Mafia's collateral

Trust your guts

>>Seraphina

I took Eris and we made our way to the VIP floor. Azef received minor burns as he had to cross the fire twice when going in to save my little sister and he was getting treated in a private room.

Apparently he has a special doctor here who always looks after him. I guess rich people have personal doctors too.

I pressed the elevator to the VIP floor and then looked down at Eris as the door closed.

"Are you tired?" I had her hand in mine, "Do you want me to pick you up?" She looked at me and shook her head. But I could tell that she was tired, "It's alright, I can pick you up."

She turned her head away and shook her head again.

Hmmm,

She's always trying to be more independent. I wonder if it's because she doesn't trust me enough... Or maybe she doesn't want to be a burden...

The elevator opened and we made our way towards Azef's room. I had to ask a nurse where he was and she guided me. I knocked on his door but didn't receive an answer. So I slightly opened the door to peek inside.

"Excuse me," My eyes immediately landed on Azef who was sitting on the couch of the sleek designed room. He seemed to be looking at something with all of his focus but when he noticed movement, his eyes turned to me, "Ah!" I felt conscious, "I knocked," I pointed at the door.

His facial expressions softened, "Come," He gestured and we both walked up to him. As we made our way in and the wall blocking my view subsided, I noticed he was looking at the TV.

The news was on.

"Somi Soma says she's not going to stop looking for her son, Murim Soma" The news reporter from NLN was on, "Although it has been a few months since the disappearance of her one and only son and the murder of her brother, she has refused to stay still."

NLN

Recently, this channel has been doing pretty bad. I heard some internal conflicts happened. They've been taking a loss for a while.

The owner is pretty devastated as well and the secretary who was fired can't seem to find a job. Her face was everywhere, so all the companies refused to hire her to keep their reputation intact.

I glanced at Azef and noticed he had a grim expression on.

"Is something wrong?" I asked but he didn't answer. He did turn his attention to us.

"What did the doctor say?" He looked at Eris and she looked down in shame.

"The doctor said she'll heal just fine, we just need to make sure she takes her medicine and keeps putting the ointment on her burns, then change her bandages."

"Hmm," He nodded, "And the cause of the fire?" He looked at me and Eris shrunk even more at his words. I had a hunch that she was feeling more conscious because she didn't want him knowing about it. But I can't hide it from him. It was his apartment.

"She, uh," Eris hid behind me, "Turned the microwave on with an aluminum wrap in it and the whole thing caught on fire."

"Uh, huh," Azef wasn't fazed by it much but his eyes did wander around. I couldn't tell if he was mad or not. But how could he not be mad? Because of us, a whole apartment of his burned down. I looked down in shame. I should have been more careful. I know I'm stressed but I should have at least made sure to feed Eris.

She's a kid, no matter how much she tries, she is bound to make mistakes like these. We got lucky this time and she was rescued but what about next time? If Azef didn't give me off early, I would have found out about the fire too late.