Anna tucked Angelo's right hand into his blanket one last time. She had been doing the same thing over and over again for the past ten minutes. She was anxious, more like scared and worried about him. The least she could do was get him comfortable enough until surgery. She increased the room's heat a little right after she checked the intravenous drip to make sure it was going at the pace.

She stopped for a minute, lowering her gaze to the faint scar on his wrist, the one she almost didn't notice until she took a double look. She held her breath for a second staring at the cut. It was a properly stitched cut, almost invincible too.

How on earth had she never seen that before? She raised her head to his look at him, sadness welling up in her heart again.

Just how much hurt and pain had he been through? How long did he have to go through it alone? The world wasn't fair to either of them but why did it look like he was going through it worse than she was?

She swallowed hard

"You've been shot too haven't you?"

She almost jumped out of her skin at the sound of Sophie's voice. How on earth did she forget Sophie had been sitting on the couch pretending to watch TV while all along, she was watching Anna take care of Angelo.

Anna exhaled, taking deep breaths to calm her racing heart. The thought that Angelo had ever been suicidal scared her a lot, no it wasn't fear... It was sadness. Just how lonely was he?

She exhaled.

What was that Sophie was talking about anyway? She had never remembered telling anyone she had taken a bullet before neither could she remember taking one.

She slowly turned and squinted her eyes.

"I didn't mean shot literally."

Sophie got up slowly and moved to the bed. She still remained beautiful even in a hospital dress and with all her make up gone. Anna watched her sit beside Angelo's legs. She lowered her gaze to Anna and smiled brightly.

"I meant with Angelo's cupid arrow."

A cupid arrow?

Sophie smiled.

"He's not an easy person to hate Anna. No matter how much you try to, no matter how much we all tried to, he always had a way to show us how beautiful his heart was and he kept doing that till we had no other choice but to fall in love with him, you have."

Anna returned her gaze back to Angelo.
Was it really that obvious? Was Shink right after all? Was Anna getting really bad at clouding her emotions? Sophie had barely been there for a day and she could see it already.

"You know when Angelo called to tell me he was getting married to this Atian lady so he could save the company, I couldn't believe it. I just knew mother made him do it. Angelo was never the type to do anything he didn't want to except it was for family, except it was for her. He had lived all his life doing all he could just to get her to accept him but she never did. I told him, I asked him how sure he was , I told him that this marriage could change everything but do you know what he said to me? "

She looked at Angelo.

"He said he wasn't trying to change much. He said he wasn't greedy for power , all he needed to change was the way mother felt about him. He needed to show her he could be the son she wanted him to be."

Sophie exhaled, and reached for Angelo's hand. She didn't take her eyes off him

"All he had ever done is try to prove that to her but she doesn't care about him. That's one thing about mother, She doesn't care about anyone but herself. I knew that, he knows that but he can't seem to stop blaming himself. He thinks she changed because of him, that our family changed because of him and no matter the number of years that passed by, he's still affected by it. "

Anna frowned. She knew everything Sophie was saying, why did she have to hear about it again?

"You know, they killed her."

Anna turned to her, she didn't understand one bit,

"One of your people, she killed his mother. "

Anna swallowed hard.

"Sophie that was a long time ago, not all Atians are like that. Not all Atians are murderers."

For some reason Anna didn't know why she had to explain especially since she lost half her family to humans too, but somehow she just wanted to, she just wanted to show someone that there was something wrong with the stereotype.

" I know. "

She smiled. "And I'm sure he knows that too. I'm just trying to say that it's hard for him you know, he watched his mother die, he watched his house burn to the ground. He gets to live with the burns from that day, he had to blame someone."

"Yes I know, and he blames me and every Atian in the world for it."

Sophie scoffed jestfuly
"No he doesn't. Anna you don't get it do you? This isn't about you or about your people. This is about Angelo and trust me, he doesn't blame you for what happened, if anything, he blames himself. It's his guilt, that's the reason he agreed to this whole marriage thingy."

"I don't-?" Anna shook her head. She was just confused. "I'm not sure I-"

"He says it's for mum, he says its for our family but no, that's not the only reason that he chose to do any of this. He's doing it for him, he sees this as some part of punishment for not being able to stop it, to stop what happened."

"W-what could he have done? He was only a child? "
Anna looked at Sophie.

"He was just a child. He couldn't have stopped what happened even if he wanted to."

Sophie smiled. She slowly turned back to Angelo.

"I was Thirteen when Dad brought Angelo home. I was out at my aunt's for summer break and when I got back home, I saw this little boy, he was scared, terrified and seemed so....alone. I was told he was my half brother." She scoffed. "Everyone kept telling me to be nice to him because he had just lost his mum but I didn't care. I was just angry, I couldn't believe my dad would do that to my mum, to us, to me. I watched my mum cry for days, I cried for days but when I saw my dad, he wasn't how I hoped he would look. He wasn't filled with regrets or shame and he never apologized either for what he did. That was one thing none of us were able to get from him, an apology.  His had quite the ego. when I saw how easy it was for Andre to accept him, it broke my heart even more because Andre was my best friend. They had become so close and Angelo never wanted to play with me after that. I felt Angelo took him away from me and it made me furious so one day, shortly after breakfast, I heard my mum and dad fighting again, mum was crying again. I couldn't take it, I couldn't hold back. I went to Angelo with tears in my eyes and gave him a pocket knife. I called him out for ruining our home and told him how much I hated him and wanted him gone. "

She sniffed.

Anna could feel the hurt in Sophie's voice. She could see the tears that lingered in her eyes.

"I said a lot of things to him and I made him cry. All he wanted to do was fix it, he said he would do anything to fix it and so I gave him an opportunity to, I put the knife in his hands and I told him I'd forgive him if he cut his wrist with it. I just wanted to hurt him, I wanted to scare him because I thought he just wanted what I had. I could have sworn he'd never do what I asked him to because he had all he wanted at home. He had a family, a lot of expensive clothes and toys, but he took the knife. I could have stopped him, I could have told him he didn't have to but deep down in me, I chose to wait it out.  I wanted him to, I needed him to. He was just eight but he knew just how deep he needed to cut himself to hurt like I wanted him to, he understood what I wanted him to do. He took the knife and I watched him cut his wrist open. "

Anna held her breath holding on tight to the sheets. She looked away trying not to shake too much.

"I watched him bleed and while he was bleeding, he kept saying those words over and over again. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' I thought I had it in me. I thought I could watch him get the justice he deserved but I couldn't, I was scared. I realized at that moment that it wasn't his fault any of it happened. It wasn't his fault my father was unfaithful, none of it was his fault and it made me scared. It made me realize that he wasn't the monster mum made us think he was. I was the monster, we all were. I tried to stop the bleeding and when I couldn't , I started shouting for help. Luckily for us one of the maids heard and came rushing in,"

Sophie swallowed hard.

"I uh- I remember the doctor telling me how lucky we all were. He said If Angelo had cut deeper, and with the time length it took us to get him to the hospital, he might have died. I couldn't live with myself, I couldn't live with the guilt of what I had done but Angelo told me he forgave me immediately. He said those words to me, he forgave me even when I didn't deserve it. That's the kind of person he is, the kind that forgives everyone but himself."

Anna let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

" I learned to love him at that moment, I had to. It was the best decision I had ever made. He thought me what forgiveness really means, he showed me what it meant to really care about someone."

She sniffed and then looked away. She couldn't have Sophie seeing the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

"And as you know, when I was nineteen, I fell in love with this guy. I told my dad, my family about it, about him. Everyone thought I was crazy because according to them, I was too little to know what love was and apparently, Stefan was 'beneath my status'. He was a Gardener's son. My dad, he wasn't always excited about letting us associate with the other side of the social ladder. He made those rules for us but forgot to make one for himself years ago when he fell in love with one. What was I supposed to do? I was young and I was in love. I was ready to risk everything to be with Stefan but Dad wouldn't let me. He didn't even want to get to know him at all. To him, Stefan as a bug, lower than a bug. He always saw him as an opportunist, nothing but a low life insect that needed to gain recognition by cunning his way into our family but Stefan was more than that, he was kind, and good. He loved me and no one else wanted to believe that, no one except Angelo. He understood what I felt, he understood how I felt and he helped me escape. He helped me run away with Stefan even though he didn't want to. Even though I threatened to kill him if he ratted me out. "

Anna chuckled.

"He did that? "
Sophie nodded.

"Not just that, he let me have all his savings. He was saving up to get himself a bike for his sixteenth birthday and he gave me everything. We lost contact after I left because I had to change my number but I found him again when he was sent away and we've been in contact ever since.

Anna never knew all that. She had no idea Sophie and Angelo already had a relationship. There were still so many things about him that she didn't know.

Mhnnn

They both turned at the sound of Angelo's soft moan. It was about time anyway. They watched him blink his eyes one after the other trying to keep them open enough to adjust to the brightness of the room.

"Angelo?" Anna leaned closer to him, she was anxious, a little bit excited too. "Angelo can you hear me?"

He turned to her, following the sound of her voice.

"Anna?" He furrowed his brows
Anna smiled. She couldn't even hide how excited she was anymore.

"Angelo, are you okay?"

Sophie moved closer to him and Angelo slowly drifted his gaze to her.

"Sophie?"

He was suprised. He moaned for a bit as he tried to sit up but fell back in when he realized that he was too weak to.

"Sophie,what are you doing here?"

Sophie scoffed, cleaning the tears that came rolling down her face slowly. She sniffed.

"Just like always, you ask the wrong questions. The right question should be why you're here." she told him. "how on earth could you forget to take your medication?"

Angelo exhaled. He raised his hand slowly and rubbed his forehead. So that was it? He had only realized that he was at the hospital at that moment. Was that what happened? Did he blank out during the meeting?

"It was only for a few days. I'm sorry if I scared everyone." He slowly turned to Anna who just sat there, looking at him

"You know better Angelo. You know better than to miss your medications, ever. You could have died."

"Yeah." he chuckled . "I get it, don't nag just yet or I might have more than my medications to worry about."

"I'm about to give you a kidney boy, I can nag how I want." She slapped his leg gently. Anna chuckled.

"What?" Angelo frowned for a bit. That was sure not the first news he wanted to hear the moment he woke up. Sophie pursed her lips.

That wasn't how she wanted to tell him either.

"I- I'd just to get a doctor." Anna announced under her breath. She knew they needed their privacy. She could tell how the news had shocked Angelo terribly. She turned to Sophie. Sophie forced a smile and nodded in consent.

"Take your time, I've been waiting for him to wake so I could torment him anyway."

Anna turned over to Angelo, she wondered if it was okay to leave him alone with her.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to eat him Mrs Trusk, not yet."

Sophie could see how worried she was.
"It's fine." She mouthed to Anna as she got up slowly. Anna drew a deep breath and turned to Angelo.

She leaned closer to him and whispered.
"Let me know if you need anything okay?"

She knew Sophie had good intentions but when it came to Angelo's family, she just couldn't bring herself to trust anyone a hundred percent. Sophie seemed nice, but somehow, she just wanted to protect Angelo, she couldn't help herself for worrying about him.

She let out a breath as she watched Sophie slowly reach for Angelo's hand. She turned around and walked out of the room.