[ e n t a n g l e d i n w e b s ]

♥ louisa ♥

I WASN'T ONE to give up hope easily but frankly, I was almost certain that I was going to fail my exams. They were in less than 2 months and here I was dancing to the background music of a romcom that I'd never heard of before. Two empty bottles of rose wine were on the coffee table of my living room besides an empty side plate that had previously been garnished with green olives and feta.

"Oh my god, Louisa. How the fuck did you never tell me your rugs are so soft?" Lexi said, lying on the floor making an imaginary snow angel on the carpet. Her dark straight hair contrasted against the cream of the flooring.

I rolled my eyes, collapsing onto the sofa and kicking my feet up. I crossed over my feet so my left foot was now resting on top of the right. "I'm not even going to comment on the lack of grammatical sense, Lex. And that's not a rug. It's a carpet."

"Ugh. Unnecessary. Same thing," she attempted to grunt but it didn't quite sound right due to her nasal voice. "Where the hell is Pierre? I asked him to buy a dessert, not a desert."

She giggled at her own joke as I rubbed my face. Both of us were craving something sweet and I was beginning to regret telling Marie to have a day off. Her tarte tatins were the best.

"Let's watch a film," Lexi started.

"We literally are."

"No. On Netflix. On your laptop. Under a giant duvet tent," Lexi blunted stated, a manic grin growing on her face. Her full lips curled upwards before she added, "With more snacks."

I tilted my head to the side, glancing at the clock. I'd wasted too many hours of the day. There was no way I could salvage it.

"Fine but no horror. I'm gonna get changed into sweatpants. Password's Iamthequeen123"

"How modest." She reached for my laptop, thinking aloud. "Right, let's see if they have The Purge on Netflix. The Shining is also-."

Standing up from the sofa, I threw a cushion right at her face as she cackled loudly.

I quickly got dressed in a hoody and trousers, brushing my hair and pulling it into a high ponytail. The best thing about staying at home with friends was not having to wear make up. My skin was the best it had been for a while. One the way back to the living room, I went to the kitchen seeing if Marie had bought anything interesting recently. "Marie, you absolute gem," I muttered to myself pulling out a platter with hummus, pineapple pieces and other bites. Pressed over the cling film was a post-it note reading in case you get hungry.

There was a spring in my step at I went back to the living room. "Lexi, I come bearing gifts-"

I could immediately tell something was wrong, even with the buzz of alcohol clouding my mind. She was frozen in space, eyes slowly moving across the screen on my laptop from left to right. Then again. "Lex, what's up?" I asked, moving the empty rose bottles onto the floor so I had space to put the platter in the table.

"Louisa, what is this?" she said quietly, rotating the laptop to face me.

That was the moment I realised I'd messed up. Before she and Pierre had come, I'd been researching symptoms and treatment to understand what it actually was.

"Lex, I was just seeing-"

Her voice was surprisingly cold. "Don't Lex me."

"What do you mean? I was just trying to see if there was anything I could do to help."

She snorted. "Help? You think I need help?"

I let out a sound of frustration, looking at her bright blue eyes in confusion. There was a sudden anger that had ignited. "That wasn't what I meant. I'm sure there's lots of different treatment. I just wanted to do my research so I could support you."

The corners of her lips sunk downwards, all traces of happiness long gone from her face. "Back to normal. There it is again. Even you think I'm broken now. That I need fixing. Grab some cellotape and stick everything back together, right?" The flares of agitation in her eyes were slowly melting away, becoming replaced with sadness and dare I say it, hurt. A lump formed in my throat and I pulled my eyes away, instead staring at the computer screen reading Infertility Treatments.

Swallowing hard, I looked up. "Why don't we book an appointment to see a specialist? We can go together if you like."

Lexi shook her head. "So you're gonna make that decision for me too. After all, Lexi's body is everyone's body, right? Who am I to make a choice about what I want to do?"

I was silent for a few beats. Her reaction was disjointed and in an array. Me searching for treatments wasn't the issue here. It was the trigger for something else. "Lexi, what's going on?"

In a split second, her eyes had welled up. Standing up, I wrapped my arms around her tightly as she cried. For a few minutes, there was complete silence apart from her occasional sobs but both of us were present in the moment, whether we liked it or not.

Eventually, she lifted her head up. "Do you know what happened that day?" Her eyelashes were wet with tears making them look even longer. "Why I lost the baby?"

A feeling of dread was swirling in my stomach as I held her eyes, wet with tears, for a moment.

"Because it was taken from me," she forced out between gritted teeth. "And I wasn't even given a chance to protect it. My own child. After weeks of finding out I was pregnant, I had decided that I wanted to keep the baby. My baby. More importantly, I wanted to become a mother and I was ready to tell my parents."

"But how convenient is it that a parcel ends up on my father's desk with my ultrasound scans and medical records before I get a chance to speak to them and explain."

I felt physically sick.

"And how convenient is it that that happened to be the last straw for them. And how damn convenient is it that they decide this is the moment that they should care and start making decisions for me."

It was clear where this was going. Her voice became more throaty as she choked back a sob. "They forced me to abort and what I hate the most was that I let it happen. I protested, argued and fought with them so much. But in the end, I failed to protect my child. I should have run away."

Her hands were clenched tightly into fists. " And now I'm paying the price. I'll never have the chance to be a mother again. I deserve it, Louisa. I really do. I've lost the right to search for treatment. The time is better spent on someone else."

I wrapped my hand around her even tighter. "Lexi, that's not true at all. Nobody deserves to go through something like this, least of all you."

My hand weaves their way through her pin straight hair as I comforted her. She mumbled something against my back quietly at her sobs eased gradually. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry that you've had to go through this. Just give me the opportunity to support you. You've been my rock for the past few months and I regret not being more aware of how you were."

"Louisa, it's not your responsibility-" she began to muffle out but I interjected.

"I know. I know it's not but I should have checked in more. But I will now. Everything's going to be okay because I'm back now."

As a calmed her down for the next few moments, only one question was lingering in my mind. How long was I back for? There was only a few weeks left of the exchange programme.

One thing was clear though. There was one individual entangled in webs at the centre of everyone's problem and the sooner I handled him, the better it would be for all.

Hurry up, Gabe. Get back here soon.

I couldn't have wished for the holidays to go any faster.

***

I always knew the case was going to be public. Two influential families and two adolescents. Of course, the media was going to devour a story of a toxic abusive relationship. I mentally applauded myself for calling the relationship by what it actually was.

Baby steps add up.

What I didn't expect, however, was how triggering reading the media stories would be.

The article was titled in bold black caplocks: DARLING'S IN THE CITY'S HEART BUT NOBODY IS IN HERS. Beneath it, the subheading was 'a fairytale proposal gone wrong.'

Marie swatted me on the head. "Silly girl. Don't read stuff like that. They don't know what they're talking about."

I locked my phone muttering under my breath, "They seem to know more about the case than I do to be frank." Reading the most ludicrous stories in the papers about Logan and I was, at least, an entertaining pass time.

"Okay, Louisa. Let's go through the key points again if you're feeling alright?" My lawyer spoke. We were in the same meeting room that I'd been in for what felt like one hundred visits lately.

I nodded, "Sure."

"It's important to distinguish that the case is focused on domestic abuse. On the live stream that will be presented today, there is no mention of the car crash and accident, do you understand? No mention of such incidents was made during the period of recording. Hence, nobody is aware of it apart from the people in this room and the select few people on this list."

I glanced down at the computer screen before me. Marie, Lafayette, a few other people. I'd strategically placed Gabriel's name in the middle of the list. For some reason, my mind felt more at ease that way. As if it made him safer or something. Still, nobody apart from him and I knew that we were together that day, and for his sake, I needed to keep it that way.

"There's another group of people not on this list who now definitely know about the incident. And that's Logan's legal team," she continued. "Since the case is extremely public, the media does have influence, and I'd expect Logan's team to soon use the story of Louisa's involvement of Rae's accident to generate emotional sway."

I already knew that was coming at some point.

My eyes locked with my parents and they gave me a reassuring nod. "Our best bet is to claim that it is a complete fabrication. As we confirmed last week, a deep search was done for evidence linking Louisa with Rae at the time of the hit and run, and nothing plausible was found. If anything, if Logan's team do choose to accuse Louisa of involvement in Rae's death, they could be shooting themselves in the foot. They'd only be solidifying the narrative of Logan acting like a jealous, possessive and paranoid boyfriend."

On a personal note, I do however encourage you discuss Rae's passing with any individuals you would likely to personally talk to as soon as possible. Frankly, I believe there could be a media leaks on Rae's accident at any moment."

A few days ago, I'd met up with my close friends and family individually to do exactly that. It was a tough conversation to have but the more I engaged in it, the more cathartic it felt. There was a beauty in remembering Rae and talking about her aloud made everything feel okay again.

"At present, the defence's case is strongly reliant on the argument that Louisa aggregated Logan's behaviour, despite being aware of his intermittent explosive disorder or anger issues. There is however, clearly mentions of assault occurring prior to his diagnosis."

My eyes darted to the clock in the corner of the room. My mother must have seen me for a second later, she suggested that we start making our way to the courts again. I added another line to the tally chart of case sessions so far. Each line was a silent win though, marking few days until I'd never have to see Logan again.

how on earth has it been basically a year? it's been such a busy period for me and time's gone so fast! so sorry to have kept you all waiting - thank you to every one of you who requested me to update (: it helped me to get out of the writing rut and form another chapter!

hope you enjoyed and comment below your favourite scene/moment in the series so far! i'd love to hear

best,
kiwi