When Roja opens her eyes again, Oren is kneeling next to her. She’s still in a lot of pain. Oren is talking to Mary on the phone but Roja’s head hurts too much so his words don’t make any sense to her. As he hangs up, he looks at her a bit unsure before saying, “I’m sorry, but we’ll have to get you to your room.” With that, he picks her up, trying not to touch any of the bigger bruises. He feels her getting tense due to him being so close but he can’t help her any other way. Behind them, Oren already hears Mary running up the stairs.

As he carries Roja, who’s having problems keeping her eyes open, to her room, Mary comes running next to him and asks him to tell her again what has happened. “She collapsed, I’m not sure if she passed out as well. I think something really hurts her but I don’t know what it is,” Oren explains while walking into Roja’s room and placing her on the bed.

“My ribs,” Roja whispers, hoping that one of them hears her. Mary asks Oren to leave the room. As Mary takes a careful look at Roja’s ribs, she sees a big bruise above the last rib.

“It could be broken. Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” Mary asks.

“It didn’t hurt that much and I thought it’s not important,” Roja answers, while the doctor tries to find other bruises. The girl is still tense but in a daze from the pain.

“We’ll have to find out if it’s really broken. If it is, you’ll go to the hospital, but don’t worry, the Morellis kind of have their own hospital,” Mary explains. Roja is shocked. In her thoughts, she questions who these people are if they can afford their own hospital. When Mary starts applying pressure to her bruise, Roja expects a sharp pain but luckily, it’s bearable. Mary lets out a relieved breath when she feels no broken ribs but continues her examination thoroughly.

***

At lunchtime, Roja is already in the kitchen again. None of her ribs is broken but one was probably broken some time ago and got injured again a few days ago. Mary wants Roja to rest, but the insecure girl doesn’t want to be unhelpful. As Anne walks into the kitchen, she sees Roja cooking.

“Roja, shouldn’t you be in bed?” the housemaid asks.

Roja turns around and replies, “No, I feel fine. I’m not in pain anymore.”

“That’s because Mary gave you painkillers!” Lola shouts from the living room.

Anne nods, “Just what I thought. You should lie down again!”

“I’ll just make something to eat and then I’ll go back to my room,” Roja mumbles before turning back to her work. Then she remembers what Anne said the last time they met and adds a quiet “Please”. Anne thinks about how to handle this situation and looks into the living room to Lola who gives her a sign to help Roja cooking.

Just a few minutes later, Oren shouts from the stairs, “I’m smelling food!”

“Roja and Anne are cooking!” Lola shouts back.

“Call me when it’s ready!” Oren answers while heading upstairs.

“He’s always hungry,” Anne says to Roja before taking a look at the almost finished food. “I’ll go and check if the washing machine is done already. I’ll be right back,” she says before leaving the kitchen.

Roja finishes making food while getting lost in her thoughts. Cooking feels like she can do something useful, like she’s less of a burden. The greatest part is that she can do it voluntarily. Nobody forces her to cook here. It’s nice for her to finally do something out of her free will.

At that moment, a woman walks into the kitchen and looks at Roja with disbelief in her eyes. “Who are you?” the woman asks with a stern voice which makes Roja freeze in fear. She turns around slowly and looks at the middle-aged woman while trying to find her voice.

“I’m Roja, miss,” she stutters.

“Did Jason take you here?” the woman asks while crossing her arms.

“Yes, miss,” Roja replies, a bit relieved because the woman doesn’t seem to want to hurt her.

She just rolls her eyes before replying, “Another night, another girl, that’s my boy.”

“Roja, I think we’re ready to serve the food now!” Anne shouts on her way from the washing machine to the dining table, not noticing the tense situation that Scarlet is in.

The woman in the kitchen looks a bit confused but Roja tries to ignore her and to get the help of her friends, “Lola, Oren, food is ready!”

“You cooked?” the woman asks. Roja nods. Just a second later, Lola comes running into the kitchen, her eyes on the food.

“Oren’s still upstairs, let’s eat fast so he doesn’t get anything!” Lola suggests before she sees the frightened look on Roja’s face. “What happened?” she wonders before turning into the direction Roja is looking. “Mum, you’re already here?” Lola asks before running over to her mother and hugging her.

As Lola notices that her mother is the reason for Roja’s scared expression, she decides to introduce them to each other, “Mum, this is Roja, my best friend!” Roja looks a bit uncomfortable but less scared, now that she knows who this woman is. “Jason brought her here after he found her hurt in an abandoned house. She’s staying in the guest room upstairs,” Lola explains.

Her mother is a bit surprised, “I thought she’s one of Jason’s…”

“No, she’s definitely not,” Lola replies in a tone that makes her mother stop questioning where Roja came from.

“Well, I’m sorry, Roja, for making wrong assumptions,” the woman apologizes in a kind tone. Roja just looks away, trying to calm herself down again. Not understanding why Roja doesn’t reply, Lola’s mother adds, “You can call me Lucia. It’s nice to meet a friend of Lola.”

“It’s nice meeting you, too. I’ll see if I can find Oren upstairs,” Roja mumbles before quickly leaving the kitchen.

A bit confused, Lucia asks her daughter, “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, Mum, she just… I’m not sure if that the right reason but she’s an orphan. Seeing you and me here as a happy family must be difficult for her,” Lola clarifies.

Her mother, who’s always been very compassionate, is shocked, “That poor girl, you should have told me.”

“She’s been through a lot, that’s for sure,” Lola tells her mother. Both didn’t notice Oren walking into the kitchen and taking a plate with food while listening to them.

“Maybe I should talk to her later, I was kind of mean to her,” Lucia suggests.

“She’s used to it. Jason doesn’t treat her any better,” Oren says before starting to eat.

Lola turns around to him and, in a playfully angry tune, she shouts “Don’t you dare eat everything up!”

“I wouldn’t dare to, at least not in front of Mum. Hi Mum, we missed you!” Oren says before laughing about his sister who fills her plate with food.

“I missed you, too. Now tell me, for what reason did Jason bring her here?”

“They wanted to get one of the Smiths' members, but he left his house before they could get him. Roja was there and she was very weak,” Lola explains.

“Jason thinks something is different about her and that she could be a spy,” Oren adds.

“Well, she is different. She helped the housemaid cook!” Lucia mentions.

“Actually, Anne helped Roja because we asked her to. Roja should be in bed because of her condition but she wanted to cook for us,” Lola says.

“Well, that’s something new. I like her already,” her mother concludes while Jason walks into the kitchen.

“Hi, Mum. Who were you talking about?” he asks curiously.

“Roja, I’ve just met her and she’s really friendly. I’ll go talk to her now to apologize for being a bit mean,” his mother decides. Lola rolls her eyes as she already knows what Jason will think of this.

“No, you won’t,” Jason states.

Lucia just crosses her arms and looks at him with a raised eyebrow before saying, “First of all, do not tell me what to do, son. Second, I’ll have enough time to talk to her the next weeks.”

“The next weeks?” Lola asks surprised.

“I’m moving back in because of the current situation. You can use all the help you can get right now and I know what I’m talking about,” Lucia explains while Lola starts cheering,

“We need to go shopping tomorrow! We can take Roja with us!”

“No, Lola. Remember, I allowed her to go to the kitchen and back to her room, not to leave the house!” Jason reminds his sister but both his siblings just roll their eyes before leaving the kitchen with their plates.

Jason stares at the door angrily. “You know you have to let her do something, you can’t lock her into her room all day,” Lucia mentions to get her son’s attention.

He sighs, “I know, I just have no idea what she likes to do.”

“What about just asking her?” Lucia asks sarcastically.

“That’s not possible. I’m not talking to her that much, only at night,” Jason answers. As he sees the shocked look on his mother’s face, he wishes to erase his last three words immediately. He’s used to being so open with his mother that he didn’t think about what he was saying. “No, no, no, that’s not what I meant. She has nightmares and whenever I hear her screaming, I try to wake her up and calm her down,” he explains.

 “That’s really nice of you, Jason,” Lucia acknowledges.

“I just don’t want her to wake up everyone else,” Jason states.

“Are you sure that’s the only reason?” his mother asks knowingly.

“Yes, sure,” he mumbles.

“I think there’s more to it. She has the same pain in her eyes that you had some time ago, but you had nobody to calm you down at night.” Jason just looks around uncomfortably, so Lucia decides to leave. “I’ll go talk to her now. Get yourself some food, Roja made it,” she says before walking out of the kitchen. Jason stands there, disappointed and unsure about what to do now.

“Why can’t I control my family when I can control a whole gang?” he asks himself. Luckily, his phone rings to keep him from thinking about this any longer. It’s Gabe, who finally found something interesting about Roja and wants his boss to come to their hideout.