chapter seventeen.

Esme Violetiné Narrated:

- It's going to be okay.

My voice echoed loudly through the hospital, I held his hand at the side of the stretcher they were carrying him on. I was prevented from going through the door. After the brief stomach wash that needed to be done he returned to his room I lay down beside him, I had called Audrey, I wasn't going anywhere.

I intertwined my fingers in theirs, he was not responding, the doctors said everything was fine. I laid my head against his heart that beat at a moderate pace, my mouth curved into a smile.

I could forget that this was the most annoying boy in the world in those few minutes I spent stroking his hair.

- I'm out. - He said with difficulty, and I was never happier to hear my name come out of his mouth.

- It's me, I'm here.

He took his time to understand, squeezed my hand and smiled. Yes, the most beautiful smile in the world. I pulled myself together, stood up to call the nurse. He pulled me away as soon as I did.

- What is it? Don't worry, I need to call a nurse.

- No, stay here. - He squeezed my hand, he was afraid. It was just his way of hiding it, but he didn't seem desperate. He cleared his throat, coughing, and I offered him some water, caressing his hand. - You pulled me out of the water? But, you're a lousy swimmer.

I smiled broadly. - You're welcome.

- Thank you. - He spoke with clenched lips, his voice was strange and his face, relaxed, I understood when I read the doses of tranquilizer he had taken.

- Look at that, he can speak that word! - I scoffed, sitting down on the end of the bed opposite him.

Ian closed his eyes, clearly still drugged by the medication.

I noticed his grated forearm, I blinked, feeling anxiety take over my body, I looked back at two security guards at the door who were preventing a small crowd of nurses from entering.

A cold tear fell from my eye, I had never been so messy in public, and the worst part was that it didn't even matter.

- That was why. - He spoke with his eyes still closed.

- What? - I drew my eyebrows together, moving closer to him.

He looked at me. - That's why they wanted me off the boat, Esme, because there is someone behind all this who is very interested in getting us killed. - Ian's chest heaving with air. - And apparently this person has all the resources to do it.

My heart froze, but I squeezed his hand. - Don't think about it, okay? Try to sleep.

- Sing me our song.

Oh yes, the first time Ian kissed me was at Sebastian's eighteenth birthday party, when we were standing in the rain completely frozen by the cold wind in the beach house in Vienna, Austria.

When Penelope played Coldplay's The Scientist, everyone was dancing as a couple, and I thought that Ian had called me a joke, but before lead singer Chris Martin could sing the chorus, Ian kissed me.

And years later we found ourselves there, I shook his hand singing softly, he drifted off groggy from the meds.

The last time we were nervous together, was when they kidnapped Cassandra on the day we got her name from the hall of fame.

That night we had also let our guard down, even though it was years ago I still remembered. A commotion made itself in our room, I kept my back focused on him, when I heard the voice of someone knew enough for both of us.

- You! You had to be around him when this kind of atrocity happens.

- Lady, Liu! I...

Ian's mother hated me. I cringed in front of her, one of the only people who put fear in me. She was, in fact, the typical Asian woman, too tied up in tradition and always meticulously wanting to control Ian's life.

They fought a lot, but it was not always like this. Until I was a teenager, she used to love me, until she realized that I could be something other than his best friend. I blinked widely, grabbing the coffee cup that a nurse had brought me, and she looked at me with her palm up.

- No, no need to explain yourself! - She squinted her tiny eyes, almost a line. But, her expression serene, she didn't seem nervous at all. - Listen, since you're wearing his shirt, I assume that talking isn't all you've done tonight.

She put the dark glasses back on her face, her huge emerald ring shimmered in her hand, I swallowed dryly. She wiped at her eyes with the beige handkerchief she had taken from the pocket of her red overcoat.

Even though my being is exploding with rage, I will refuse to give my voice to an unnecessary argument and pacify everything in here. Although, was that any way to treat someone who had just saved your son's life?

But I knew I couldn't expect a "Thank you. From the mouth of someone like Aime Liu. So I just listened, patient

- When will you realize that this will never work? You're not right for him, and I say that because I still have a certain fondness for the kind person you were, even though you're not even a shadow of that anymore.

I didn't open my mouth, I was too tired to refute her, nor to leave, my shoulders were tired. A doctor came up to us, she lifted her neck and before he could say anything about Ian not being awake yet.

- Listen! If anything happens to my son, this hospital will be torn down the next morning, do you hear me? - She lifted her chin higher. - And I will make your life such a hell that you will regret the day God created woman.

Audrey arrived right behind her, so many paparazzi at the hospital door. My heart couldn't seem to take so much unpleasant news, The news that Francine was dead came like a tsunami.

Audrey took me to a remote area of the room, and told me everything when she arrived at the hospital with Kim, I clutched that glass of hot chocolate blinking nonstop.

A therapist was about to become a millionaire with all the sessions he would need. And I couldn't believe it.

Audrey leaned next to me, her eyes swollen, the details explained, that they would only release her body after the autopsy, I just stared at a huge painting of the Virgin Mary.

I blinked, focused on the painting, blinked, Audrey crying and talking, it wasn't that I didn't care, I was just having one of the moments where everything seems to be slower and slower.

I stopped when Audrey held my hand. - We'll get through this okay?

I couldn't say anything, Audrey was the strength, and I'd fall in those moments when the big armor got weak, and so did the talk about me turning on my own.

I nodded, and shook her hand. Of the people who passed by the glass room, they took pictures, some covertly and discreetly, others not.

I closed my eyes focusing on Audrey, feeling my head heavy, she hugged me tightly and put her head on my shoulder.

- I love you, Esme. - she sobbed. - I know I haven't said much lately, but, you know I love you. It'll be just like when Mom left, we'll take care of each other like always.

I hugged her tight. - You and me forever.

I don't know why I felt something clenching in my throat, just because I thought about saying the words "I love you" to Audrey, I felt bad about it for the first time in years. I ignored that thought.

- I think we both know who took that money.

Looking at Audrey uncertain of her reaction, I crossed my legs on the chair. Audrey's eyes widened and the white sclera of her eye filled with the red of someone who couldn't stop crying.

- No. She wouldn't, she's my mother, taking five million just like that, unannounced. That's almost theft.

- No, not almost. It is a robbery. This isn't just any mother we're talking about, this is Kendra, the same woman who refused to sell my own image rights, spent all the money I earned as a child, mentioned refusing to donate blood because she couldn't miss the Italian summer.

She shook her head, putting on the braid that guards her full red hair. - Esme no, I don't want to think that until we know who took it.

- Plus Kim already said that whoever did this used her password, besides Mom and me, who else would know?

I shrugged, paused to think and squirmed in my hospital chair. I opened my mouth in surprise at the guilty look on Audrey's face, she shrank back in her chair, looking down.

- Oh my God, you told Victor?

- Esme, that's enough. - Audrey took the bag off her lap, fidgeting, but stopped to look at me, her hands cupping her denim overalls, which I couldn't even begin to tell her how ugly they were. - Look, you don't have to blame yourself for people taking advantage of your kindness. But you also don't have to turn into a heartless bitch. You just need to pay attention to find out who is worth your energy and who is not. You have trust issues...

- Why is that? Can't you see that being a heartless bitch is all that has kept me from going strong until now? Do you think I like being like this alone? I can have all the money in the world but I'll never have the trust and affection that you have for people. -

Her eyes filled with tears. Tears glistened in his eyes too, and a line appeared between his eyebrows.

- Daddy loves you, even Kendra can love you.

- Hey, you're not alone, Esme. You have this huge barrier around you that has kept me away for so long. I don't want to be apart from you anymore, I just lost someone I loved like a sister, I don't want to," she sobbed. - I can't ask you.

She blinked a lot, and I lost control by waving my arms around. She hugged me tight, very tight. Her arms were around me, that was the Audrey way of saying I love you. I hugged her back tightly.

∴ ━━━✿━━━ ∴