A bit later, Jason meets up with a few other members of his gang at the port. They are taking care of the new shipment because their arsenal is slowly getting empty again. Jason is talking to Rover, his best friend, “Does everything go as planned?”

“Yes, boss, almost finished already,” Rover answers more politely than he would if they were alone.

“Any unwanted visitors?” Jason wonders.

“No, boss."

Jason explains that he’ll go right back home after they are done here and Rover heads back to the others.

Oren comes up to talk to his brother, “How’s it going?”

“Fine.”

“I don’t mean the shipment,” Oren says with a slight laugh.

“It’s difficult,” Jason mumbles, trying not to get the others’ attention. “I feel like I can’t even talk to her without making her sad,” he admits.

“Is it true that she was with the Smiths?” Oren asks.

Jason nods, “Yes, but she didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Understandable, Dexter probably wasn’t that nice to her,” Oren points out.

“Or she’s a spy,” Jason whispers.

“Stop that, bro,” Oren says while rolling his eyes. “She really needs help but you keep suspecting her to be the worst.”

“You might be right, but I still want to be careful,” Jason mumbles before getting interrupted by one of his men,

“We have visitors, boss!”

“Speaking of the devil…,” Jason says to Oren while turning towards the group of people approaching them.

However, they don’t look like they are part of the Smiths’ gang. For Jason, those attackers look like a weak group that isn’t part of a gang. They have guns but no bulletproof vests and no structure in the way they attack. “Take care of them and then we’ll leave,” Jason tells Rover, who is third in command in his gang. After a short shootout and a quick clean-up, everyone’s ready to leave. Jason makes sure none of his members are hurt before sending everyone home for the rest of the day after they’ve brought all the remaining supplies to their warehouse.

***

Back at the Morellis’ house, Anne finds Roja still reading in the library. As the housemaid tells her to go to bed because it’s already late and she needs to rest, Roja replies, “I’ll finish this chapter and then I’ll go to sleep.” Anne nods, knowing that it won’t be just one more chapter. After saying goodnight, she leaves the girl alone again.

Some hours later, Roja is still reading in the library. If she looked at the clock, she would see that it’s already morning. Jason walks in because he woke up early. He’s a bit shocked but not really surprised when he sees her sitting on the couch. “Please tell me you haven’t been reading all night,” he says, distracting Roja from reading. A bit uncomfortable, she looks up from her book and shrugs. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your room. You need some sleep.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m not tired, I’ll make breakfast,” Roja says before yawning. Jason crosses his arms and looks at her with a slight smile. She rubs her eyes while saying, “Alright, I might be a bit tired.” Jason chuckles before opening the door and leading her to her room.

***

It doesn’t take much time until Roja has another nightmare. Even with the bright daylight in her room, her past haunts her in her dreams. Lucia walks past Roja’s door when she hears the girl shouting, “I didn’t do anything! Let me go! Please!” Alarmed, Lucia opens the door and runs in to wake Roja up. After hearing her name being shouted twice, Roja wakes up and sees Lucia standing in her room. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you,” she says, already knowing the reason why the woman is in here.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t disturb me. But maybe you should stand up now and get something to eat,” Lucia suggests.

“Sure, I’ll go and make something,” Roja replies, still a bit shaken by her nightmare.

“No, I’ll ask Anne to get you something,” Lucia replies in a tone that tells Roja not to argue about that. “Do you want to talk about the nightmare?” the woman asks in a more caring tone, but Roja declines. Lucia nods and realises that Roja might need some time to herself, so she leaves to get Anne.

In the meantime, Roja looks through the wardrobe to change into something different. However, choosing clothes always comes with having to find something that covers up her bruises and scars which isn’t that easy with Lola’s clothes. After a few minutes, Anne knocks on the door and comes in with breakfast.