Chapter 85: The Price of Conviction

Jane's insolent attitude finally ignited Sophie's temper.

"Oh?" Jane drawled with biting sarcasm. "Should we rename you Mary instead? You seem awfully eager to compete for the position of the Holy Mother. Perhaps the seat at the center of The Last Supper should belong to you. After all, you've even forgiven Judas for betraying you."

"Stop deciding what kind of person I am, idiot!" Sophie shot back without hesitation, anger finally overpowering restraint. "There are already plenty of fools in this world. They don't need me to fill another vacancy." She inhaled sharply before continuing, her voice growing steadier. "The fact that I was willing to lend Irene every cent I'd saved proves she was my friend. Who lends money to an enemy? She betrayed my trust afterward, yes, but that doesn't erase what came before."

"Unbelievable!" Jane snapped, taking another step forward. "Anyone who dares hurt you deserves nothing less than your wish that they die immediately." 

She stared at Sophie as though seeing her for the first time. Until now, she'd thought Sophie was merely kindhearted and innocent. At this moment, however, she couldn't help thinking it was simply stupidity. 

"Every human Heidi brings here is guilty. They escaped the punishment of human law and continued living freely. Since your courts failed them, the Volturi will end lives that deserve to end."

Sophie slowly shook her head and retreated another step. "I never wanted Irene to die." Her voice trembled, but she refused to lower it. "She owed me money. Returning it would have been enough. At worst, we'd become strangers forever. Crimes have different degrees, and punishments should too. Besides..." She paused, swallowing the ache rising in her throat. "How could I erase three years of friendship because of what she chose to do afterward?"

Jane closed the distance between them again, forcing Sophie to confront her. "Guilty is guilty. Human hearts are fickle, selfish, and easily corrupted. You spent twenty-two years among them and still haven't learned that lesson." Her lips curled into a cold smile. "Getting into that ordinary little university must have taken everything you had."

That was simply another way of calling her stupid.

Sophie refused to accept it. Jane had lived for a thousand years without even earning a high school diploma. What right did she have to sneer because Sophie hadn't attended an Ivy League school?

She immediately fired back, defending her alma mater with surprising pride. "At least that 'ordinary little university' offered generous scholarships. Princeton sent me an acceptance letter too, but attending would have buried me under enormous student loans. I made the choice that fits my life."

Jane had already investigated Sophie's miserable past, and now she used it mercilessly. "Then blame your indifferent family for refusing to pay your tuition. At twelve, they handed you over to family friends. At thirteen, they packed you off to boarding school. At eighteen, straight into university. They barely contacted you a few times each year." Jane's eyes grew colder. "Raising a child must have been wonderfully convenient for them."

The more Jane thought about Sophie's disappearance, the more ridiculous her stubborn attachment seemed. Not a single relative had reported her missing.

"If a member of the Volturi disappeared," Jane continued proudly, "Master Aro would personally lead the Guard to flatten the place where they vanished. Every nearby coven would be captured, interrogated, and exterminated if necessary." In Jane's eyes, nothing in existence surpassed the glory of her family.

One advanced while the other retreated until Sophie's back struck the windowsill. She instinctively braced herself against it with an elbow, desperately searching for words. "No... that's not..." Against Jane's relentless pressure, language abandoned her. Fortunately, vampires could no longer cry. Otherwise, she would already have broken down sobbing.

The argument appeared settled.

Jane wore the smile of a victor, calmly admiring her defeated opponent.

Yet the defeated woman still insisted her beliefs were something worth protecting.

Sophie took a slow breath and gathered her scattered thoughts. Then she suddenly lifted her head and met Jane's red gaze directly. "Do you think I'm stupid?" she asked quietly. "Do you think I'm pitiful?"

"Pitiful?" Jane scoffed. "You're far beyond pitiful. You're tragic." She deliberately answered only the second question, refusing to use the more insulting word Sophie had offered.

Jane knew perfectly well that Sophie wasn't unintelligent. This was the girl who had effortlessly manipulated Demetri into helping her, then fooled Felix with nothing more than two ordinary leaves. Sophie's mind was sharp. It was simply... painfully clumsy whenever emotions and people were involved.

"I don't need your pity!"

The moment Jane admitted it, Sophie straightened proudly, lifting her chin.

"I've never considered myself pitiful. Not before, and not now." Her eyes shone with unwavering conviction. "Nobody says everyone has to see life the same way. I chose to live according to my own beliefs. There's nothing ridiculous about that."

Jane laughed, though the praise that followed was obviously insincere. "Your courage is admirable." She folded her arms across her chest. "But perhaps there's another possibility. Maybe your understanding of people has become warped because you've spent your whole life surrounded by hypocrites, liars, and traitors pretending to care about you."

Sophie refused to yield even an inch.

"Even if feelings change... even if they disappear... I still believe what existed before was sincere." Her voice softened, though every word carried unmistakable weight. "After all... even vampires, who call yourselves eternal, can't keep your feelings unchanged forever."

Every sentence pointed directly at Jane.

Every word silently accused her of the sudden coldness that had descended without explanation.

Jane's heart lurched.

Aro had confessed everything to her. Chelsea had severed Jane's emotional bond with Sophie under his orders. Yet she couldn't tell Sophie the truth. Almost instinctively, Jane looked away, avoiding the accusation reflected in those unwavering red eyes.

That single moment of guilty hesitation completely reversed the tide of their confrontation.

Since Jane had already investigated her entire past, Sophie no longer saw any reason to hide.

"So many people called me awkward," she said quietly. "Only Irene encouraged me to pursue what I loved. For three whole years."

How could anyone believe she'd crossed half the world simply to recover a sum of money?

"It was Irene, three years ago, who accepted me before anyone else did." A faint smile appeared despite the grief in her eyes. "She told me I wasn't strange. I was simply different." Sophie lowered her gaze. "She said being different was actually... pretty wonderful."

That was why Sophie had stubbornly chased her all the way to Italy.

Not because of the money.

Because she couldn't bear ending three years of friendship without hearing the truth from Irene herself.

She wanted...

A proper goodbye.

"My family..." Sophie's voice softened further. "Some of them died far too young. Others spent their lives desperately working to pay off debts." She looked straight at Jane without flinching. "They loved me. They simply had the right to pursue happiness for themselves too."

"So what gives you the right to decide I'm pitiable?" Her voice gradually rose. "What gives you the right to say my life wasn't worth living?" She remembered the mountain of corpses in the banquet hall, and pain flashed across her face. "Until today... I truly believed Irene died in a traffic accident."

She clenched both fists.

"What gives you the right... to simply end every life you decide is guilty?" Her breathing became uneven. "You appoint yourselves judges. You profane human life. You have no right..."

Jane abruptly seized Sophie by the chin, forcing her to look directly into her eyes.

"Stop saying 'you people.'" Her voice cut through the room like ice. "Remember this. There is only 'us.'" Her grip tightened slightly. "Do you think the blood stored in the freezer grows on trees?" Jane asked coldly. "It's obtained through the very authority you despise. The powerful humans you admire willingly offer it to the Volturi." A cruel smile slowly spread across her lips. "Because they kneel before us, begging for eternal life."