Chapter 25 - Part II

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The next day I woke up with a very bad feeling in my gut. That feeling never left me, and I always found myself reaching out for the twins. I had woken up next to Terrence, and that had calmed me in some way, but I still had to stop myself from contacting him anyhow for every hour since he had left.

I tried distracting myself by spending more and more time with the twins. The two looked so happy since I had woken up that sometimes I almost cried at how I was proud at them, and myself for how we got out of that situation.

The nagging feeling still didn't leave me.

I tried thinking of something I could've had forgotten. Maybe something about Larissa, or something about Terrence or his father or the twins.

And then I remembered.

Allie.

It was midday and she should've had been here, fussing all over me. She didn't even come check up on me since she had left to meet Aaron so maybe she was really, really busy.

I frowned slightly and the twins gauged my mood.

"Momo!" Ryan giggled and pointed at Raine who grinned widely at me.

I shook my head and chuckled at them.

They really were going to be those exuberant, talkative people when they grew up. The most uncomfortable I had seen them with strangers was with Larissa, and probably Miranda.

Obviously, those two bitches even made adults uncomfortably itch to slap them.

The next few hours provided a good distraction and I almost forgot about my bad gut feeling. Lucy, Victor, Xavier, Jonah, Aria, Johannah, they had all come to visit us. Not only did they keep me involved, but it was fun watching the kids interacting.

Jenny and John came for a visit, too, along with a few colleagues from Powers Publishing. There were a buttload of people to meet and I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of attention I was getting.

I still had a lingering smile on my face as I remembered a joke Jenny had cracked on the paps, when Terrence stumbled inside my now empty room.

He looked completely pale and his mouth opened and closed many times.

I knew something would go wrong, today. The horrible feeling returned and I waited for Terrence to open his mouth.

"Larissa committed suicide." Was the first thing he said, and frankly, I calmed down a little bit.

The bitch dying or staying alive was least of all my problems, but looking at Terrence's face, maybe something was wrong.

"Is your father alright?" I asked him, and he came near me and and held my hand tightly.

"He is alright." He kissed my knuckles. "But there's something else I have to tell you."

"What is it, Terrence?"

What could be worse that Larissa commuting suicide?

"Alyssa...Someone paid a someone to get Allie into an accident -"

I immediately pushed the sheets off me, "What the fuck are you talking about!?"

"She's been in an accident. Her car had been hit by a truck-"

"A truck?!" I yelled, "A fucking truck?!" Tears welled in my eyes. "Where is she?! How is she, Terrence!"

"She is fine, Alyssa!" He said in a calm voice, "She's just got a couple of bruises here and there, but..."

"But what, Terrence?" I whispered. This was too much. We should've gotten a respite from all the drama. Why did my best friend have to be next?

He looked up at me with reddened eyes, "Aaron was driving. He was with her. And the truck hit the driver's side...and...and...the doctors don't know if he's going to make it through this alive."

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My best friend was brave, and she was so, so strong. She had managed to pry herself off the seatbelt and crawled out off the upturned car and had pulled Aaron off too - before it burst up into flames. She was a stubborn young woman who had not just saved her own life, but managed to pull Aaron out of death's trap too.

But she refused to believe.

Now she was sitting on her bed, next to mine, and wasn't saying a word.

It had been two days since that accident and two days since my friend hadn't said a word. She just kept crying and I had to request the doctors to move her into my room.

At first, she had refused. After learning that Aaron was in the next room, she agreed.

Now she was the one deep in the blame game. She hasn't spoken a word, but I knew she blamed herself for the accident.

Even though we still had no idea who was behind it.

"Allie." I whined, because I had been calling her name for probably the seventeenth time now.

"Alexandria Evans!"

She still didn't say anything.

"You, Alexandria, are not doing anyone any good sitting here and moping around. Aaron needs you. The police needs a firm statement from you. We still don't know who was the target - you or Aaron. Only you, right now, can help Terrence in getting to the bottom of this and you're sitting here like a wax statue!"

She just looked at me for a moment, and then looked away when her eyes filled with tears.

"Miss Evans?" A nurse entered the room, "Your parents are here to see you."

Allie didn't even look up to respond to the nurse.

She looked at me questioningly and I nodded, allowing her to let them in. I was surprised they came to see her, even if was after two days of getting the news.

The door burst open the moment the nurse left, and for the first time, I could see the pale faces of Charlotte and Christian Evans. I had only heard about them, never actually saw them, and I always imagines them as one of those unbelievably good looking people with perfect features and aristocratic, snobby attitude.

But all I could see today was a haggard looking mother, and a desperate father. It wasn't fake - neither of them was crying. It was written all over their faces and in the way they searched for their daughter.

"Alex..." Her mother whispered and for a moment I wondered if she had always called her Alex or she had forgotten that she preferred Allie.

"How may I help you, Mr and Mrs Evans?" Allie said curtly, and this was probably the longer sentence she had said in the last two days.

He parents rushed to her side, immediately, and took each of her hand, which Allie snatched away before they could hold it completely.

Hurt flashed across their faces, and for that moment I imagined myself in her mother's place. If Raine or Ryan ever behaved that coldly or curtly with me, I knew I would be really hurt.

"Alex, sweetheart," her father started, "Your mother and I were so worried about you since dad died."

"You never reached out to me." Allie stated coldly.

"We tried a lot honey. We even came to visit you but you weren't at home and you weren't picking our calls."

Allie gave them a disbelieving look.

"We tried to come as soon as possible —"

"To know if I am dead or not so that you could take over all the money grandpa left for me."

Charlotte Evans burst into tears, while her husband, closed his eyes with a look of complete guilt, regret and shame on his face. Both didn't say a word to Allie - who herself was crying - till her mother's sobs subsided and she finally said.

"We deserve that." She continued crying, tears trickling down her beautiful face. I mentally untucked Allie's parents from the list of suspects behind the accident - there was simply no way they could do this to their daughter.

They were no Larissa.

Allie's father sighed, "We should've had known," he opened his eyes to reveal unshed tears, "that our want of money would cost us our only daughter."

"Stop with that shitty drama, dad. No one's going to hear it." Allie deadpanned, but her father shook his head.

"Dad didn't tell you a lot of things, love. He holds grudges like that." He paused, looking at his wife, "Your mother comes from a poor family. At the time when I was young, I was supposed to inherit your grandfather's business, but fell in love with your mother. Dad didn't approve of it, so we eloped."

Allie and I sat shocked in our respective beds. Allie and I had always known them as prim and proper people. The information they gave was too shocking.

I almost sat up to give them a private moment but all three of them turned to look at me and Allie gave me a look that compelled me to sit down again.

"When he learnt of our marriage, he disowned me and disinherited me from his business, even though I was his eldest son. It was then, when your mother and I decided to start our own business so that we could provide our kids all the comfort they deserved. We were still struggling when your mother got pregnant with you. The first few years with you were difficult, we couldn't give you enough time and were always afraid that you would grow up neglected. We decided to keep you with your grandfather - we could see how much he doted on you and wanted to see you all the time. We just didn't know that he'd never tell you the reason why we were away from you all the time and all of it would come to this."

"I don't know what to say." Allie said, her voice shaking and I could see that her fingers were clutching the bedsheets tightly. Somewhere deep down, Allie was still a little girl who yearned for her parents' attention.

"You don't have to say anything, Alex. Just try to understand us. We have always loved you so much - sometimes we felt like giving everything up and come running back to you. We even sent your grandfather some money to spend on you regularly. But at the reading of his will, we were horrified to know that he didn't use a single penny. Instead he saved it all and give to you as your inheritance. I didn't know why he did that - but it certainly gave a wrong impression to my siblings which had made us worry a lot."

Allie and I sat gobsmacked and I could see that now she really wanted to wail and cry like a baby. Her parents looked at each other and something told me that they still hasn't told her the entire thing.

"We gave up our business."

"What?!" Allie asked, "Why?"

"There's no use of it for us. It cost us our daughter and now almost her life. We are getting old now and we want to spend our time with you before I have to walk you down the aisle. And it's earned us enemies we didn't want."

"Enemies?" Allie's brows furrowed.

"While our money was given to you as inheritance, my siblings and their sons and daughters got nothing. Dad donated all of his money to a charity and sold his business to...a capable businessman."

Allie's mother continued, "Your father's sister came to us the day of your accident, right when we were in a hurry to see you. And she... she..."

As far as I knew, Allie's father had one sister and two brothers. Allie's aunt - I forgot the name - doted on her too. So Allie probably didn't want to hear what her mother was about to say.

Allie's father continued, "We can't tell you, honey. We know you love her a lot. But I just want to tell you that my siblings were the one who conspired against us and were behind your accident. That is why it took us time to reach here. They are in police custody now."

Allie burst into tears.

For a few minutes she didn't say anything, but kept crying, leaning on her mother's shoulder and holding her father's hand.

"I should've been there." She said in between her sobs, "I should've been there inside instead of Aaron. And here I am, sitting idly while I can't do nothing to save his life."

At the same moment, the door burst open and Terrence cheerfully laughed, "Alyssa! Aaron's out of danger! That bastard is going to be fine!" He came in without looking at the trio and gathered me in his arms. "Everything is going to be fine, Alyssa, right?"

I watched Allie jump out of her bed and rush towards the door, her parents following her behind.

And then I murmured to Terrence, hugging him back tightly, "Yes, love, everything is going to be alright."

And we truly wished for it, because I didn't think anyone among us had anything left in us to still keep fighting. We all needed time to heal and with these constant making, breakings and suffering, I was sure everyone was tired.

"I didn't know they were Allie's parents. They recently sold their company to Fischer Enterprises."

I laughed, "Did they know that he's their daughter's boyfriend?"

"If they did then they definitely didn't show it. I was there at the meeting. Apparently, her grandfather, too, entrusted Aaron with his business."

"Allie's so going to blow up when she hears this."

"Yeah."