As Roja and Lola reach the guest room, Roja mumbles, “He doesn’t seem really pleased to have me here.” She refers to how Jason ordered her to get back to her room.

“Nonsense. I don’t know what his problem is but usually he’s not that grumpy,” Lola says while laughing. She tries her best to cheer Roja up, but the girl doesn’t seem to have more than a small smile to give. Lola’s curiosity takes over, so she asks, “Why were you in foster care? What happened to your parents?” Roja clenches her fists and closes her eyes, trying not to let her memories make her break down in tears.

“Can we please not talk about that?” she whispers. Lola nods understandingly even though she really wants to know some details about Roja’s life. It’s probably still too soon to talk about those topics.

That’s when the door is pushed open and Jason walks in. Lola gives him a warning look as she notices that Roja is hiding behind her from Jason. He ignores the looks on the girls’ faces and asks Lola to leave. She takes a look at Roja and gives her brother another warning look before leaving, closing the door silently. Roja is shaking, being alone in a room with Jason after what just happened makes her want to run away. As Jason sees the state she’s in, he crosses his arms and lets out a deep breath, “I won’t hurt you. I just have some questions.” Roja doesn’t even look at him, but nods. “I have to decide if you can stay here. But I can’t let you stay here if I suspect you to hurt my family. I need some information on you, like your name and your age,” Jason explains as calmly as he can.

“Roja, 17,” she says, trying to keep her facial expression as neutral as possible.

“Do you know where your foster father is?” Roja shakes her head. Why should she know where Ric is? Jason has seen her clenching her fists as he mentioned her foster father. He decides that her reaction gave him enough information about her relationship to Ric. Even though all evidence points to Roja being an innocent girl in all of this, Jason feels something that makes him uneasy. He could try to identify this feeling but instead, he just blames his uneasiness on the lack of background information he gets from Roja.

“You can go down to the kitchen and back to your room, but nowhere else,” Jason concludes.

“Yes, sir,” Roja answers while fighting against her tears.

“Who taught you that?” Jason asks.

“Ric,” she answers quietly. A small break follows her short reply.

“Do you think anyone will be looking for you?” First, Roja thinks that he’s joking. Who should be looking for her? She’s never been to a school and her parents, as well as her first foster parents, are dead. Ric wouldn’t even care where she is. He probably wouldn’t even bother to file a report of her being missing. As she answers Jason’s question, he just nods, looking like he is deep in thought. He walks away shortly after, leaving Roja in her room confused. He seems caring sometimes but then changes to an angry guy within a day. Before Roja can really think about him, her ribs start hurting again. It’s time to lie down, she’s been up for too long already.

***

In the afternoon, as Roja wakes up from her stomach growling, she decides to go down to the kitchen and get something to eat. After all, Jason allowed her to do that and she’ll make sure to not take too much of their food. She silently walks down the stairs to the kitchen. It’s silent, all the others must be somewhere else. When she looks around, she can’t find anything to eat on the sideboards so she decides to make something herself. Oren probably ate everything that was left from lunch. Luckily, Roja finds everything she needs to make some sandwiches. She’ll make some and just take one to leave the rest for her friends.

Preparing the food makes her get lost in her own thoughts again. That’s why she doesn’t notice the middle-aged women coming into the kitchen. Only as the woman starts coughing, Roja quickly turns around and stands there in shock. Immediately, the woman apologizes for scaring her. Roja looks at the blonde woman, still in shock but less terrified. “I’m Anne. You must be Roja, Miss Morelli already told me about you!” As Anne sees the confused look on the girl’s face, she adds, “Lola Morelli? She actually just sent me here to ask if you want something to eat.”

“Oh no, thank you. I already made something myself,” Roja says but gets cut off at the end by Anne,

“But it’s my job to make you food.” The slightly reproofing tone makes Roja apologize right away and Anne notices that this girl is very different from Lola. “Alright, next time you’re hungry, just call me. I’m working for the Morelli family and I’d like to keep my job,” she says, trying to sound more comforting than before. Roja takes one of the sandwiches and, after thanking Anne, she attempts to go back to her room.

As she’s about to walk out of the kitchen, she turns around to Anne, “Can you please lead me back to my room? I don’t want to open the wrong door.”

Anne chuckles and nods, “Of course, I also got lost a few times when I was new here.” With that, she walks over to Roja and shows her back to her room.

***

At the same time, in one of the meeting rooms of the Morellis’ gang, Jason informs his siblings about his latest decision, “She can stay here, but as soon as she’s well enough, she’ll either work for us or move out,”

Lola is already annoyed by her older brother, “What’s wrong with you? She can work as my best friend.” With her hands on her hips, she looks up to her brother, desperate to keep her new friend close. She knows she only gets to talk to him like that because she’s his sister.

“She can’t stay,” Jason tries to explain, but Oren stops him.

“Why not?” he asks.

“We know nothing about her!” Jason tries to justify his decision but he knows his siblings have already made up their minds about that girl. Lola already feels like she knows more about Roja than about any of her former friends and Oren would never let down someone in need.

“Let Gabe do a background check on her,” Oren suggests while crossing his arms and giving his brother an annoyed look.

After a second of thinking, Jason admits that this is a good idea, “Why didn’t I think of this yet?”

“Because you were too distracted by being grumpy,” Lola answers before starting to laugh. Oren joins in while Jason just stares at them angrily.

“I’m not grumpy. The gang just isn’t how it should be right now and that stresses me out,” he admits.

“Because its leader isn’t at his best,” Lola mumbles, still not done with laughing. As she sees how annoyed Jason is, she tries to stop herself and Oren. “Does she even know who we are?” she asks.

“I don’t think so and I’d like to keep it that way for now. That means she can leave whenever she wants without having too much information. We’re not keeping her hostage here,” Jason warns them. Lola nods before stating that she’ll go see Roja now.

As Jason tries to keep her from doing that, she just glares at him and as neutral as possible she says, “You’re not in a place to tell me when I can meet my friends.” With that, she walks away with her head held high while Oren starts laughing again.

“You can’t control her, she’s your sister!” he says, trying to cheer up his brother. Jason just tries to calm down and asks Oren to talk to Gabe. Before leaving, Oren asks his older brother to be a bit nicer towards Roja, but he just ignores the request so Oren leaves without another word. As Jason stands there all alone, his thoughts revolve around that girl and how she makes him break his rules. He never let anyone stay at their house and now she’s here. He’s sure that she won’t be able to leave anytime soon.