Reason

"What did he do crazy again?" Anna asked irritated. She was sick of Paxton's madness. If it were up to her, she would have told him 'enough' by now. They were in the room and Walton was throwing Steve onto the bed.

"He didn't do something stupid with one of the girls, did he?" Karl worried.

"No. I checked the monitoring. He came back to the hotel right after us. That boy, Martin, brought him ... "

They looked at each other in terror. Then they looked at Paxton, who was just sitting down.

"Steve ..." Anna walked over to him. As she bent down, he unceremoniously grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the bed. Within seconds, she was under him. Karl didn't even have time to react, but there was no need to. Anna pushed Paxton away with one strong gesture and, standing up, punched him in the face.

"Anna, are you okay?" Walton became concerned, giving Steve a murderous glare.

"Who do you think I am? Do you think I can't handle a persistent drunk? "

Paxton lay on the bed with his arms outstretched, just like Anna had abandoned him. He wasn't laughing anymore, he wasn't chuckling anymore. His mood changed drastically. He was glum, thoughtlessly staring at the ceiling and had tears in his eyes.

Perhaps Paxton looked pathetic or ridiculous to strangers now, but Karl felt a sharp pain in his heart.

"Steve ..." Anna freed herself from her fiancé's arms and walked over to Paxton again. Walton tried to stop her, but she shook his hand away. This was her hotel. She had to know. "Steve, do you remember who Martin is?"

"Martin ..."

Paxton's eyes flashed happily, then faded completely suddenly.

"Martin ..." he repeated and rolled onto his stomach. He stroked the sheets with his hand passionately. He muttered something under his breath and fell asleep.

Anna was furious. To her, Steve's behavior was like an admission of guilt. Without a word, she turned and walked briskly to the exit.

"Anna, I ..." Karl caught up with her in the doorway.

"What 'I'?" she asked brusquely, but quite calmly considering the situation.

"Forgive me! I convinced you to let Steve live here and he caused trouble at your hotel ... "

"Don't worry about my hotel. I'll handle it myself. You better deal with that disturbed friend of yours and the mess he has made for you. God! Karl, do something about Steve! If he goes on like this, he will bring to the bottom not only himself! "

"I know but…"

"No, you don't know. You forgive him everything, but there are things that cannot be forgiven, otherwise it will never stop! "

"Anna ..."

But she didn't want to keep listening. She had to deal with the surveillance from that night.

Steve woke up with a huge hangover. It was as if three frisky animated squirrels were running around happily with jackhammers running in his head. His tongue was like a sole.

Suddenly a glass of water appeared in front of him. He drank greedily and thanked Karl.

"Are you okay?"

"Like hell."

"That's good. We need to talk."

Steve froze and looked deep into his eyes. Will he hear this most terrible news in a moment?

No, Karl was serious, even sad, but that wasn't the case.

"Remember what you did with Martin that night?"

Paxton felt sick. Hurriedly, he scrambled out of the sheets and ran to the bathroom. He made it just in time.

He vomited for several minutes. His stomach just couldn't calm down. Was it alcohol poisoning or the awareness of what a lousy man he was? Whatever it was, Steve felt like he was about to die.

Finally Steve sat down heavily on the floor and looked at Walton in the doorway. Steve smiled faintly, painfully at his friend, as if with that smile he was letting him know how much he was not happy about.

"I am the vilest of people," he confessed.

"Have you done anything that could have legal consequences?"

"Yes."

"Shit, Steve!" Karl Walton exploded. "You know what such a scandal can do to you, the Stables and this hotel ?!"

Paxton stared at him in disbelief, then stood up heavily.

"Well, what can it do to me?" he growled. "What can it do to me, the Stables and the hotel? Will it be worse than what I did to him ?! "

"It'll be all right," Walton announced, ignoring Paxton's outburst. "I will convince the boy to sign a settlement..."

Whoop! Steve's fist hit the wall.

"You want to pay him to be silent?" Paxton asked in a tone so cold he would chill the Sahara. "Are you trying to humiliate him just because I couldn't control myself? Do you want to turn that good, honest, hard-working boy into a whore? Karl, I'm begging you, tell me I misheard! "

Walton swallowed.

"What got into you?" he asked finally, terrified. "Why are you acting this way? I don't think you ... Steve, do you like him? "

"Don't be ridiculous," Paxton snorted. "You really think I'm capable of love?"

"I asked if you like him, not if you love him. Do you know what psychoanalysis says about such slips? "

"I don't give a shit! You have to leave the kid alone! "

"And you? Will you be able to leave him alone? "

Steve Paxton was unable to answer that question. Although he knew that for Martin it would be best if they both never had to deal with each other again, will Steve be able to control his animal instincts and live the boy alone?

The hospital, no matter how high-class it was, always smelled like a hospital. Even though Steve Paxton had been visiting him for years, he still couldn't get used to the smell.

He entered the VIP room and saw the woman brushing the hair of the patient lying on her side. The woman was not yet fifty, but she looked old. Suffering may also ennoble, but it certainly ages. The patient was her daughter, who despite the fact that she was only twenty-two, spent her youth lying in a coma, from which she was not expected to wake up. To avoid bedsores, her position was changed every few hours. Now she was lying on her left side and her mother was combing her short hair. The sleeping queens' long hair looked good in the movies, but was a nuisance in real life.

"Have you come?" the woman said looking at Steve. She had the pale, gentle smile of mother on her lips. "You do not have to do that…"

"But I want" he entered her word. "How is Hannah?"

"She is calm as always."

It meant "no change." No sign that she might be waking up.

"But you look bad" remarked the girl's mother. "Steve ... Hannah wouldn't like to see you unhappy."

"I know but…"

Hannah had been lying here for years. When the other girls had their first love and first job, she was here. Her heart was beating, her lungs were working, but her brain was barely active enough to support her vital functions, and even with the help of a respirator.

The woman, Hannah's mother, put down hairbrush and walked over to Paxton. She gently took his arm and led him to the couch that was an accessory to the VIP room.

The driver's eyes grew moist when the woman touched him. He wanted to shake off her hand, after all, he didn't deserve her support, but he couldn't dare. He didn't want the woman to feel rejected. She must have felt very lonely.

She sat him down on the couch and sat down next to him. Her hands moved and she cupped his hands, stroking them gently like a mother. But she wasn't looking at him. She looked at Hannah.

"You were as old as she is now, weren't you?" she asked.

"Yes," Paxton confirmed.

"It's like an adult, but still a child. You know, I can still see your eyes today, when I saw you in the hospital then. "

"I'm sorry."

"Hannah has liked you since she was a child. She has always been staring at you. No wonder, you were always such a pretty and good boy. You've always worked so hard to help your mother. "

"It was so long ago that I don't remember anymore," he blushed, embarrassed by the compliment.

"But I remember. Old people remember such things better. I'm not surprised that Hannah has fallen in love with you. Have you ever been in love? "

Steve shook his head. Hannah's mother saw the gesture and squeezed his hands tighter.

"Your parents weren't the role models for a successful marriage either, so you may not know what true love is. True love is forgiving and letting the loved one go. "

"I don't understand why you tell me this ..."

"Hannah ... Hannah always knew you didn't love her, that you saw her like a little sister, not like a woman. Even so, she deluded you were meant for her. I don't know where she got this madness from. You never promised her anything. She fancied you would love her one day. She couldn't come to terms with the thought that you didn't feel that way for her and that you probably never would. If she really loved you, she would let you go ... "

"Mrs. Robson ..."

"But it is so difficult to let go of those you love ... Can a person live having only memories of happy moments? At least there is forgiveness. "

This time the woman looked into Paxton's eyes. Her firm gaze sent shivers down his spine.

"We're just human beings, Steve, and we make mistakes. Sometimes we hurt those who are dear to us. Perhaps the closer we are to them, the more cruelly we hurt them. But love is forgiveness. If you love someone, you'll forgive them for the scars he gave you. Can you forgive Hannah? "

"What?" he jumped up, startled, terrified by her question. "Me? I forgive Hannah ?! It's me ... It's because of me ... "

"You didn't drive the car that hit her and you didn't push her under its wheels. Hannah couldn't accept reality and it was her mistake ... "

"You are her mother! How can you say that?! "

"It is because I am her mother that I can say that. For the past three years, I have watched the boy who grew up in front of me feel guilty. For three years now, I have been shaking every time I see you go on the track because your aggressive driving is so dangerous. Enough, Steve, enough…! "

There were tears in Mrs. Robson's eyes. The woman couldn't stop them. They rolled down her cheeks.

"Mrs. Robson ..." Paxton approached her shyly. Hesitantly, he crouched down and now it was he who took her hands.

"Sometimes I get the feeling that two people died in this accident, my Hannah and you. Life stopped for both of you. Enough already, Steve, please keep on living! Get out of this nightmare! "

"Mrs. Robson ..." Paxton didn't know what to say. The woman's words and her tears squeezed his heart and throat.

"Do it for me, please. Do it for her, Steve. Start living, for both of us. "