Chapter 74: 74. Bad environment

Waking up at six in the morning was nothing new for Riki. However, waking up with a heavy head and dizziness was certainly not normal.

There were many things Riki had to think about, including Sofie’s problem. What should he do about that girl? How should he handle her?

Of course, Riki had no experience dealing with girls. He also had no sisters and had never had any female friends who were really close to him except for Liz. Even with Liz, Riki had only recently become close.

Riki realized that he didn’t really understand women.

But Riki was also sure that other people wouldn’t be able to understand Sofie either.

Well, except for Sean, maybe.

Last night, before the girl slept in Selen’s empty room, she whined that she wanted to sleep with Riki. Of course, Riki refused. Instead, Sofie asked him to stay with her until she fell asleep.

So, Riki couldn’t sleep until the girl fell asleep.

When Riki was sure that Sofie was fast asleep, the girl suddenly cried in her sleep. She was talking in her sleep.

In her sleep, she begged her parents for forgiveness. Who knows what her parents had done to her to cause her to have such a nightmare.

The girl was carrying a heavy burden. However, she was taking her anger out on the wrong things.

Actually, Riki was grateful that it was Jake who found Sofie on the dating app, not some other jerk.

Riki began to wonder if Sofie’s environment was so bad that she chose such a strange way to vent her anger.

That morning, Riki planned to take Sofie on a picnic to the park near the Arcelia River. So, he made sandwiches for his picnic companion.

While making the sandwiches, he turned on the television, which was showing the latest news to keep him company.

There was a lot of unimportant news being broadcast, but there was also some unbelievable news that made Riki’s skin crawl.

One of them was the news of a 35-year-old man who killed his 20-year-old mistress. Not only did he kill her, but the man also mutilated the victim into several pieces and threw them into the sea. Some fishermen found the body parts.

"Oh, no! That’s my friend."

Riki was startled to hear Sofie’s voice suddenly near him. The girl stared at the television with an incredulous look. She even covered her open mouth with her hand.

"What did you say?" asked Riki.

Sofie turned to Riki, then approached him before speaking.

"The victim was my friend, Riki! I used to play with her a lot. Together with my other friends. Then, that man also flirted with me. He was quite handsome and had a lot of money, or at least that’s what my friends and I knew. I didn’t like him, so I rejected him. The next day, my friend told me she was dating that man. After a week had passed, I never saw my friend again. Just two days ago, another friend of mine told me that the man already had a wife and children. Even the money that the man had been boasting about all this time was money earned by his wife. The man didn’t work at all— Ouch!"

Sofia rubbed her head, which had just been hit by Riki.

"Why did you hit my head?" Sofie protested.

Riki sighed deeply and heavily, "Oh my god, Sofie, it turns out that your friends are just as stupid as you are. No wonder you are like this. How could you be allowed to have friends like that?" asked Riki.

Sofie pouted, then sat down on a chair, waiting for Riki to finish making her sandwich.

"I already told you, my parents don’t care about me, my siblings don’t care about me either. You’re the only one who cares about me, who reminds me when I do something bad. So... let me stay with you. You’re the only adult I can rely on," muttered Sofie, which Riki could hear clearly.

Riki sighed heavily once again. He didn’t respond to Sofie’s words. He just remained silent and continued making the sandwich.

Riki knew he couldn’t leave Sofie unsupervised. But he couldn’t do anything until Sofie was of legal age. Because Sofie’s custody belonged to both her parents, or one of them if they were divorced.

"Riki... my parents are getting officially divorced, and I don’t want to go with either of them. I just want to go with you," said Sofie. The girl looked at Riki with a pleading expression.

When Riki assessed her with his detection skills, it turned out that Sofie’s request was more than just wanting to live with Riki.

The girl was scared and mentally fragile. She felt alone and that no one could protect her.

Riki didn’t know what had happened to Sofie, but Sofie’s feelings for him were sincere. She truly considered Riki to be the only adult she could rely on.

In fact, Riki was only 21 years old.

"You know, Sofie, there’s only one way you can come with me," said Riki.

"What is it, Riki?" asked Sofie, her eyes full of hope.

Riki smiled slightly, then replied, "By putting your parents in jail. We don’t have to do anything, because the detective I hired is investigating the murder of my parents. Your parents are definitely involved, right?"

Sofie’s eyes widened, staring at Riki with an expression of disbelief, yet at the same time sparkling with excitement. Who knows what Sofie’s parents had been doing all this time, that the girl looked happy to know that her parents would be imprisoned.

"You’re not lying?"

Riki nodded, "Yes, I’m serious. The detective said—"

Riki stopped talking when his detection skill discovered several other things about Sofie.

[This girl was often abused by her parents]

[Her father once tried to rape her while drunk]

[This girl is mentally unstable, so she needs immediate treatment]

[The way to treat her is to make her happy]

"What did the detective say, Riki?" Sofie asked, surprised that Riki had suddenly frozen. He looked shock even though nothing had happened.

"Oh, no, it’s just... do you want to go to my mansion today? My garden there will be finished today, and there’s a beach too. I don’t have any plans today, so... let’s go there and have some fun," said Riki.

Sofie cheered with excitement. In that case, she was just like any other teenage girl.

Riki smiled seeing Sofie looking so happy over such a trivial thing.

"Oh yes, since you’re going to be staying with me, let’s go shopping for your necessities later."

[Your first mission today is to spend money on your cousin, and every dollar spent will be returned twofold]

[This mission ends after the day changes]

Even if there was no mission, Riki would probably still spend a lot of money on Sofie. But, because there was a mission—wait a minute.

The system didn’t just say Sofie, but cousin?

[That means you can also spend money on Sean, Selene, and Anton]

[Because Anton is your brother]

Well, Riki wouldn’t buy anything for Anton, anyway.

That’s what Riki thought, until a few hours later, when it turned out he was completely wrong.

***

That afternoon, Riki was at the mansion. Besides Sofie, there were Sean, Selene, Deva, Liz, Kaivan, Zeno, and Aslan.

Riki was sulking, because he had only wanted to invite his cousins, Sofie, Sean, and Selene.

But unfortunately, Selene was a social butterfly.

She invited everyone to come along with them.

Even Travis, who also had a villa nearby, would be joining them to play.

Evan himself also came, because he was supervising the construction of the garden.

"When this garden is finished, quickly make one on top of my office building too," said Riki to Evan, who was directing his workers.

Evan turned around and chuckled at Riki, who looked annoyed.

"Okay, okay, Riki, chill. Your garden are done for today. We just need to plant these bougainvilleas here, then put some garden benches and lights... You want to use solar-powered lights, right? I’ve got everything ready," said Evan.

Riki nodded and sat back down calmly.

Evan snorted, then said again.

"Why don’t you like having a lot of people around you? They just want to play. Don’t you see Sofie having fun with them? You said your goal today was to make Sofie happy, right? Selene is just helping you, buddy."

Riki sighed heavily, "I know, but I just feel uncomfortable with a lot of people around."

"RIKI!!! I can buy all of this, right?" Sofie shouted from inside the mansion.

The girl was picking out clothes from Luna’s boutique. Luna was a well-known fashion designer. Her signature style was elegant, simple, yet luxurious clothing.

Knowing that Riki was going to buy Sofie new clothes, Zeno and Aslan urged Riki to choose clothes from his mother’s boutique.

Riki didn’t mind, after all, he also really liked Luna and Luna would definitely be happy if Riki bought a lot of clothes from her boutique.

"Just buy whatever you like, Selene and Liz can also buy a lot of clothes if you like them," said Riki.

Hearing this, Sofie became even more enthusiastic about choosing clothes for herself. She also asked Selene and Liz to choose some too.

"If you forget about her parents’ behavior, Sofie is actually a sweet little sister, isn’t she?" said Evan.

Riki nodded in agreement, "That’s right. It’s a pity that she has been living in a bad environment all this time. You know, Evan? Sofie’s friend was mutilated by a man, and that man had once flirted with Sofie. Luckily, Sofie rejected him."

Evan shuddered upon hearing this.

Then, a mansion servant suddenly arrived, informing Riki that a guest was looking for him.

Riki immediately went to see the guest.

"Oh, Riki! Help me!"

Riki furrowed his brow, wondering what Anton would say this time.

"What do you want, Anton?"