The Memories That Remain (2/2)

[Elizabeth POV]

I could see that Kuzan was falling asleep in my arms. He was no doubt tired from everything that had happened today.

I had just been eating ice cream at the parlor, waiting to surprise my nephew and sister when they were to arrive. Then I received a call from the hospital, followed by one from Mr. Ikaria about what had just happened, and I bolted out of the shop. I drove to the hospital, not caring about how many traffic laws I broke while getting there. I could hear Mr. Ikaria's voice from one of the examination rooms and pulled Kuzan into a hug.

While laying him down on the examination table so he could get some much-needed rest, I couldn't stop myself any longer and asked the doctor in a hushed tone about the status of my sister.

"I am so sorry, Ms. Elizabeth, but Kuzan's parents didn't make it. The EMTs pronounced them dead at the scene," the doctor broke the news in a sombre tone, surely experienced with this sort of circumstance regularly.

My heart sank. I couldn't describe in that moment what I felt; just a feeling of pure emptiness overtook my body. I couldn't address reality for a long time after that happened, falling into a depressive cycle ever since that day.

It's funny, the day you lose someone isn't the worst—at least you've got something to do—it's all the days they stay dead. I couldn't come to grasp my loss, still denying what had occurred, even while planning their funeral arrangements.

My husband supported me and the kids throughout the whole process, never once taking time to acknowledge and grieve the loss of his best friend. It was Kuzan's dad who had initially introduced my husband to me at one of their family gatherings.

They had been best friends since elementary school and were inseparable ever since. Both of them had to carry the weight of their family's legacies on their backs, but it was through their partnership that they were able to take their businesses to the next level, working together to achieve success.

I still remember how much I had argued with my sister when she first told me about Albert, "Elizabeth, I have the perfect guy for you. You guys are gonna get married, I can call it right now."

'And how right you were, Alex. I fell head over heels in love with Albert when I first met him. With your husband acting as Albert's wingman from the start, I am sure you knew that it was only a matter of time until he proposed, but you still kept it a surprise from me. Your own sister. You were always like that, Alex, always the troublemaker,' I thought, still caught up in my memories of my sister, playing them back in my head over and over again.

However, even monks have an end to their patience. After a week of staying locked up in my room, my husband finally couldn't take it any longer and snapped. All the while I was wallowing in self-pity, my husband had been trying his best to make sure that the family didn't fall apart.

I could tell how worried he was about me, doing his best to cheer me up by any means possible, but coming up short when I wouldn't so much as let out a smile since that day. It broke a little piece of his heart every day to see me like this.

He had put his business completely on hold while he took care of Kuzan and Melissa's well-being alongside Mr. Ikaria.

"Elizabeth, I can't deal with you being like this anymore! I know they are gone, but you can't keep being like this for Kuzan. He only has you and Melissa left now. You have to support him, please, dear," my husband shouted at me with tears in his eyes.

"Didn't you promise that you would be there for him at the hospital?" It was the first and last time my husband had ever raised his voice at me out of anger.

Thankfully, it had worked.

Melissa was too young to understand what had happened, but Kuzan wasn't so lucky. He had also locked himself up in a room with Melissa, only allowing Mr. Ikaria to enter. He had also instructed Mr. Ikaria not to allow any visitors to enter their house for any reason, putting it on lockdown.

My husband's words broke me out of my state, turning my sadness into immense guilt. 'I had promised Kuzan that I would always be there for him, but I can't even be there for him now when he needs me most.' I couldn't take the heartache any longer. I rushed to the mansion and into Kuzan's room without even knocking, as any more time wasted would only add to my guilt.

I entered the dark room and noticed that the lights were turned off. Thankfully, the glass windows by the bed provided some natural sunlight to light up the room.

I saw Kuzan, sitting on his bedside, with sunlight shining on Melissa while she was sleeping peacefully in his arms while he stared at her. I had thought that it was a sweet sight and moved closer to the duo until I was forced to stop when he turned his head up to face me. It was his eyes; they were hollow.

"Aunt Elizabeth," he spoke to me in a raspy voice, "every time I look at Melissa, it reminds me of Mom. It hurts me. Does that make me a bad brother?"

They say eyes are the windows to the soul, and I could see in his eyes his hurt, his confusion, his denial. He was looking for an answer.

"No, my sweet boy, that is what makes you a great son." I bolted to Kuzan and took him into the tightest hug I could manage.

I could hear Kuzan sniffling quietly in my arms, trying not to make any noise in case it woke Melissa up. I moved us outside the room, all the while keeping Kuzan in a hug. "It's okay, baby, you can let it all out," I spoke lightly and in a soft voice into Kuzan's ear.

He finally cried, letting out his screams, his anger, his frustrations at the world for taking his parents away, the guilt that he felt for not always being a good son, he let it all out. I felt a weight drop from my shoulders, feeling my worry easing.

I could see my husband standing behind the corner of the hallway peeking at us. I gave him a small smile and gestured for him to come closer with my hand. He ran up to us, pulling us both into a big hug. I could hear him muttering something under his breath.

"Thank God, thank God," over and over again, with tears streaming down his face.

He broke out of his worship when he noticed that Kuzan had fallen asleep in my arms again. "You know, Mr. Ikaria told me that Kuzan has had trouble sleeping ever since that accident, but it looks like that's not a problem when he's with you?"

I, of course, caught on to what my husband was going to suggest right away. "Yeah, don't you think it would be a good idea to stay here? Let's move here."

Of course, Albert had already been spending at least half of his time in the mansion supporting Kuzan, only leaving to console me. 'All the back and forth every hour, wishing that he was in two places at once must have made him so tired.'

Looking to seek forgiveness for all that I had put him through, I gently stroked the side of his face. Before I could even begin my apology, he understood my feelings right away and grabbed hold of my hand. "It's okay," he whispered while lightly planting a kiss on my forehead, "I love you."

Kuzan refused to leave his home, considering how much had happened, and we didn't want to push how much more change he could handle. So Albert and I moved into the mansion and started living there from then on.

It was a slow process of healing for the family, but we went through it together. Kuzan didn't want to start high school so soon after graduating from elementary school. Although we wanted him to socialize and make friends, Albert, Mr. Ikaria, and I agreed that, given his age difference, he wouldn't be able to fit into high school as smoothly as we had hoped.

Mr. Ikaria in particular took heavy care of Melissa like she was his own daughter, never even leaving the same room as her once since her parents' passing. I did my best to fulfill both the children's maternal needs that my sister decided to leave behind for me to deal with, and learned what motherhood was all about. 'Really, sis, it's not nearly as glamorous as you made it out to be, but I see why you did it.'

To avoid Kuzan from becoming lonely, my husband took him under his wing and fulfilled the promise that he had made to his best friend about teaching Kuzan business. He would disguise his true intentions by taking Kuzan with him on business trips, especially when the other party also had kids around Kuzan's age.

Albert would insist that they have the meeting at his house and would then have Kuzan play with their children under the mission of "extracting information from their children about their family's businesses," a job he took very seriously.

I remember Albert telling me that Kuzan was a bit of a heartbreaker around the ladies. Whenever he would play with a girl, he would always tease them about one thing or another, non-stop. He would then make it up to them by saying sorry and sharing some of the sugary treats that he would always carry around in his small briefcase, which he said contained "mission gadgets."

I swear, he can be so cute sometimes. When I asked Albert about it, concerned that our little Kuzan was walking down the wrong path, he told me that he would have a talk with him about it.

"So how did it go?" I remember asking my husband.

"Well, dear, I asked him about it and why he does it, and this was his exact response: 'Because it's fun. And after I give them the treat, they give me a lot of hugs and start answering my questions much more easily.'"

I was appalled at this development and gave my first strict lecture to Kuzan about the importance of not manipulating other people's feelings just to get what you want.

I could really feel myself getting better at this motherhood deal, but my husband and I had agreed that we wouldn't have children until Melissa and Kuzan fully grew up. We were their mother and father figures now, and we couldn't have them feeling like we loved our own child more than we loved them.

After getting over the first stage of grief, I, along with my husband, moved on to anger instead. The drunk driver who had caused the crash died in it as well, so that was a dead end. Still, we had both looked deeply into the event, using all of our resources to try and find out more about the crash.

Albert had even gone as far as using some of his contacts in the criminal underworld to dig up any information he could to see if things weren't as they appeared. He checked the background of the driver, his family members, his acquaintances—everything to see if it was premeditated—but we both eventually came to the conclusion that it was just an accident.

Having no one to placate my anger, my only choice left was to ensure that something like this NEVER happened again. Albert and I hired the best security team that money could buy, installed the most advanced security system we could find, and even trained ourselves in self-defense techniques to protect our loved ones.

Albert's paranoia in protecting his new children manifested in the form of carrying a small handgun with him whenever he went out with the family, even with security present. I fell a little deeper, refusing to let even the chance of such a thing happening again slip by me. I started wiggling my way into the underworld as an information broker, becoming an essential part of the web that was the criminal underworld.

I never got my hands dirty or even sold any information, for that matter. I just became a well-known customer who would buy any and all kinds of information, someone who knew if there was ever a threat to my family due to our wealth or fame.

I started growing my web of connections, attending more galas and events than I ever had before. I hated them; I would much rather spend time with Melissa or Kuzan at home, but it was a necessary evil. I could only do my best to plan for the worst.

In my search, I met a number of individuals famed for their strength. I was able to convince most of them to guard my family through either monetary gifts or cold hard cash, but there were some who couldn't care less about what I had to offer. I remember one bald man in particular not even caring to listen to my offer before showing me the door.

Still, I never lost my pursuit of finding the best protection for my babies. It had taken everything I had to get back from losing their parents, and I knew that I wouldn't recover from losing anyone again.

They say time heals all wounds, but when you lose someone, it's not an injury that you recover from as the days pass. You are robbed of a future with them—no future weddings, no future graduations, no future grandchildren or children, no plans, it's just gone.

It's all memories that remain.