Page 39 of Ruthless Mafia Heir

She turns to me, eyes wide.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It’s your house, Sophia," I repeat, as though it should have been obvious. I reach into my pocket and pull out the key fob. It’s leather, printed with the thistle that makes up the Silencio insignia. It seemed appropriate.

I reach over and press it into her hand, and she just looks down at it for a moment. She isn’t comprehending what I’m trying to tell her.

"I don’t get it..."

"This place, I bought it for you," I explain, and finally, something clicks in her head.

"You did what?"

"I bought it for you."

"Why?" she demands, and she reaches over and presses the key fob into my hand. "No. No. I don’t want it. I don’t need anything from you, Blake."

I close my hand around hers, making sure she doesn’t let go of the keys.

"I’m not asking you for anything in return," I murmur, and I nod toward the house. "At least take a look around inside, okay?”

She chews her lip, but it’s too tempting for her to pass up. Eventually, she steps out of the car and makes her way to the wrought iron fence. Slipping her key into the heavy lock holding the gate shut, she pushes it open and walks up the pathway to the door.

She pauses before she heads inside, and I join her, wanting nothing more than to take her hand and squeeze it tight. But I don’t want to force myself into this moment. This is for her. It’s her chance to enjoy it, to wrap her head around what I’m offering her.

It's not a huge place, not compared to my mansion, but it’s bigger than her dorm room, at least. A narrow staircase before the living room leads to a bedroom and bathroom upstairs that overlook a large garden below. She stands there for a moment, on the polished dark wood floor, her eyes flitting around.

"I’ve never..." She trails off. She swallows hard, then she manages to keep going. "I’ve never had a place like this in my life before."

I grin. "That’s the idea." I brush my fingertips against hers. "This is yours. All yours. You don’t have to share it with anyone. And you don’t have to worry about getting a job to pay rent. It’s already paid for, everything."

She lets out a long, shaky breath, then turns to face me.

"I can’t accept this, Blake." Her voice is firm. "I-I appreciate the offer, I really do. But I don’t want to owe you anything. Not after..."

"I’m not asking you to owe me anything."

She narrows her eyes at me. "That’s not how your world works, and you know it," she shoots back. "You said it yourself. Everything happens for a reason. Everything comes with something attached to it—"

"And this is my way of showing you that I don’t need to live like that anymore," I cut her off. "I’m done with that. I don’t need to control everything anymore."

She closes her eyes.

"Blake, I don’t know... I don’t know if I can do this," she admits, her voice shaky. "I don’t take charity from people. I never have. And I don’t want to start, not with you, not after everything that’s happened."

"This isn’t charity."

"Of course it is—"

"No, it’s not, Sophia," I insist. "It’s an investment, an investment in your future at the university. You understand that?"

"No..."

I turn to her, clasp her hands in mine, and lift them to my chest.

"Sophia, listen to me. I want you to let that soak in. You don’t deserve to be held back by the fact that you don’t have the same money as other people there. This place, this will lift the weight of that from you, and you can focus on your studies, focus on doing what really needs to be done."

She hesitates. I can tell she’s not sure about this. She weighs the keys in her hand.

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