Blended Fates (A Modern Fairytale Retelling) ✓

Chapter Twenty One : Michael

"Shall I get you some coffee, Mr. Stevens?" Michael asked as he noticed him sitting on the couch, waiting for his daughter to wake up. It had been so long since she had been admitted. And it was probably all his fault. Had he been more serious towards the task appointed to him, nothing like this would ever have happened to her.

"No son, I think I will just wait for her for some time," he replied in a tired tone. And for that moment, Michael felt sorry for him.

"If you need anything then please don't hesitate to ask it from me," he smiled at the old man. The man who had trusted him enough to give him such a huge responsibility.

"Sure son. Why don't you go and rest for some time? I am here for her. We will take care of her, don't worry." Michael could see the pain in his eyes as he said those words. Did Mr. Stevens also feel that Michael was responsible for Evelyn's situation as much as he did himself? He wondered as he got out of the door and looked at her for one last time.

Closing the double-doors to her hospital room, Michael stared at her from outside for some time. The doctors had claimed that all the poison had been taken out of her blood and that she was safe. However, the damage that the poison had done to her until she had been brought to the hospital had been taking a hard toll on her body. They said that she was out of immediate danger but the exact amount of impact that incident had on her could only be determined once she was awake. They couldn't force her awake, they said. So all everyone could do would be to wait. Tamara and Ariana had been to the hospital every single day since the past one week to take care of her for some time so that Mr. Stevens could take some rest from all of his waiting.

He would always ask Michael to go back to his place but secretly, Michael knew that in this time of his crisis, he was his only pillar. Now that Andrew had also gone for some of his business in the other part of the world.

Sometimes, Mr. Stevens would ask him how she was in class, her interests, her studies, her life -- anything at all that he could know and Michael knew that the man was desperate in these details. Those would be the times when he would wonder what exactly was it that happened between the father and daughter that led to such a strained relationship.

But of course, Michael also knew that he was in no position to ask questions. Mr. Stevens was an employer and Michael was his employee. There were things that an employee could never ask his employer, no matter how important they seemed.

Looking through the glass pane toward the girl lying on the bed, fighting for her life, for one last time for the night, Michael made his way to his place. The nurse had come in a while ago and had asked him to leave unless he had the night pass, which he of course didn't. Only one was allowed and who better to have it than her father.

Slowly, Michael made his way toward his car and that was when he realized that maybe, after all these months, he had started falling for her.

"Yaaaaasss!!!" Michael screeched as Axle turned the car in his driveway. It had been one good night for all of them. Laughing and drinking along the beaches of North Carolina, hitting on girls who would laugh at merely their looks. He was fifteen and life was awesome.

"Who is it? Is it you, Michael?" They heard his father's voice as the lights in his bedroom switched on. There, glancing from behind the curtain was Mr. Adam staring at the bunch of boys with an expression nothing less than that of fury.

"And there goes nothing," whispered Alex as all of them got out of the car. It was five of them, enough to full all the seats.

"If you are looking for a seat on our ride, then you can leave Mr. Adam," yelled David. "We don't have enough space to add in your crazy butt with us." And he started laughing. Michael stared at him with an extreme intensity. This was wrong, he knew. This was beyond wrong. David had crossed a limit. But shall he fight today? Seeing as how he was unable to as much as stand on his own, he decided to do it the next morning. The guy anyhow deserved it and whatever he deserved shall be delivered.