.
"So I was thinking..." He paused to glance at her briefly before he continued.
"Would you prefer we pay off the debt your sister owe or you'd prefer we handle it legally and report it to the right authorities?"
After waiting for a few seconds and there was no response, he turned to look at Mia and noticed a frown on her face as she looked at him.
"I don't want your pity."
"This is not me pitying you. It's about doing the right thing and I believe me being involved is the right thing."
"Do you know how much more we have to pay before this whole punishment is over? It's close to a hundred thousand bucks" She said in a quiet voice.
"Wow!" Leo couldn't help but exclaim. That was much!
"And no.. This cannot be reported to even the police because they are all shitty and corrupt and probably works for Mr Timothy since he keeps claiming he has all the connection in the world to never be put behind bars."
"But your name was written there without your consent!" Leo reminded her.
She looked out the window for a few seconds before turning to look back at him.
"If he gets angry he would probably work with the police to throw my mother in prison and try to cajole me into marrying his son in other to save my mother... I can read these things. This is how Mr Timothy works." Mia said quietly.
"The most peaceful way out of this is paying it all up." She said with a sigh.
Leo also sighed deeply. He didn't know people still lived like this in this modern world.
"You... wouldn't mind me helping out right?" He asked as he glanced at her.
"I said it's a hundred thousand bucks!"
"And I heard you correctly."
"And you think I would let you help us?" She asked with a frown.