Last Time
Amber walked closer and closer to him. Jacqueline walked back at the same time.
She was grinning but Jacqueline was taken aback, "You..."
Amber suddenly stood still and tears flow down her eyes. She slowly raised her hand and touched her own cheek.
"Wh- Why are you crying?" Jacqueline said flustered.
This made the other five walked to her.
"What's going on Amber?"
"I'm..."
'Damn, my tears suddenly came.'
~"I was once a little model with my face that looked like a doll. The time I first left home, I had nothing but there is someone who helped me. I treated him as my godmother since then."~
As they were flustered by her sudden tears, Amber looked up, "Sarah, was that girl's name Sarah Baker?"
"How did you know? Do you know where she is now? How is she?" Jacqueline had once taken under his wing a 16 year old girl who runaway from her home.
That was when he just started and frilly dresses were his focus. The day they met was the day he was about to give up his dream.
But that girl picked him up.
'Hey, at least you have a dream. Whatever your age or how much time would pass, as long as you have a dream. Then you have to take hold of it.'
'Look at me, I even runaway because they won't allow me to pursue my dream.'
She even placed her fist on her chest as she said this proudly.
'But I have no means of achieving it yet, so I can only took hold of it. But you? You already have the chance, why give up now?'
Her words back then struck him hard. He was at a bridge just wanting to have some fresh air. She thought he was someone who wanted to take his life.
"Such small world," Amber couldn't help but laugh before wiping her tears.
Seeing someone whom her mother cherished but couldn't meet, her heart suddenly ached. The fact that she hated crying in front of people became a joke. She actually cried in front of all of them.
"Tell me, where is she?" Jacqueline dropped the dresses and grabbed her shoulders.
Amber looked at the remaining attendants before looking back at him. Jacqueline instantly understood what she was hinting. He dismissed the attendants and brought them in the inner room.
After getting out of her dress, Amber faced all of them.
It was a simple waiting room with a table and sofa. There's also the coffee maker and a little refrigerator.
"Before I tell you, I want you to have a look at these," she took out a few papers from her back pack.
Seeing these Hayley widened her eyes. But Amber looked at her and slightly shook her head.
Jacqueline was obviously confused but he still took it and looked through the 20 pages of clothes designs. And just like him, the papers were in variety.
He was just flipping but felt moved with each design, they had their own unique aura and he could tell that the one who drew it have taken every little detail into consideration while drawing them.
"It is indeed rough in so many ways but I can tell that the designer have placed her heart into it, if this person was well trained, he or she will become successful," was his comment before looking up at Amber.
She was standing while all of them were sitting.
"Then will you take that person as a student? As exchange for me telling you about Sarah?"
"Why are you suddenly talking about business?"
Amber shakes her head, "No not a business, but this request will be on behalf of Sarah."
"Even if you know where Sarah is, don't you think that this is still an unreasonable request?" Jacqueline said seriously.
"Then let me ask you, would you be angered to the point of wanting revenge if Sarah was unjustly defeated?"
"She is someone who saved my life, of course I would put my life on the line and get back at the people who bullied her."
"Then this request shall be the same as that."
"I really hate puzzles young lady," Jacqueline said seriously as his eyes narrowed.
"Hayley, you see, have vowed to help me in taking revenge. Revenge for Sarah, who was killed just because she wanted to have a normal life."
The whole room became silent.
"Killed? What are you talking about?"
Amber looked at all of them, before her eyes settled on Blake and Devon, "I am going to reveal something very very dangerous. The reason why I have became Ashton's fiance. And the reason why I have started my own company."
"Are you willing to be among those who might die because of this?"
Blake and Devon looked at each other before shrugging, "We have been in so many dangers already. Plus Ashton is our friend, we don't mind."
"Are you not going to ask me that question? I still don't want to die you know," Jacqueline butted in.
"You already said that you will put your life in line for Sarah."
She took a deep breath and removed her necklace. She turned off the light and turned on the flashlight of her phone and placed it at the pendant.
"Let me introduce you to my family."
Everyone was shocked, especially Ashton. His questions of who she truly is and why his grandfather tasked him to really watch over her was answered with one picture.
"After leaving you, she had actually left with Nathan Price, eldest grandson of the now too old master of the Price Empire. She was not accepted obviously but she had given birth to a son. The first great grandson, so she finally had some standing in the family."
She looked at them, "But since she was also a smart lady, she became a doctor, a well regarded doctor. While Nathan was trained to be the successor."
She sighed, "It was when one of their children's life was placed in danger that they started wanting to have a simple life instead. Where there was no power struggles, where the children could live their dream as they wished."
She chuckled upon reaching this point, "But why would the master allow them? Nathan was one of a kind and could successfully do anything once he wanted to do so."
She looked at each of them.
"In the end, their daughter's illness turned for the worst and in order to find a cure, Sarah and Nathan begged the master to let them go. They have already used the Price's resources but still didn't find anything. They could only leave and search around the world."
She looked back at the picture projected in the wall.
"But the master found that child could even exceed her father. So he compromised, leave the two sons behind and never come back. It was like he had kicked them out but in reality he knew that child would return."
She shook her head, "In order to save this little girl, Sarah and Nathan had no choice but to leave their other two children. But the master also knew how his other children and grandchildren wanted to take up his position. Upon knowing that they were kicked out some of his siblings, were not satisfied."
Her eyes turned darker, "So they made sure to kill them, of course even with that car cash the family didn't die but it was still announced in the outside world that they did."
The light in her eyes slowly dimmed as she continued recollecting all these things.
"But the master did something that made these hungry wolves chase the family to the end. For after 9 years, when the master finally showed signs of being weak, they found out that the token of inheritance was no longer within the household."
Alissa and Hayley have heard her story but it was bits and pieces of what she was saying today. So hearing the whole one, they couldn't help but feel their hearts break.
Scoffing, she continued, "Of course, their thoughts went to that family again. But a chance to help the family from this predicament was then presented."
She looked at Ashton and continued the story from when they arrived until she entered this city.
After the story, she turned on the lights again.
"My hair and eye color have changed due to the effects of the medicine on my physical body."
They could only stare at her, the information she had just given was too heavy. Even Ashton, Blake and Devon who was already used to so many things about the darkness around the world, was rendered speechless by this.
"So... So you're saying... Sarah is.... Sarah is dead?" Jacqueline couldn't help but cry.
He had always thought of himself as another parent of Sarah. Their separation back then was a sad and happy one because he knew she found her love.
But due to him being too busy, they rarely had the chance to send letters.
Both of them were actually quite old fashioned, they are not fond of messages on electronic devices but was more fond of letters written by their own hands.
Amber could only nod her head.
No one spoke as Jacqueline started crying, he never thought that their separation back then was actually the last time he'd see her.