255 Old Wounds (4)

Over twenty minutes had passed until Lily's pained sobs stopped. They hadn't receded no matter what Iris said, but had simply run out of energy by the end. It was better than nothing, and Iris stayed with the girl for a bit more to keep her company until she fell asleep.

After that, she left the room. The moment she stepped into the living room, the conversation there died and Gale jumped to his feet. "How is she?" he asked.

"You would know if you had went to her," Iris said, not minding her words. Gale wouldn't like them, but he should know the truth. "It wasn't me she wanted to see coming after her."

Gale's eyes lowered for a fraction of a second, then he turned around and went to the window where Kyro stood. "You can leave now. Thanks for destroying the little peace I had."

Before Kyro could answer, Iris went to them. "That's on you, and don't you dare to push the blame around. You're the one that needs to grow up. Insulting your own sister to not have to talk… Pathetic!" She shook her head as anger for Lily burned in her veins.

Her brother acted like he cared, but in the end, he was just as selfish as their parents. When the girl got in the way, he just pushed her to the side in a swift and brutal way. Like she wasn't a person with her own feelings. An impressionable child.

"Shut up when you don't even know what's happening," Gale hissed, his face contorting from an effort to stay in control. Unable to stay still, he turned from her and started pacing, the hands by his side clenched into fists.

"Iris…" Kyro started, but she didn't heed him.

Not fully, anyway. She plopped down on the sofa and turned to him. "I'm getting tired of seeing Lily always in tears. First it was her family, now this buffoon. And none of them even bother to say sorry."

"I apologized! Right away!" Gale shouted, and Iris glared at him.

"Quiet, she just fell asleep. And that was what you call an apology? You insult her in the worst way possible, and then say a few perfunctory words? A three-year-old wouldn't be appeased by that, let alone Lily."

There was murder on Gale's face, and Iris suddenly remembered that she was arguing with a madman. There was no telling what he'd do if he got really furious at her.

Yet instead of going for her, Gale stopped and stared into the corridor leading to Lily's room. There was conflict in his expression, like he couldn't decide what he was feeling himself. "It was a mistake," he muttered in the end, looking away.

That was probably as good as she was going to get, so Iris didn't say anything more. It wasn't like she didn't know that by pushing him into a corner she wouldn't achieve anything. It was just that it was so hard to watch Lily cry herself to sleep again and again. The little girl deserved a better life than that.

"Let's go," Kyro said, coming to help her up. His expression was decidedly neutral, not giving away a thing he was feeling. On the way out, he threw one last phrase to Gale. "Just think it through. I'm not asking you to marry her."

In the car, Iris leaned back against the seat and sighed heavily. "Now that was a disaster."

"You don't need to tell me," Kyro agreed while starting the engine. "Now there's no way he's agreeing."

"Why do you need him though?" she asked, turning to face him. He'd said that it was important and that Gale didn't want to do it because of something that happened in the past, but no more than that.

Before they started, Iris hadn't imagined that it could possibly go wrong. It was just having Gale ask out a girl for whom he didn't care much. Yet the events that followed after proved that there was a lot more to the story than Kyro had first let on.

"It's a long story…"

"There's over an hour of travel time till home," Iris told him in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

And so, Kyro gave in. He explained to her about Gale's dating habits in college and how far he went to avoid Elise. She was a calm and steady woman, but with such obvious distaste for her, even she was put off. Kyro didn't know much about her, but that she suffered a lot of flak from other girls and even boys for being so trashy that even Gale who went for every woman in his sight avoided her.

Her brother—Mark they'd met in the gala—wasn't too happy about that. Before, he and Kyro had been almost friends, talking about their studies before class and sitting nearby, but once Gale attached himself to Kyro, the budding friendship turned into rivalry.

Mark wanted to make his sister's situation better, but there was nothing he could do. Fighting rumors was the same as boxing with shadows. In the end, he tried to talk to Gale, but that didn't go as he had expected. He was openly refused.

Furious, he found Gale in a few days and beat him up to the point that the guy had to go to the hospital. But even that didn't work.

And the rumors grew even worse after that. Everyone began to shun Elise like she had the plague. Most of her friends left her to not be associated with her.

Iris was horrified. With every word Kyro said, she grew more and more disbelieving. Just how much power had Gale always possessed? When he didn't like someone, he could turn the whole world against them.

And no one could fight him. Whatever methods they used, the situation only got worse. It was hard to imagine what Elise had to have gone through in those days.

Bullying was no foreign concept to Iris, but she'd only been pushed around a few times, mocked a bit. Never had someone focused on her like that, putting all their energy in destroying her.

"What did she do to deserve it? Don't tell me she looked at him wrongly?" she asked with worry. It sounded unbelievable, but they were talking about Gale…

"No, she destroyed his most prized possession, the only thing he could call his own at that time," Kyro said, not moving his gaze from the road. "She was his first crush."

"What?!" Iris whirled around so fast the belt grew taut and caught her mid move. She winced and relaxed a little so it wouldn't dig into her shoulder. "You serious?"

Kyro's lips quirked upwards. "Is that so hard to believe?"

Green light turned on, so he passed the crossroad, going right, and Iris waited with impatience for him to continue. There seemed to be more to the story than she'd expected. It showed up that even Gale wasn't above falling head over heels for a girl.

"They were both children at the time," Kyro started, his voice slow just to taunt Iris. She rolled her eyes at him, but didn't say anything. "Upon seeing her, Gale thought she was the prettiest girl in the world. They got to meet a few times before Gale had to leave the resort. At that time, he wanted to give her something to remember him by, so he gifted her his only possession - a pen he'd won in some championship.

"It wouldn't have been worth much to anyone else, but with his parents, he wasn't allowed to have toys or any other leisure time items. All his days were spent reading and doing exercises as well as competing in all the competitions his parents could dig out. But none of the prizes belonged to him, only that pen, since he could use it to write—it was a tool and not a toy, in his family's eyes.

"Elise took it with graciousness, promising to treasure it. However, it so happened that Gale's parents had to stay an extra day, and when he went near the river, he saw pieces of his broken pen scattered all around. Stunned, he stared at them for a time, then ran off to find Elise."

Kyro sighed, stopping the car at a red light. "By then he'd already been taught to never reveal his cards. So when he asked Elise about the pen, he didn't mention what he knew, just wondered if anything had happened to it. Elise had been surprised, then smiled like the morning sun and shook her head. She said it was in her room, safe."

The story ended there, but Iris didn't need to hear more. How could she not understand how Gale had to have felt? Being lied like that to one's face by their crush was something beyond heart-breaking. The little good that had been in Gale had to have shattered at that instant, pushing him even more under his parents' control.

"Did she know about it?" Iris suddenly asked. "Elise I mean."

"That Gale was that boy? Not while in college at least."

He then told her about his conversation with Mark. It sounded simple, but Iris had a feeling a lot more hid beneath their words. Just how bad had everything been that Mark would agree to something like that? Over five years had passed since all of them had graduated, and grown up. Well, besides Gale probably.

At that thought, Iris wondered about Elise. Kyro and Mark focused on removing the stain over Elise's reputation, but what did she herself think about it? Was she ready to forgive Gale? If not, wouldn't that create an even worse scene for the media to enjoy?

An idea formed in her head. She thought to tell it to Kyro, but then shook her head. If it wouldn't work out, she didn't want to implicate him. Besides, he'd probably say she shouldn't entangle herself in other people's business.

But she was already stuck in the middle of that mess. If Gale didn't get over it, Lily's life would be a constant battle. Or she'd have to learn to walk on tiptoes, avoiding every subject that was a little more personal.

It wasn't the life Lily deserved, and so Iris was going to do all in her power to make sure she didn't have to live it. Even if that meant she would have to meet an upper class lady and talk to her about boys and crushes, broken pens and hearts.