Chapter 46
ILIAS
Habibi – Ghali
As they landed in Milan, Ilias took a deep breath and opened his phone. The first thing that popped up was a long-ass email from Jamie. Just the first few lines set the tone of what the rest of the message was. She was not happy about his withdrawal.
“Did Jamie answer? Did she take the news well?” Alejandra asked, her green eyes still slightly bloodshot from the twelve hours of sleep she’d somehow managed to pull off during the flight.
How she did it, he had no idea. Meanwhile, Carlos, busy checking if their bags and boards were finally coming through, looked as traumatized as Ilias felt from the turbulence.
“According to the first few lines I read she can’t believe I’m jeopardizing my career for someone who hasn’t died yet and I don’t even know…” He paused, throwing in some dramatic flair. “Yeah, she took it amazingly.”
“She’s so heartless,” Alejandra muttered, pulling her thick black hair into a bun. “Your father-in-law is dying, it’s important. You need to be there for Sofi.”
“Plus, you’re not even jeopardizing your career,” Carlos added. “Let’s be honest, you were never going to make the Final Five, no matter how hard you tried to convince yourself. Math wasn’t mathing.”
Ilias side eyed him.
“Not like me,” Alejandra smirked, “who mathed so hard I’m already qualified for the Final Five and can leave the tour with no regrets.”
“I hate both of you.”
“Do you think Sofia suspects something?” Carlos asked as he wrangled the last of their luggage.
“Nope,” Ilias replied, shoving his phone into his pocket. “She seems normal. Sending me pictures of her with her family.”
“Talking about family, let’s go find Mamá and Papá,” Alejandra said as they moved out of Malpensa airport, suitcases rolling behind them.
The heat outside hit immediately—humid and heavy, a welcome contrast to the over-air-conditioned plane. They found a patch of shade where they waited for their parents to pick them up and drive them down to Genova.
When Marina and José heard that Sofia’s father wasn’t doing well, they’d booked the flights overnight from Seville to Milan.
Gabriella, Sofia’s sister, had been the only one informed of their arrival.
Ilias hadn’t told Sofia. He wanted it to be a surprise, but a part of him was nervous—what if she didn’t want him there? What if her family didn’t?
“Impossible,” Alejandra said when he voiced the thought aloud.
“She needs you there. They need us there. It’ll be like old times.
” But even she couldn’t keep the sadness out of her voice when she added, “I just wish the reason we were doing this wasn’t because someone we love is about to die.
Someone who’s been like a father to us.”
Ilias tugged her into a sweaty hug. She let him, just as a sharp honk drew their attention.
A van pulled over, and Marina and José stepped out, waving like always—cheerful, warm, grounding. They hugged them all tightly, then helped throw the bags into the back.
“So, Ilias,” Marina asked as they climbed into the van, “what did Amira and your mother think about you dropping out of Saquerama to come for Sofia?”
As soon as Sofia had called, the idea had buzzed in the back of his mind.
That’s why he had needed to go to Alejandra, to help him walk through it.
Luckily, his friend had no intention of letting her best friend deal alone with something so heavy, and they had bought the tickets the same night after he had informed Amira, Coach and Gretchen in a very difficult chat.
He truly wanted to compete, but Sofia. She needed him.
And even though Azul and Ghita needed him too, just his sister’s smile had calmed him.
“Amira was totally fine with it, without Ale competing she thinks she can win Saquarema.” And get the money they needed to continue financing their life and Azul’s new branding.
“Coach... a little less thrilled by the idea, but Gretchen convinced him,” he admitted, adjusting the seatbelt.
“But truthfully, I’ve already won everything I needed to win.
And as your lovely son keeps reminding me, I wasn’t going to make the Final Five.
Too many points lost after the suspension.
But even if I had a chance at the Final Five, I would have come.
Sofia is more important than any trophy. ”
“Good.” José nodded, his voice less jovial than usual. “I think you made the right choice. Sofia’s always been a daddy’s girl. She’ll be hit hard by this.”
“And we’ll all be there for her,” Alejandra chimed in from the back row, slumped across the seats.
With the excuse of his flight to Brazil, he hadn’t talked that much with Sofia over the past days. He had even sent her a cheeky photo from the Los Angeles airport. What she didn’t know was that he was just a few hours away now, driving toward her.
Ilias leaned against the headrest and stared out the window. The roads blurred past, but his mind stayed locked on the weight in his chest.
He had two USL titles, an Olympic gold medal, a name that carried respect in every corner of the surf world.
But none of that mattered now. Some athletes craved more, he’d always craved meaning.
And Sofia gave him that. Her presence in his life had cracked open a part of him that had long been locked.
A part of him that needed to show up, not just talk about love, but prove it.
He knew what it meant to lose a father and not be there. He knew the guilt, the kind that seeps into your bones and lingers in your shadow. He had been alone in that grief, not even Amira understood him. No matter what it cost him now, he couldn’t let Sofia feel the same. He wouldn’t.
The drive to Genova stretched for three long hours.
He spent most of it mentally rehearsing Italian to try to impress Sofia’s father, even though Alejandra and Carlos had reassured him everyone usually spoke Spanish when they were all together.
Still, he wanted to make a good impression.
He hadn’t even brought a gift—nothing for the family, not even for the nieces.
“Relax,” Alejandra said, her hand resting on his tense shoulder. “She’ll be happy to see you. She’ll probably burst into tears. Sofia’s much more of a crier than she lets on.”
“I don’t want her to cry,” he admitted, running a hand through his curls.
“But it’s a good cry,” she replied softly. “It’ll be alright.”
He nodded, though his heart still thrummed hard in his chest. He didn’t know what Sofia would do when she saw him. But he hoped that her heart would understand what his presence meant: I love you. I’m here. I’m not leaving.