Chapter 8 – Aunt Mia

Letty stands in the middle of the room in shock for a few minutes. She doesn't know if she should comfort Nola or calm Dom. Nola looks as if she'd crumble from a touch and Dom is fuming.

Letty takes a step towards Nola. Nola shakes her head and wipes her eyes.

"No don't. Go with him."

"Nola, I can't leave you like this!"

"I'll be okay. I'm just feeling emotional lately. It's probably all the fertility drugs I'm on. They make you hormonal."

Letty hesitantly walks out the door and closes it behind her. Once outside she walks down the hall to their room. It's clear that he's not there. She closes the door and walks to Tej's room and finds him with Tej and Brian.

"I don't want to hear it Letty!"

"Who cares what you want! You're not just going to make an executive decision and cut Nola out of Ana and Vinessa's lives. Not to mention Luci and Liam. They love her too. Are you in charge of them too?"

Brian is immediately interested in the argument after hearing mention of his children.

"This is not a damn negotiation. If you think I'm going to back down on this you have another thing coming. If her actions got him killed, we're done with her."

"You can do what you want! You're not going to decide for me."

Neither of them are willing to budge.

"So what did Nola do?" Brian asks confused.

"Nothing!" They both answer at the same time.


Jamie lands in Japan and Kiyomi meets him at the airstrip with a car. Jamie and Kiyomi get in and are headed to a secure location outside of Tokyo.

"So where are we on this?"

"You know Coleson, the next time you call me for a favor I think I'm going to hang up. I've been covering your ass on this for days."

Jamie laughs. "You'd never be able to do it."

"You're probably right. So here's where we are. Takashi is running around like a freaking idiot and shooting my men. I say we hand him Sean when we get the chance. That will distract him for a bit. He's reckless enough that he'll crumble the Yakuza in a matter of a couple years."

Jamie makes notes in his tablet.

"Nola is hacking into my system as we speak. I dumped as much I could. I must admit I underestimated how good she is. I'm sure she already has some of my encrypted files."

"I told you to dump that stuff as soon as I called you on this!"

Kiyomi shifts in her seat. "It's not much, I'm sure of it."

"Alright, we finish this today and then it's a non-issue."

"What happens after? I mean with you and McKnight?"

Jamie is the one who is uncomfortable now.

"Let's just finish off Han first and then I'll worry about that. Does he suspect anything?"

"No, he thinks we're waiting to hand him off to Toretto. I wish we could just put a bullet in him and be done."

"Yeah, well that was my mistake. I started this out officially instead of off the radar. I told Toretto he was dead to get him to Tokyo to hand off Lue without putting Lue at risk. I didn't anticipate…learning that Nola had slept with him or Takashi killing Kamata and us no longer needing his information."

"I still can't believe that little whore slept with him. Now we have go through all the trouble of making it look like Takashi killed him. Though I must say that what you have planned is particularly sinister."

Jamie leans back in the seat and laughs. "Yes well, if you're going to be the bad guy, you may as well go all out."


Mia and Ana get into the car to drive to Britney's for her sleepover. As Mia is driving she looks into the rearview mirror at her niece.

"Antonia, why do you think you hate Vinessa?"

"If I answer you'll get mad and yell at me again." Ana says not meeting Mia's eyes in the mirror.

"I won't yell or get mad."

"I don't think I hate her, I know I do."

Though it's hard not to get upset at those words, Mia stays true to her word. "Why do you?"

"She's always breaking my stuff. She's always hitting me and pushing me. She broke off Lily's arm. She yells all the time. She teases me and calls me a 'weirdy' because I don't want to eat the same food as her."

Mia chuckles. "Anything else?"

"She never speaks correctly and…"

Ana stops and looks up at Mia.

"And what?"

They pull up in front of Britney's house. She and her mother are waiting outside. Mia gestures to them to give them a minute. Ana unbuckles her carseat and climbs into the front now that they are parked.

"And what?"

"And my Daddy likes her better than me." Her voice is barely above a whisper.

Mia shifts to face Ana more.

"That last part is completely untrue. But we'll come back to that. Here's what I think. I think that you should ask her to play with you and Luci more…"

"Aunt Mia…" Ana whines and makes a face that reminds Mia very much of Letty.

"No, listen. I think you and Luci should take more turns playing what Vinessa wants. Less princess and more heroes. It wouldn't kill you to wear shorts and jeans to get dirty with her."

"I wear dresses everyday. It's what I like."

"You think that Vin likes that no one ever climbs her treehouse with her? Or never plays regular everyday hide and seek with her?"

Ana folds her arms. "Daddy does all that stuff with her."

"Maybe she would stop yelling and breaking stuff if sometimes you would do that stuff with her. I can't guarantee it, but it's worth a try. Now about this Daddy stuff. Do you know how much it would hurt your Daddy's feelings if he knew you thought he liked Vin better than you?"

"That's why I don't say anything. It's still true."

"Not at all. Your Daddy does get into that treehouse and play hide and seek with Vinessa. He fixes cars with her and watches races and sports with her. But who spent days taking your castle bed apart and fixing it because the delivery guy put pieces together wrong?"

"My Daddy."

"Who took you to Italy to see the Sistine chapel when Nola was in the hospital and had to cancel your trip? You two were there for days and all alone. Who's in the picture with you on the gondola that everyone has up hanging in their house?"

"My Dad. But he does that stuff when he has to. Only because someone messed something up or canceled. He likes the stuff he does with Vinessa. They were laughing the whole time they built the treehouse. He was so mad the whole time he fixed my bed!"

Mia tries to think about this and can't come up with an explanation. So she pulls out her phone and calls her brother. She puts it on speaker so Ana can hear.

"Hey Dom. I have a question."

"What's up?"

"Why were you mad when you were putting Ana's bed together?"

"What?"

"Just answer please."

Dom tries to think back to then. "Oh, because that ass who delivered it put it together wrong and Ana was so upset because she couldn't sleep in it for days while I fixed it."

Ana giggles at the word ass.

"Ana! I didn't know you were there. Sorry baby! How are you? I miss you!"

"I miss you too Daddy. I'm doing well, how are you?"

Dom laughs at how proper she is. "I'm doing well also." He teases, mocking her tone a bit.

"I have to go Daddy. Aunt Mia and I are having an important discussion."

"Oh well, excuse me." Dom says laughing. "Have fun at Britney's I'll see you soon."

"Bye."

After Mia hangs up the phone she turns to Ana again.

"I'll tell you another secret." Mia lowers her voice. "Your Daddy gave Lily to Nola to send to the doll maker to be fixed. The same day Vin broke it. It'll be back soon!"

"Really!" Ana's face lights up. Even though she has an identical doll she much prefers the original.

"Okay, here's what I want you to do. The next time you think your Daddy isn't having fun or doing something because he has to, ask him about it. I bet you anything you're wrong about him every time."

"I'll do it! I'll also ask Vinessa to play with me, but not with the toys I care about."

"Deal!" Mia says. "And play what she wants sometimes."

"I'll do my best, but I'm not wearing pants." Ana negotiates.

"Fine. I'll take it."

Mia and Ana hug for a long while and Mia walks her inside her friend's house.


Once Mia gets home she goes to hunt down Vinessa. She finds her in the family room wrestling with Roman. Vinessa dives on his back and puts her arms around his neck.

"Got you!"

Roman pretends to fall under her weight. He taps the ground.

"I give up! I give up!"

Vinessa stands up and puts a foot on his back.

"You better give up."

Mia laughs at their play. She walks over to Vinessa and picks her up.

"Alright little Miss Tough Girl, I need you for a second."

"We were playing Mia." Roman complains.

"Get over it you big baby! Try to take Liam to the potty if you need something to do."

"He's going to be using the potty by next weekend. I don't know why you and Brian think this parent thing is so hard. I got this!"

"Uh huh."

Mia 'accidently' kicks Roman on the way out of the room. She takes Vinessa up to her room and tosses her on her bed to a lot of laughter.

"So what's going on between you and Ana?"

"I don't want to have a sister anymore." Vinessa says sheepishly.

"Sweetie, that's not a nice thing to say about your sister. You have to get along with her."

"She didn't like me first!" Vinessa defends.

"She likes you. She just doesn't show it because she's always upset. Do you think the way to stop her from being upset is yelling, throwing and breaking her things?"

"No." Vinessa looks down at her hands.

"So Ana won't play with you because you're different from her. Be happy you're different! It's a good thing! Here's the thing though, you have to stop making fun of her."

Vinessa just pouts and doesn't say anything.

"Think about all the things you're different at. You're the best at any game we play. All you have to do it hear the rules one time and you're guaranteed to win. You speak Spanish and Ana can't." Nola lowers her voice. "You never get scared of the dark and don't have a nightlight."

"Being in the dark is fun."

"You also built a whole treehouse!"

"I did do that! Daddy helped only a little bit."

"But you just have to stay calm and not get so upset. Get along with your sister little Miss! It's very important!"

"I will, I promise."

"Whenever you're mad at her or upset with her. Come talk to me or Nola. We're not your parents so it's a little different when you talk to us."

Vinessa looks up at Mia and gives her a hug.

"I will. I'll be better."

"Good, I love you and so does Ana. You two just need to get a little better at showing it."


A/N – Next chapter we see what Jamie has planned for Han.

So I have two endings for this chapter written. I'm still not sure I posted the one I should have. Oh well, I couldn't decide, onward I guess!

Thanks so much for reading! Please review!