Who Are You?
"There's only two weeks before the start of class. Do you think you will heal by then?" soon Hayley finally calmed down and asked.
Amber's eyes grew, she forgot about it, she would be entering school in another two weeks. To Ashton's surprise she suddenly looked at him and her face looks like she was completely wronged.
He furrowed his brows at this reaction.
"I shall check on that, I'll call you again once I got my answers."
They said their goodbyes and she finally put down her phone.
"The school. How am I going to school looking like this?" she suddenly whined at Ashton.
Ashton in return just looked at her as if she had grown two heads. What is he supposed to do now? It wasn't him who asked those men to beat her up.
Ashley have told him that she was the one who provoked them after all.
"*sigh* That's right, there's nothing really that you can do about this."
She realized the absurdity of her question as she gave up the thought of going to school normally.
"Oh well they can just go and gossip about me being involved in a fight and it may even escalate of me being a part of a gang. That's right just like those comics where the person who didn't enter the class on the first month were rumored as a delinquent," she once again said to herself as she shakes her head.
Ashton felt like he was facing an alien, her emotions could shift just like that?
"You..."
Amber looked back at him from her muttering.
"I say, don't you cherish your life? Why did you do what you have done? Why didn't you just wait for me or for the police?"
Amber first stared at him before taking a deep breath, "If I waited, what if she encountered an attack? Well that was my first thought and that was my wish when I couldn't bring her out. That she wouldn't have her attack, at the same time, what if you arrived later? Then she would have had more trauma."
She tapped at her casted arm, "You see, the events back then may not have been the events, if I didn't enter. It was a dock and their companions may have arrived earlier. Then she will be taken from there and it would have been different."
She looked back at him, "I treasure my life, but I couldn't just sit still knowing that I can do something can I?"
"You're too soft," he replied with a frown.
"Soft? Oh no please, this is just the surface of who I truly am. You just haven't seen my other sides," Amber chuckled and replied before closing her eyes.
Seeing this, Ashton decided to leave her alone closing the door behind him, giving her time to rest.
'I am soft because of who I am facing, if it was someone else and if the side effect didn't happen. Then the thing you will see would have been very very different,' she thought before drifting back to sleep.
*****
Three days after waking up, Kyle and Liana came to her with the contract of her engagement with Ashton.
Kyle wanted to ask how did she change her hair and eye color. Her hair could have passed off as dying but her eye color was an unknown. But he shouldn't know of her identity so he could only zip his mouth.
At the same time after the time of her first waking up, he noticed the changes in his wife.
The first day after Ashley's hell week, she was still cold towards this girl allowing the other medical staffs to check on her. Five days after the hell week, she herself have check on Amber.
And after the day she woke up, he noticed how she acted warmer towards Amber. She even asked Ashton to get the ring ready.
Amber was dumbly looking down at her right ring finger. Her left hand was still in cast after all. It was a simple white gold bond, it was shaped into a little crown with five points, four of which were imbued with diamonds while the middle was imbued with another stone.
The stone was...
"If I'm not mistaken, this is Rose Quartz right?" she asked baffled but her tone was still respectful and polite.
Rose Quartz was light pink in color and even though natural ones weren't as expensive, the meaning of this stone was what caught her attention.
"Yes dear, it is indeed one. I'm amazed you knew," Liana replied as she held Ambers hand.
Amber was confused, even the diamond was different in color. The stones were small but she knew just how expensive this ring was. The diamonds have made up for the expense of the Rose Quartz.
It was after all a blue diamond.
But what she really couldn't comprehend was the meaning of the two stones.
She had seen different stones and have known their different meanings.
Rose Quartz means Unconditional Love.
Blue Diamond had the meaning of Eternity.
"But I must apologize for dwelling too much into it, but their meanings are... I mean not quite suited for the two of us, right?" she replied.
Kyle and Liana looked at each other.
"You see, the Wright Empire was different from the others not just because of being family oriented. But because there is no such thing as divorce to them," Kyle thought for a bit before replying.
'No divorce? Then what about the contract?'
As she thought of this, she flipped through the contract and found a clause.
{ The protection for the engagement shall be the same as what was given to a daughter-in-law. Once the engagement years are up, the two party shall decide whether to push through with the wedding or not. }
Amber couldn't help but to bit at her lower lip, this means she needs to build her own empire in the span of five years? But then again she wouldn't really have that much time don't she?
Seeing her complicated look, Liana tagged at her hand, "As long as not one of you have decided to break it, the engagement shall keep going. That is the meaning of the clause."
Upon reading it again, there was no specific date for the engagement years.
She looked up with a smile, "Thank you so much, I shall see to it that I will abide to what I have said and what I have promised."
She will do her best to become really capable for 10 years. The protection was written in the contract. And she knew that the Wright Empire was one who never backed down on their words.
This is also the reason why she chose to ask marriage or contract as compensation for the cure.
After the signing and legalization of the engagement, they finally left her alone to rest.
'Mom, Dad, I'm starting now. I'm going to do my best to return the favor we owe them. The favor of lives."
Coldness then appeared on her eyes, much much hideous and ruthless from what Ashton have shown her. Though that coldness was not his full one as well.
This is the scene Ashton chanced upon as he entered her room, he can tell that the whole room was filled with bloodlust and he could only stare at her, who was looking outside the window.
"What is it?" Amber looked back at him, all the coldness have disappeared. She had returned to her normal look.
~"This is just the surface of who I truly am"~
"Who are you?" was his question.
He came here to check whether she really have nothing else to add or remove from the contract. But the question that first came to him was this.
Amber raised a brow on him before chuckling, albeit coldly, "I told you, you still don't know my other sides."
"Anyway, whose design is this ring? To actually design it as a princess crown? Isn't that a bit too lame?"
Ashton stared blankly at her, he really couldn't comprehend just how fast she could change her attitude. As if she had different switches inside her, with a flick she could change her mood.
"Don't look at me like I'm crazy, we may have encountered different bad things in our childhood. But the things I've encountered built the person I am today. I can easily lift my own spirit in order not to be depress or sad all the time."
Seeing his look she instantly explained with a light tone.
"Adding to that, I have no desire of dying early due to depression, my life is too precious for such a stupid death you know."
Ashton could only shake his head, truly what a different girl.
Different from those who prostrate themselves in front of him and different to that one person whom he came to love. This person in front of him was someone he thought would never have existed in this world.
But at the same time he knew, her coldness was what allowed her to remain calm in front of him and to kept telling him how ineffective his coldness was to her.