• [ a b r o k e n s o u l ] •

♥ gabriel ♥

IF I WAS connected to a lie detector and said my nurse was ugly, the machine would be beeping like it was on steroids because she most definitely wasn't. Shanice was quite the opposite. I'd been watching her for the past fifteen minutes since the doctor had left following his consultation where he attempted to tell me in five different ways that I was still in Australia.

With corkscrew black ringlets and warm espresso skin, she was the definition of cuteness and couldn't have looked any better when she was hooking me up to some more morphine.

The only problem was that all girls seemed unappealing apart from one and it was truly a damn shame.

Dude, if somebody found out how much you dreamed about her, they'd put you in a mental institution. No joke.

I persuaded myself that it wasn't my free will. I mean, who could control their thoughts when under general anaesthetic? Nobody. Those painkillers sure knew how to mess with my head and loved to get stuck on repeat like a damn casset whenever they saw a sexy woman.

After squeezing my eyes shut, I blinked three times before looking at the numerous bandages on my chest and abdomen. I whistled lowly at the sheer number of wounds I had before lifting one heavy hand - that wasn't connected to wires - to poke at one.

It was completely numb.

"It's the painkillers. You won't feel anything for the next few days and you really don't really want to," Shanice said, looking through my records.

The white cloth had been wrapped around my naked chest again and again like a roundabout but some blood had still seeped through. Thankfully, I'd been knocked out when they changed the dressing and cleaned the wounds, otherwise, I was sure I'd have been screaming like a baby.

I'd be doing the same thing right now if I wasn't injected with chemicals to numb the pain.

"Rise and shine, Mr Reid. I've heard you've had a tough couple of days."

I thought it had been a couple of hours since I'd been at the Opera House. Memories of what happened resurfaced as I thought about those hooligans. I must have passed out at some stage.

"Days?" My voice came out as a painful croak.

Wow, how attractive Gabriel. Would make anyone want to rip their clothes off.

The nurse gave me a pitiful smile. "Yes, days. Today is Friday. You've been unconscious for two whole days. Christmas is in three days time," Shanice added for emphasis, her eyes shining in expectation.

I nodded unsurely, not wanting her to hear my terrible sounding voice again. My head was still spinning from waking up and hearing her say the word 'days' so many times seemed to have made it ten times worse.

Just as she went to leave my room, Shanice halted. "Police will be here to take your statement soon but in the meantime, your grandmother has been waiting since Wednesday to speak to you."

Nanna was here? The corners of my lips tried to lift into a smile but were still cut up from the attack.

"Gabriel?" I heard a familiar voice say as Shanice stepped to the side.

My eyes lit up as did Nanna's whilst she walked towards me, sitting down in the chair beside my hospital bed. "Nanna, you're here," I said falling quiet as her wrinkled hand rested on mine.

She let out a little sigh, her reading glasses dangling around her neck, "Of course, I am Gabriel. I'll always be here. You can't get rid of me that easily, you nutter."

A chuckle left me, "I love you, Nanna."

"I love you too, my dear boy. How are you feeling?"

I tried to shrug my shoulders but gave up when my body ached too much. "I don't know, like somebody who just got stabbed multiple times? Oh wait, that's actually accurate."

Nanna gave me a disapproving look, "You can't joke about that, Gabriel. Dr Davies said it's a miracle you're still breathing."

Part of me was tempted to crack another joke but I decided not to after seeing the tension on her face. My worry was soon replaced with surprise when she hit me lightly on the head. I sunk into the pillow, my neck disappearing into my shoulders. "What the fuc-I mean hell? What was that for?"

"For being such an idiot and always getting yourself in these situations. Your mother had warned me that something like this had happened in the past but I thought you'd have learnt from your mistakes."

I frowned as I was reminded of the time back in Brighton when my friends had beat the hell out of me, calling me crazy for having messed up memories of that night.

Nanna didn't notice and continued reprimanding me, "You don't know what you put me through. I've told you so many times not to walk around alone in the dark and you never listen. This is what happens."

"I'm sorry, Nanna. The only thing on my mind was escaping that woman's horrendous singing," I apologised sincerely before weakly attempting to justify myself. What I didn't expect was for her to gently hit me on the head again. I winced as my full lips fell open slightly. "Nanna!"

"The second wasn't from me. I promised somebody else I'd do that on behalf of them."

"Who?"

"None of your business, you nosy parker. I'm still the elder around here."

And here I expected you to be showered in hugs, affection and tender loving care, not whacked around the damn head. People simply don't appreciate you enough. You're far too good for this evil a world.

Pffft, shut up Gabe.

"Nanna. Who?" I repeated, my body stiff with a dull pain that I was ignoring but my eyes twinkling. She looked at me for a second before obstinately turning away and ignoring my question. Smirking, I pulled a disappointed face. "And here I thought I was your best friend. I always knew Elenor from knitting club was your favourite."

Just as I'd expected, Nanna scowled at me with her beady grey eyes narrowing. Biting back a smile, I let the magic of manipulation work.

"Absolutely not. Elenor Riddle?" Nanna sat up straighter in her chair with a fresh surge of energy.

"How ridiculous! I promised that friend of yours Louisa that I'd knock some common sense into you. Oh lord, I despise that Elenor Riddle. All she does is ramble on and on about how adorable her great-granddaughter is. One would think Jessica was the only two-year-old girl in the entire world-"

I felt my breathing involuntarily deepen a tone.

Louisa was here.

Shifting to the right, I felt Nanna's eyes suddenly bore into me. "You did that on purpose. I must be getting old to fall for that. Your father used to do the same thing when he was younger."

My mind was too diversified to pay much attention to what she had said as I remembered all those messages and calls that Louisa had left me. What had that been about?

"Nanna, where's my phone?" I questioned, my eyes paying more attention to my surroundings for the first time. It was a typical hospital room. Oak tables. Black armchair. Uncomfortable beds. My long eyelashes covered my vision as I briefly closed my eyes.

What was it with hospitals being completely white? Did they intend to blind their damn patients as soon as they woke up?

Or maybe they found it funny to scare people into thinking their time had run out and they'd ended up in heaven?

No, Gabe. That would be such a mean inside joke.

Pressing my hand against the side of the bed, I tried to lift myself up but hissed out in pain. Nanna looked at me, eyes swarming with worry whilst her grip on my hand loosened a little. "Stop, Gabriel! Don't try and sit up or you'll break your stitches. What do you need?"

"Can you move my pillow a little higher please?"

I thanked her as she adjusted the ivory material under my head. "The police said they found it smashed at the scene and handed it to me but I've given it to a shop to get fixed. I brought you your old phone because I know you'll get bored stiff without something to occupy it. Teenagers nowadays."

A thankful smile grew on my face at how thoughtful she was. I accepted the phone she handed me whilst watching as Nanna paused as if tentative to bring up another subject. "What is it, Nanna?"

She slowly lifted her gaze so that our slate eyes met. "Nothing, Gabriel. It's just that your parents want to see you too. I told them to hold off until you came back to London." Nanna must have seen me frown at the mention of them because I noticed her switch to a softer voice. "They miss you Gabriel and are worried sick."

I didn't want to see them yet, especially not my Dad. The last time I saw him was back home in Brighton. He'd been throwing a suitcase filled with my clothes out of our front door.

Instead, I changed the topic, absentmindedly glancing at the pearl jewellery she was wearing. It had always been her favourite set. "Where are my friends? Did any of them come here?"

"Of course. They waited at the hospital for the entirety of the first day but when I reached here, I told them to go and rest. The curly-haired man gave me his number and said to ring him when you woke up," Nanna explained as I listened.

"Was his name Prince?"

"Yes, that rings a bell." Her faint eyebrows raised as she recalled something. "That reminds me, I had better give him a call soon."

I felt my muscles tense up as those missed calls from Louisa pestered my mind again. I really needed to see her as soon as possible as it must have been something urgent.

Annoyingly, the next thing Nanna said didn't make me feel any better. "Apart from one that is. Louisa had to return home. She left two days ago."

A flicker of disappointment went through me at the mention of her leaving.

She didn't wait for me to wake up?

"Oh, right," I said as the background noise of doctors walking past outside filled my ears. Nanna shot me an unreadable look making me arch a dark eyebrow. "What is it this time? That look."

"Nothing. I was simply thinking about how I spoke to Louisa before her flight earlier. She's an odd conundrum." Nanna pursed her lips, a sympathy swimming in her eyes. "Acting like a tough cookie and all but her eyes told me she was barely holding herself together. You could say that she was simply worried about you but I'm certain there's more to it. Does she have a lot going on, Gabriel?"

My eyebrows creased as I thought about what Nanna had said. Louisa always had her guard up around everybody and by now I knew that she hated the idea of anyone knowing what she was thinking. "I-I don't really know. She told me her parents wanted to make the most out of her marriage."

"Marriage?" Nanna asked, eyes locking with mine

"Yeah, she recently got engaged to her boyfriend." I had to bit my tongue to stop myself from saying douchebag or something along those lines.

Ooh, nice save Gabe.

She nodded slowly as her face softened after processing what I had said. "Poor girl. How typical for affluent parents nowadays to profit from their children. As if they weren't wealthy enough as it was. Does she love him?"

I looked away from her, thinking about their engagement brunch. They seemed happy.

I think you missed out the word 'unfortunately.'

Oh, shut up.

"Uh, I guess," I said half-heartedly.

"Alright. But keep an eye for her for me." My head nodded in response but Nanna didn't seem quite satisfied. I could have sworn I heard her whisper under her breath, "I know a broken soul when I see one."

Broken soul? I guess she sure was confusing.

"Let me go and inform Prince that you're awake. I'll tell him to come tomorrow so that you don't get overwhelmed."

Just when I was about to argue about being able to take care of myself, she gave me a forbidding look. "Alright, fine," I surrendered monotonously as Nanna towards the door. "Have you eaten?" She ignored my call causing me to roll my eyes. "Nanna, please do us both a favour and eat some lunch after you've finished speaking to Prince. Who's going to look after me if you're also hospitalised?"

From the distance, I heard her grumble under her breath but eventually agree.

Once she had left, I stared blankly at the ceiling above me for a couple of seconds thinking about what Nanna had said about Lou. The problem was whenever I asked Louisa any questions, she'd just shut me out. We'd be fine one moment but then she'd rush away from me the next.

Why does she have to be so bloody complicated?

Frowning, I grabbed my phone and wiped the thing layer of dust presiding over it onto the duvet. Before doing so, I vaguely saw a reflection of my facial injuries on the black screen: a black eyes, split bottom lip, cut eyebrow, stitched on my forehead. "You're a bit of a train wreck, dude." I murmured.

After the phone was clean, I went onto the web and began typing the name Louisa Darling. I paused.

Wait. Does this make me a weirdo? Or even worse, a stalker?

Rolling my eyes, I hit the search button. Weirdos could never be as attractive as me. The results weren't very surprising. On the first few pages were a tonne of articles about her modelling achievements, her status as one of the richest young adults and information of a makeup line that she had released with Estee Lauder.

Before I knew it, I'd somehow accidentally spent an hour surfing the internet.

Yeah, you've definitely qualified as a stalker at this stage, Gabe. A hot, sexy stalker but a stalker nonetheless.

But that was when things got rawer. My eyebrows crinkled as I read the extremely dodgy-looking article that had no images on a newspaper agency that I'd never heard of before. To be completely honest, it looked like the type of website that would secretly install viruses whilst people browsed.

By the time I was a mere two sentences in, my jaw had slackened slightly in surprise.

What?

The date said it had been published roughly a decade ago when they'd been in the US. I read the article for the third time to check if I'd been reading it wrong.

I hadn't been.

Yesterday, CEO and founder of Darling Cooperations Edwards Darling was seen at Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. The close-to-be-millionaire was accompanied by his wife Gayane Darling alongside their two daughters Louisa, 8, and Rochelle, 3, on what seemed to be a fun-filled day.

A thousand thoughts crowded my mind and I switched off the phone and looked at the ceiling again. My eyes shut and I trying to decipher what I'd read.

One question was sitting way above all the rest.

Louisa has a sister? 

Yasss! Finally, I could drop that bombshell on you all. Did any of you already know?

Next chapter is intense af. Remember to vote if you liked the chapter, I'd really appreciate it (:

KiwiAndKoalas x

PS: thanks for 12k! Love you all (:

♥ 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫! ♥