I didn't realize how much time Emma and I had spent in her hideout spot, playing video games and poking fun at overused romance novel tropes - only to admit to loving them in all their cliches.
It was only until she pointed out that the party must have been over by now, that I realized just how many hours had passed by. Hence, why we were now heading back to the house.
Emma was right - the once crowded space was now empty, devoid of the chattering guests that had occupied it for most of the evening. Now, the only sounds that were left was...Aiden's voice.
Wait, Aiden's voice?
And that was when my brain finally registered the familiar sound, which was now coming out in a sharp retort of: "when did I ever ask you to do that?"
Emma and I shared a look, the same thought running through our minds. And so, we hastened our steps, practically half-running into the living room. As soon as we arrived, we were welcomed by the sight of Kara who seemed to be making a mantra out of: "Aiden, please let's discuss this later."
But if he heard her, he definitely didn't show it, as his darkened eyes were still staring at his grandma who for the record, seemed almost unfazed. And it was made even more evident from her reply.
"You said it yourself that you are in love with Aria. I did nothing but give your relationship a little boost in the right direction. If anything, you should be thanking me."
"I should be thanking you?" He echoed with a mirthless chuckle. "Thank you for what exactly? For announcing an engagement without consulting me?"
"For helping you get your life together!" She fired. "You didn't want to marry Olivia, and I understood that you were in love with Aria. But that doesn't mean you still don't need to learn about responsibility. I told you before, didn't I? Getting married is the only way to get you to focus on what's really important. Everything I'm doing here is for you." Her voice dropped notches lower at the last part, eyes searching for what I guessed was some sort of understanding.
But she definitely didn't find it.
"No," came his reply, tone sharp. "Everything you did was for you. You just love to control people like we are some kind of puppets in your little games. But you know what? I can't even get mad at you because I'm more angry at myself.
For a moment, a brief there, I'd hoped that I might be coming home to something different. I was hoping you might have changed even just a little bit. But you're still the same as you've always been," he spat, holding his grandma's heated stare.
No kidding, the woman looked like she was one blink away from shooting fireballs out her eyes as she glared back at him. But it was either he didn't notice, or he just didn't care. I had a feeling it was the latter.
"I'm done playing your stupid games. I'm getting out of here tomorrow, and this time, it's clear to me that there's no point returning."
Kara gave an audible gasp at that, immediately moving over to Aiden, desperately tugging at his arm as she said, "Aiden, I know you don't mean that. You don't mean that, right?"
He cupped her face in response, facing her moist-eyed stare. "I'm sorry, I really am. But I can't keep doing this - not with her here."
"I can understand, honey. I get that you might be upset with the way your grandma handles things sometimes, but everything she does is in our best interest."
He stepped away from her at that, eyes holding hers in a look of utter disbelief, and strangely, hurt. "How can you even say that?"
"Aiden I-"
However, it was another voice that took over. "Forget it, Kara. It's obvious he'd want to turn his back away from his family." Though Aiden's grandma seemed to be referring to Kara, the pointed glare she fixed him as she spoke, made it pretty clear just who her words were addressed to. "He doesn't even care about his little sister."
The shift in the mood was instant. If you thought it was tense before, now it was intense, as was evident in the glaring hatred in Aiden's eyes as he stared back at the older woman. "Don't you dare bring Emma into this."
"Why?" Came the response. "Am I wrong? Aren't you planning on abandoning her like you've always done."
"You know I've never abandoned her."
"Really? So then what do you call wanting to leave like this? Of course, what else can I expect? If you ever really cared for your sister, you'd be setting a model example for her to follow, but instead, you choose to be reckless and ignore what's important. If you care for your sis-"
"He does care," a voice suddenly burst out from beside me.
Emma.
Now, their grandma was staring back at her in surprise. And this time, I couldn't help but relate with her on that one. Since my time here, I'm pretty sure that was the loudest I'd ever heard Emma speak.
"He does care," she repeated. "And that is much more than I could ever say for you."
"Emma!"
Her grandma's warning did not stop her from adding, "do you think I don't know about the boarding school?"
This time, the surprise wasn't only from their grandma, as was evident in Kara's slightly widened eyes.
"Em," Aiden breathed, to which she threw him a tight-lipped smile in response, eyes gleaming. However, when she returned to stare at their grandma, her expression was cold and unmoving.
"I know you used me to get Aiden to do whatever you wanted. But you know the worst part? If Aiden had not agreed, you were actually willing to cast me out just so you could punish him."
"Why would you even think that?"
"I heard you that day!" She fired. "After Aiden left your study, I was still standing behind the door. I heard you make that call asking them to cancel the registration because in your words: 'I'll no longer be bringing the girl.'" She stopped to release a shaky breath before going on.
"That was all I was to you - the girl. Not your seven-year-old granddaughter who had just lost her dad, but just a girl. To you, I was a dispensable thing you could use in controlling my brother. Aiden's right about you; the only thing you care about is playing us like your puppets."
Obviously stunned, it took a little longer than usual for her grandma to manage a response. "How did I never see this? Such insolence!" She flared, advancing towards Emma, who flinched at the sight of her raised hand which was readied to strike.
She instinctively shut her eyes, preparing for the impact. But it never came.
Instead, what followed was: "Aiden." The name seemed to come out through gritted teeth, the older woman's usual poker face betraying unadulterated anger as she stared back at Aiden who had stepped in and held her hand midair, stopping it from going ahead with what it'd intended.
"Don't even think of it," he said, fixing her a hard, meaningful stare to emphasize his point before letting go.
What followed was a string of throaty sounds which I later realized were chortles. Although, to be fair, they sounded more like cackles to me - not like that was much of a surprise, seeing as it was coming from their grandma.
"So you're the one motivating your sister to go against me? I'm glad your father isn't here. He always trusted and respected me. He would have regretted having to see his son turn out like this."
"No," came his reply. "Because his only regret was that you were in his life."
Dang.
That one must have really gotten to her because her expression darkened more than before - if that was even possible.
But it was another voice that spoke. "Aiden, don't say that."
"Why not? You know it's true. She made his life miserable."
"No, she didn't. She cared for him," Kara refuted, shaking her head in what I figured was more of a bid to convince herself, than him. "She cares for all of us."
"Mom, can you just stop!" Aiden fired. "Just for a second, can you stop turning a blind eye to everything? Look at what happened to dad, at what has happened to us. Is that what you call 'care?' If that is it, then I hope no one is unfortunate enough to receive it."
"Aiden," she started in more of a quiver. "I...I..."
"I did nothing but try to make your dad the best version of himself," their grandma cut in. "And unlike you, he was quite understanding of it. He knew what he needed to do and he did it."
"You mean he knew what you needed him to do, and did it even when he didn't want to because he was scared of letting you down. He was afraid of being deemed a failure by you, and you knew that. You knew and you used it to your advantage every damn time."
Beneath the seeming anger in his tone, there was a deep sense of pain that was made more prominent with his soft addition of: "you used it even on that night."
There was a switch in his grandma's expression, almost vulnerable, that told me she knew just what night he was referring to.
Thus, I wasn't surprised when her next words came out less aggressively, yet quite adamant. "You cannot put that on me."
"Of course I can't. You're his loving mother after all." The sarcasm to those words was edge-cutting. "But you'll have to forgive me because I'm not in need of a loving grandmother. So..." He turned to leave, barely making it two steps away before her voice rang through.
"If you get married, I'll transfer my shares to you."
What the-
I was quite versed at the 'if' game. But with Kelly, it was more like: 'if you brush your teeth at night, I'll let you have a little extra candy tomorrow.'
Gosh, thinking back, no one was happier to brush their teeth at night than five-year-old me. I mean, it was a candy reward - I would have even brushed my toes if she wanted me to.
With my mom, the 'if' game was less ideal, but wasn't much different. Well, asides the fact that instead of mouth hygiene, she was more interested in wanting me to be nicer to her new boyfriends. But the point was, the current 'if' situation was on a whole different level.
And Aiden obviously seemed to think the same. "Can you even hear yourself? Is playing with people's lives some kind of business deal to you?"
Her response was something that resembled a smirk - just more sinister. "If that's how you choose to see it, fine. But all I know is that my grandson is in danger of ruining his life, and as his grandmother, I have to do whatever is needed to ensure he doesn't."
Gosh, her thoughts were so messed up.
"The only thing I'm in danger from is you and your controlling ways."
"Aiden, please. Please." Of course, that was Kara. She honestly looked like she was one 'please' away from breaking down.
"No, mom. Why does she always feel the need to interfere in our lives?"
"Please let's just talk about this later," Kara choked out, sounding even weaker than before.
But Aiden's grandma had different thoughts. "Because I know what is best for you!"
"You know nothing about..."
And so it went on - a full-blown heated exchange between Aiden and his grandma until...
"Mom!" Emma cried. I followed her line of sight, eyes widening in horror as I spotted a kneeling Kara, her features contorted in pain as she clutched at her chest.
"Mom," Aiden called, hurrying over to her side at the same time as Emma, both their faces awash with concern, and a bit of fright from Emma's end. "Mom, what happened? Mom?"
"Kara," their grandma was now saying. Surprisingly, she seemed genuinely concerned as well.
"Emma, get Dr. Leo on the phone, hurry!" Aiden instructed, leaving Emma scrambling for her phone, only to drop the device soon after, hands trembling.
Following Kara's collapse, everything seemed to happen in a haze - like I was watching it but I was not there. But seeing Emma with the phone, and her grandma yelling for her to hurry up, I finally snapped back to my senses.
I moved over to a still trembling Emma, taking the phone and searching for Dr. Leo on the contact list, all the while hoping the name was actually saved as 'Dr Leo.' To my relief, it was, and a moment later, I was ringing the line, waiting and hoping for it to connect soon.
It would. It had to - for Aiden, for Emma, and for this woman in Aiden's arms who I'd come to grow quite fond of.
It had to go through. And it did.
"Hello."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A thousand and one sheep.
A thousand and two sheep.
A thousand and three...
The door finally creaked open, causing me to stand from my previous squatting position, and leaving Emma to stop from resting her head on my shoulder to do the same - the both of us curious-eyed as we stared at Aiden who had just stepped out of the room.
He had long abandoned his jacket, and now, he was just in his shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. Though he still looked dashing as ever, I didn't miss the tired traces on his features.
Emma, on her part, was now rushing towards him, saying, "Aiden, how is-"
But that was how far she was able to get before another voice was cutting in, hard and monotone. "This is all your fault. If you had just listened to me without being so stubborn, then this would not have happened."
"Yes, grandma, the doctor said she'll be fine with some rest. Thanks for asking," he mused dryly, not sparing the fuming older woman a chance to respond before walking away, only stopping when he neared me, eyes holding mine.
For a split second there, I was sure he wanted to say something. But he didn't - he simply continued walking. And so, I found myself helplessly staring after him until he disappeared from sight, something inside me aching all the while.
As I replayed that look he had, how broken and how different it was from anything I'd ever seen from him, one thought reigned in my mind - 'why did I ever encourage him to come home?'