Questionable Loyalties

Not Today

We made it back to New York a few days later, and life has been decently quiet for a few years. Deckard likes to tease me, asking if domestic life is getting boring. It's actually nice. Deckard occasionally leaves for a week or two on a job, and I stay and run the garage. It works for us. Not everything is the end of the world anymore.

I hear from Mia and Dom every now and then when they check in and send me pictures of the kids. They're all getting so big. Where has the time gone??

We've settled into a routine where Deckard and I make sure to go see Owen. It's easier now that we have a more stable routine, and he's allowed to have visitors. He seems okay. Sometimes, Hattie will go with us when she's in town.

Speaking of Hattie, that's getting better. We're working on it, but it's still a bit tense.

One evening, I'm underneath a car when my phone rings. I don't look at the caller ID, and just use my headphones to answer it. "This is Sophia."

"It's good to hear your voice, little sister."

I nearly hit my head, trying to sit up. "Jakob?" I ask, sliding out from under the car. For a moment, I'm speechless."Hang on, let me get somewhere I can talk. I push up off the ground, and go to my office, locking the door behind me.

"Are you still there?" I ask.

"I am. How have you been?" he asks like it's only been a week since we last talked.

"I'm good. I'm really good," I reply. "I'm just at work. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

To say that the Toretto family has some messed up dynamics, is probably an understatement. Everything fell apart after my dad died. I was young, but old enough to understand what was happening. My dad died in a wreck on the racetrack, and Dom was in prison for nearly beating the driver who caused the wreck, to death.

For a long time Jakob did his best to take care of Mia and I while Dom was in prison. Jakob and I had a pretty strong bond as a result of that time when it was just us. He actually taught me a lot about cars. He gave me my base knowledge that I've grown off of over time.

Things changed again when Dom came home from prison. I'd managed to talk Jakob into letting me go watch the races that night. I had no idea that Dom was out of prison, or that he would be there that night. Dom was more focused on Jakob, and didn't realize I was even there until much later in the evening. I saw them argue about something before getting into their cars to race.

Jakob never came home after that night, and I didn't understand why for a long time. When I finally found out why Jakob couldn't come home, that was when the resentment started. Dom pushing me away was the last straw, so I just left.

I don't know how Jakob found out that I ran, or how he got my new number, but after a few days of having the phone, he called me. He wired me money to get a place and get on my feet.

After Deckard and I got settled back into life in New York, I got the surprise of my life one afternoon. I was in the loft by myself for a change. Deckard insisted that I needed to actually spend some time there for it to actually feel like home. I was too used to calling that flat attached to the garage "home".

I walked in the kitchen to find that I wasn't as alone as I thought I was. In a span of a couple seconds, I started preparing myself mentally to die. "Eteon really isn't going to give up, are you?" I asked, trying not to cry.

I didn't recognize him until he spoke. "Sophia, it's me, Jakob." I hadn't actually seen my brother since I was fourteen.

"Oh my god!" I started to fully cry as I hugged Jakob. "I thought you were someone sent to kill me."