Late update again, I know. I'm really sorry. Christmas had me busy and my cousin came down, so she made it difficult for me to write anything at all. Sorry.

Vote, comment, share, and enjoy! Also point out my errors.

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(Athena's POV)

Applauses echo through the entire floor, putting a victorious smile on my face. "Considering the ratings are off the chart, we will not be selling Maddox Laird's video interview to any news outlets as planned. Instead, I want the video to be uploaded to our site only," I declare, scanning my eyes over all the editors and writers sitting at their cubicles before looking at the writer who brought Maddox to my attention. "And Burt, thank you for getting us to Maddox."

          "It's K-Kurt," the man stutters, trying to form a smile on his face.

          "I don't praise people, so consider yourself lucky." I throw my hair back and start sashaying to the elevator. "Don't correct me again unless you want to get fired, Gurt."

          "Yes, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am," his voice fades away as Mr. Azallion immaturely laughs behind me.

          "You definitely haven't lost your spunk," he comments as we enter the elevator and ascend up.

          "I was bored half to death resting at home for two days and listening to your motherly advices, so you can certainly say that I'm delighted to come back to work."

          "Oh, please," he snorts as we exit the elevator and head to my office. "I took care of everything here, and don't tell me that you didn't like my attention when I came home from a long, tired day."

          "Don't flatter yourself," I roll my eyes and enter my office, leaving him to close the door.

          "How are your feet?"

          Taking a seat on the couch, I immediately remove my heels. "Better than I anticipated. I believe I'll be good before leaving for Italy tomorrow. Are all the models there?" I press the soles of my feet to unwind some cramped muscles when Mr. Azallion sits down and props my feet on his lap. "And what are you doing?"

          "Massaging your feet, they're clearly hurting," he sighs, pressing his fingers against my toes whilst shaking his head. "The shit I have to do for you. And yes, all the models have arrived in Italy except for Rome."

          The no touching rule is surely fading and surprisingly I don't mind. Chuckling, I slither my feet away from his hold and sit up straight. "Work your fingers on my head instead."

          "There's another place I can work them quite well," he winks at me and scoots closer with an undying smirk dancing on his lips. "Just say the word and I'm your puppet."

          I'd be lying if I say that doesn't arouse me, because I surely feel warm inside. I run my fingers over his sharp jaw and then his smooth lips that call my name. Nearing his face, I place a small kiss to the side of his mouth and reach for his ear. "Just work on my head right now."

          "Suit yourself," he laughs and places two fingers on my temples, moving them in circular motion. Silence caves in, trapping us in a peaceful bliss as I close my eyes and enjoy the magic his fingers work on me, but a knock to the door disrupts my high.

Groaning, I slowly remove his hands and fix my hair. "Come in."

The door opens and Lola walks in timidly, closing it behind her. "Hi, Lola!" Mr. Azallion greets the girl.

"Brilliant job on your sex article," I praise the girl with a wide smile. "Although, I didn't like the fact that you slept with my bodyguard, I believe it still worked and certainly bumped us up. Good job!"

"Thank you!" She smiles sweetly and stands there for an awkward minute.

"That's all the praise I got."

          "Sorry," she clears her throat, fiddling with her fingers. "I was wondering where Jackson is? I haven't heard from him in two days. I thought he'd be with you, but he still isn't here and... you are."

          "That's because he's dead, sweetheart."

          "What?" Mr. Azallion stares at me dumbfounded as Lola's mouth falls open. Her lips quiver, her brown eyes glistening with tears.

          "Sob in front of me and I'll fire you," I warn her sternly. "Go home and cry your eyes out. The funeral is tomorrow and I guess I'll invite you." Streams of tears roll down her cheeks as Mr. Azallion saunters over to comfort the sobbing girl. He holds her in his chest and looks at me with conflicting eyes, a pained expression on his face. Groaning, I shake my head and leisurely slouch back into my seat. "Stop crying for God's sake."

          Mr. Azallion glares at me, mouthing, "Stop."

          The door to my office opens to reveal the man standing on the other side. "Bad timing, Jackson."

"Sorry, Ms. Estle," he nods and looks at the woman crying away in Mr. Azallion's arms.

Lola's head whips around at Jackson's voice before she immediately jumps into his arms, embracing him tightly. Mr. Azallion stares at Jackson and then at me, bemused. "Really?" He walks over to my side with narrowed eyes. "You liar."

          "You're dumb enough to buy it," I shrug and cringe at the sight of the couple clinging onto one another.

          "Well," Mr. Azallion bends over with a smirk and whispers, "you're a bad girl."

          My brow quirks up in amusement as I hear Lola mumbling between her cries. "She said that you died." Jackson brushes his fingers through her hair, shaking his head at my silly joke.

          "Lola, could you excuse us?" I mount from the couch and maneuver around the table to their side. Lola doesn't budge even an inch until Jackson asks her to do so. She wipes her tears and walks out without sparing me a glance.

          "Dead? Really?" Jackson chuckles and steps forward.

"And your funeral was scheduled for tomorrow, but you had to show up at the wrong time," I smile and wrap my arms around him. "It's good to see you. How's your neck?"

Pulling back, I look over the white bandage covering the injury he sustained at the wedding. "It was just a flesh wound, so nothing serious, but it hurts when I try to look around."

"Go home and rest," I pat his muscular arm.

          "I'm fine." He looks at Mr. Azallion and nods, acknowledging him. "I guess he knows everything now."

          "Yeah, and Leo assigned him as my personal caretaker now," I roll my eyes at that ridiculous notion.

          "More like bodyguard," Mr. Azallion butts in smugly.

          "But that's me," Jackson counters sternly.

          "I can't argue with Leo. You're going to stay here until I get back from Italy. Have fun with Lola." I cringe, shaking my head in disgust. "What is she now? Your girlfriend?"

"I don't know," he shrugs. "She's a good girl though."

"Exactly," I stare him down. "Don't play with her emotions. If you can't stick with one woman, which I know you can't, then tell her that rather than letting her imagine the perfect wedding in her head. Stupid girls these days."

***

The car stops in the private parking lot of Ray's hospital, allowing me to exit it almost immediately. "What are we doing here?" Jackson queries as he exits the car with Mr. Azallion. "Are you going to see her? So soon?"

"She has apparently been lying," I grit my teeth and head to the elevator. "Stay down here."

"But that's not an option," Mr. Azallion decides to follow me, urging me to turn around and place a hand on his taut chest.

"Honey, unless you want to get your ass handed to you, I suggest you stay down here," I pat his cheek like a child and nod to Jackson.

"Dude, trust me, you don't want to go up there after her," Jackson holds him back as I enter the elevator. Scanning my Bonferroni tag over a discreet scanner, I push the button to the top floor which is also one of the two restricted floors not accessible by everyone in the hospital.

My heart is beating a bit faster than normal. It always does when I visit her, but visiting her so soon wasn't planned at all. I can go to extreme lengths for this girl, but considering that she lied to me, my anger is just beginning to rise and certainly not for the better.

          Exiting the elevator, I prance down the hall and encounter familiar faces that work for Leo, including doctors and the abundance of staff hustling down the corridors. My hands sweat a bit as I near her door. I swallow my hesitation and replace it with confidence that I tend to encompass when I interact with people, but usually drop when I'm with her, not today though.

          Opening the door, I find her sitting on the bed with a book in her hands as usual and glasses propped on her thin nose. "Athena?" She removes her glasses and places the piece of literature aside as I close the door. "Who would've thought that you'd come so early to see me?" A smile tugs on the corners of her plump lips as she pats the edge of her bed, implying me to take a seat. "I was just reading Beowulf. Reminds me of high school freshmen year. No biggie. Why are you here though? Am I forgetting a birthday?"

          I snort and leisurely saunter to the recliner by the large windows. "I believe you know what this is about."

          Taking a seat, I stare her down and watch a cunning smile engulf her mouth. "Leo told you," she huffs, rising from her seat and walking over to me. Slowly, she jumps up and sits on the window sill wide and strong enough to support her body weight, not that she has much. "Leo came to see me a few days ago with Mike and you know how they can see right through us," she shrugs. "I tried to act, you know, sick, but he caught it. I told him not to tell you."

"Have long have you been alright?" I ask, my hands curling into fists slowly.

She hesitates and looks around, mumbling something inaudible under her breath. I look at her, waiting for her to speak a little louder. Groaning, she rolls her eyes that are an exact copy of mine. "Almost a year now."

          "A year?" I question incredulously. "You have been pretending for the past year?" She just shrugs nonchalantly to my question and looks out the window at the other tall buildings, maddening me even more. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

          "The same thing that is wrong with you," she snaps back.

          "Well, I didn't lie and you did," I quip, glaring at her. "Why?"

          "Why do you think?" She snarls, shoving daggers in my chest with her bare eyes. "I'm scared to go out there again. I'm scared to fucking death."

"You could've told me!" I exclaim and slam my fist on the window sill next to her. "I wasn't going to drag your ass out of here and throw you out there in the world. Who the hell do you think I am? A monster?"

          "You're my sister, Athena." Her eyes blur with tears that threaten to topple over her lids. "Seven times," she laughs, exasperated. "Seven times is the amount of times you've come to see me in the past three years after throwing me in here. And yes, I've been counting every hour you've spent with me on those visits. And I've also noticed how much you hated coming here. I saw right through your façade." A lone tear speeds down her flushed cheek that she immediately brushes away. Her lips quiver as my heart sinks low to unknown depths of hell. "Do you hate me that much for what I did?"

          "Addy, stop." I frown at her words that force me out of my seat to join her on the window sill. Her eyes stare at the floor refusing to meet mine as I place a comforting hand on her arm that she yanks off. Exhaling a shaky breath, I swallow the forming lump in my throat and whisper, "I don't hate you. I can never hate you. You're my baby sister."

          She snorts. "Oh, please. I know you blame me for what happened. Shit, even I blame myself," she sniffles. "I get it. It was my fault."

"I don't blame you."

"Then why didn't you come see me more often?" She looks at me with nothing but despair twinkling in her eyes.

I fight back my emotions with all my might. Falling weak in front of her isn't an option. I never showed her any signs of weakness no matter what because I always wanted her to be strong like me. Opening up like a book isn't on the agenda and will never be.

"You're right," I sigh. "I hated coming here, not because I hated you or blamed you for what happened but because I couldn't watch you in that condition. It was my job to keep you safe. I promised Mom to do so and look where we ended up."

"I was the one who decided to pursue the Lairds. I continued to meet Maddox and that pushed me down the rabbit hole and I took you down with me." She rubbed her eyes and jumped off the window sill, frustratedly running her frenzy fingers through her hair. "I should've listened to you when you said that we didn't need them, but my curiosity almost got us killed."

"Well, curiosity did get the cat killed," I tilt my head and cock a brow at her.

Laughing menacingly, she shakes her head and glowers at me. "You ain't fucking funny."

"Language."

"And you ain't my fucking mother either," she sneers, plopping down on her bed.

Anything I say will escalate her anger, so I decide to keep shut as she lays down and buries her head into her fluffy pillow. Her room is exactly how she wants it to be and definitely doesn't look like a hospital one. It has books all around, but no magazines or television. She's quite oblivious to what has occurred outside the confines of this room, her sanctuary. What I do and who I am now is a mystery to her.

          Silence stretches on for a long time. Although I know it's barely been a couple seconds, it feels like hours have passed. The setting sun elongates my shadow on the nice tiled flooring portraying me as a tall person, but small is all I can feel inside. My mouth is full of cotton, drier than the desert itself. It's true that I didn't see her much. Hell, I didn't even see mama much. The two most important women in my life are institutionalized. One, ill with dementia and the other, diagnosed with PTSD just like me. No cure for either one. Mama was young when she was struck with this because of Fabian who forced the drug abuse on her and ruined all our lives. It's funny how long she has come carrying that mental illness, but I guess it just proves where I get my strength from.

          Addy and I were both traumatized after what Maddox did to us. He broke her trust which is why it hit her harder than it did to me. I hardly knew the man, however she spent months with him, learning about everything she wanted to know. When she finally got me to meet him, he grabbed the opportunity and made use of it by getting us both together and stabbing us in the backs quite literally.

          With Fabian's relentless, cruel physical abuse when I was younger and Maddox's betrayal three years ago, medication has kept me in check and has considerately simmered my nightmares and panic attacks down. The mere thought of Fabian harming my mom and sister rattled me so brutally that I willingly stuck my head out and volunteered to become his slave for him to use and break me however he desired at an age where I was supposed to play outside and be a normal middle schooler. Although he got to mom sometimes, I made sure Addy didn't become a victim of his monstrosity for years until one day he threatened to treat her the same as me because I wasn't being his "good little owl", so I decided to escape, but it was too late.

          During one of his midnight fixes, which was me, he got bored and desired something different; my little sister. He snatched her up in the middle of the night and started peeling off her clothes while she sobbed and I begged him to stop. Every little thing of that night is so vivid that I can almost smell my own fear, see the dim yellowish lights of the lamps in my room, and feel the crumbled sheets of the bed I was violently thrown on by Fabian. I didn't know what to do to save Addy. I looked around and around while he was trying to rip her shirt off. I remember my anger hitting the fan and the sudden adrenaline that coursed through my veins that forced me to grab the lamp and swing it at his head with all the power I had in me. After hitting him a couple more times, I covered Addy up and grabbed my drugged mother who was barely conscious and fled the house as fast as I could.

We wandered the filthy streets of Jamaica in Queens on that chilly night. Everything was falling apart. Mama couldn't walk anymore and passed out on the empty sidewalk and Addy was sobbing, unable to comprehend anything that was happening and I was a complete mess. I needed to be the responsible one and do something, so I jumped in front of the first car that was speeding down the vacant street, but it wasn't the only car that stopped. The multitudes of cars behind it also watched the show of the helpless sixteen-year-old who begged for help and they gave it to me. The then eighteen-year-old Leo stepped out of one of the cars behind his father and that changed my life for the better.

They gave us everything. My mom was sent to a rehab and Addy and I were trained, educated and given everything we could ever ask for. We became a part of their family and they were the only family we knew. The Bonferroni men including Mike know the hell I've been through. Leo helped me get revenge on all the men who traumatized me, but Fabian completely disappeared and that imbecile is still off the grid as far as I know.

The stunt Maddox pulled was the only traumatizing thing Addy faced, but that turned her life upside down. All I needed was to physically heal from the wounds sustained from him and take constant medication to keep myself under control, whereas Addy required psychotherapy to overcome the trauma along with the medication of course. I tried therapy but I couldn't do it. I still can't.

"How is she?" Addy finally breaks the deafening silence and looks at me over her pillow.

"Who?"

"Mom."

"Still the same," I shrug and clear my throat.

"I honestly thought she would have kicked the bucket by now since you never talked to me about her."

"Well, I told her about what happened and she remembers that piece of information every time she's lucid which is good," I smile meekly and carefully hop down the window sill. "The doctors say that I can take you home after I broke some of their noses for not telling me that you were alright sooner and Leo has given me the green light too."

She groans and looks at me in annoyance. "I don't want to go and you can't force me."

"Listen up, little liar," I grit my teeth together. "You are coming home with me tomorrow and that's final. You have no reason to stay here."

          "I'm not a liar. I just didn't tell you that I had gotten better," she fired back with a victorious smirk.

          "You made me look like a fool looking for a boy that isn't even real."

          "Enrique?" She queries and laughs like a vixen. "Oh, he's very much real."

          "I have placed every man named Enrique that works under Leo at your feet and you can't put a finger on a single one," I spit out. "You need to grow up. I'm done playing your stupid games and you're coming home with me tomorrow, so start packing the shit you want to take with you."

          "I never thought I'd say this, but I fucking hate you right now," she rolls her eyes and sits against the headboard with her arms crossed over her chest. "Where do you live anyways?"

"Le Paradis Tombe." I fix my hair and straighten the wrinkles on my dress.

"Astor's building?" Her brow knit together in question.

"It's mine now," I smile smugly. "Leo gave it to me as a birthday gift."

"Astor would never give his things away," she scoffs as I head for the door.

Looking over my shoulder, I say, "You have a lot of catching up to do." I open the door and begin to let myself out before adding, "And by the way, your new last name is Estle."

"Estle? What the fuck kind of last name is that?"

"The one that is a high class fashion brand and also a reputed magazine," I wink. "Definitely your scene."

          "Well, you did go places in three years."

          "And you'll like it."

          Closing the door, I take a deep breath of relief and calm my heart. It went better than I expected and I'm glad, but a lot has changed in the past few years that I don't know if Addy will be able to ease back in. Maybe taking her to Italy with me will be a good idea or the worst one yet.

          Jackson and Mr. Azallion are engrossed in a deep conversation as I approach them in the parking lot. "Hey! You took forever." Mr. Azallion's blue eyes twinkle as they gaze at me, his pupils notably dilating. That little uncontrolled gesture of his skips a beat of my heart almost immediately. I don't know what's happening to me, but hell, my insides feel giddy and warm.

          Giddy and warm? Disgusting! What the hell is wrong with me?

          Jackson clears his throat and thankfully brings me back to my senses. "Mr. Azallion," I breathe out and get down to business. "I'm sorry to inform you, but you're moving out."

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Yay or nay?

IMPORTANT: I was thinking about making an Instagram account for my books. Should I do it? Yes or no? Please comment your opinions.

Good job to those who called Addy's relation to Athena! But who is Maddox to them? Why did Addy pursue the Lairds all those years ago?

Why did Maddox stab them in the back, metaphorically and literally?

Who's Enrique?

Will Addy ease back into the world that she's scared to go out into?

Much love ❤️
~Reet