Narrator-
"What?" Cara breathed out and shook her head, "what do you mean? She- Cindy wouldn't do that." Cara argued before sending a quick glance in Cindy's direction.
"I'm sorry Miss Thompson, but it's the truth. Now we've started her on Naloxone, but depending on how long she's been addicted, it's going to be a long road to recovery. The alcohol appears to have caused extensive damage on her liver, it's fascinating actually that she's made it this far." The doctor explained.
Cara was speechless. She gulped and looked at Cindy again, while her left arm was hooked beneath her breasts, and her right hand rested on her chest, while her elbow used her left arm for support.
"Is there any other family we can call?" The doctor wondered after a moment in silence.
Cara shook her head, "Not that I know of."
The doctor nodded, "well alright. Do you need anything at this time?"
Cara smiled softly, "No. I'm alright, thank you."
The doctor nodded again then excused himself.
Cara stared at the closed door for a while, before she lifted her face toward the ceiling and breathed out.
"Gosh Cindy, what were you thinking?" Cara wondered aloud, then she looked at her roommate again and shook her head.
Cara returned to her seat, and pulled out her phone... but who was she going to call? She didn't have Vincent's number, nor did she have Jason's number either.
"I wasn't." Cindy suddenly admitted, and Cara's eyes snapped from her phone's screen and in Cindy's direction.
Cindy could barely keep her eyes opened. But she was awake.
Cara rushed to Cindy's side and grabbed her hand.
"You're awake." Cara said, her tears threatening to spill.
"Looks like it." Cindy expressed tiredly, before gulping.
Cara frowned, "Do you want water? Are you cold? I can get you a warm blanket." Cara offered.
Cindy smiled softly.
"You're going soft on me Cara." Cindy called her out.
Cara shook her head.
"It's not funny Cindy. I mean it, what were you thinking?" Cara couldn't stop herself from asking.
"I don't want to talk about it Cara. Let's just forget it." Cindy replied and closed her eyes.
"No you can't do that Cindy." Cara warned.
"Didn't you hear what the doctor said? Your liver is damaged, you can't go back to using drugs or drinking." Cara explained.
Cindy pulled her hand away from Cara's hold.
"I said forget it Cara." Cindy warned.
Cara stood up and shook her head.
"It was Dennis, wasn't it?"
"Cara."
"Admit it, he's the one who gave you the drugs."
"Cara!"
"Should I call him up and let him know he almost got you killed?"
"Damn it Francesca I told you to drop it. SH*T!" Cindy snapped while sitting up in a rage.
Cara stepped back in shock. Cindy breathed heavily.
"Get out." Cindy ordered, then she laid back down and turned on her side to ignore Cara.
Cara shook her head and grabbed her purse. She looked at Cindy one more time, then she left the room altogether.
As soon as Cara emerged into the hallway, Vincent turned the corner. Cara bumped into him, and he held her hip and arm to keep her from falling. Suddenly, Cara was pulled into Jason's chest, her back flushing against his body. Cara gulped and looked up at Jason, who stared down her way, then his burning gaze focused on Vincent's fingers which still held her arm.
Jason looked up at Vincent, his gaze murderous. He wasn't quick to let go of Cara's arm, and Jason took a step forward.
"Wait." Cara said softly, pushing back against Jason's body to hold him in place.
Jason stiffened behind her, while the skin of her bottom pressed into his hips. Cara looked back up in Jason's eyes. Thankfully they stood at a corner with little to no traffic, and no current bystanders.
"Not here." She whispered to Jason.
Jason's jaw clicked. His finger tremored against Cara's body, and he looked Vincent in the eyes.
"Let her go." Jason ordered Vincent.
"She's my friend." Vincent declared, knowing that Jason wasn't in the right state of mind.
With Cindy going to the hospital, and the tension between whether or not he wanted to accept his feelings for Cara, Vincent was aware that Cara couldn't stay alone with Jason. While he had no intentions or strong feeling towards Cara, Vincent still felt protective of her, even if it meant standing up to another dom.
Cara's hand fell on Vincent's fingers. Jason ripped her hand off them.
"Jason, she's right. You can't do this here." Vincent expressed calmly.
"I said let her go." Jason ordered again, while Cara was still pressed to him, and he kept a grip on her arm.
"Vincent." Cara called out the Italian's name.
Vincent's eyes snapped to Cara's gaze. She smiled softly and nodded in sign that she was okay.
Vincent blinked and chanced a look toward Jason again, before he removed his hand from her arm.
"Room 408." Cara told Vincent, who stepped to the side and headed down the hallway, leaving Cara and Jason together.
As soon as Vincent turned the corner, Cara ripped her arm out of Jason's hold and turned around. He stepped up to her, as if begging for her challenge. He was waiting for Cara to reprimand him so that he could shut her up. Cara suspected this, so she kept her mouth shut. They breathed heavily. Cara locked gazes with Jason, her chest panting. Jason's jaw was so stiff, Cara feared he'd break his teeth.
Neither one of them spoke. Not for a while. Cara looked at Jason's lips and frowned. She shook her head and turned her back on him. She didn't have the energy for feelings right now.
For a moment, Cara stood alone. Her back felt cold, the meat of her bottom as well. Then, Jason's arms came over her head, and he wrapped them both around her throat and shoulders. He stepped up behind her and leaned his head with hers. Cara sighed and closed her eyes. Her hands slowly hooked on his strong arms, and her back no longer felt cold, and her behind felt covered by his hips.
They stayed this way for as long as time allowed them to. Cara's skull filled with Jason's cologne, and she wasn't worried about the aches which shot up her tibial bones. Nor did she worry about the pain on her heels, or the soft cramping which started to grow in her lower abdomen right then and there.
Meanwhile, Jason was confounded and asking himself why he was even here with Cara, in this position. Why did he become so possessive of her when Vincent touched her? And why, oh why, couldn't he get enough of touching her skin and feeling the warmth of her body?
Cara winced slightly, then removed her left hand from Jason's arm only to rub her stomach, as the ache grew in her lower abdomen. Jason felt the movement and opened his eyes and looked down. His large hand suddenly fell on top of hers. Cara gasped.
It was too much.
She tried to step out of Jason's hold, but he locked her in.
"What's the problem?" He asked her.
Cara shook her head in a panic, "thi-this, this is too much Jason. Let me go."
"Why?" Jason asked in return.
"I can't." Cara declined with a shake of her head.
"What you're looking from me Jason, I can't." Cara said again.
Jason's hands tightened in a fist.
He leaned his mouth near her ear, "what makes you think I want something from you?"
Cara pursed her lips forward and her nostrils flared.
That was it.
"Jason, let me go." Cara demanded again.
She wouldn't let herself fall for him.
"If you do this Miss Thompson-"
"Nothing changes because there is nothing between us." Cara used Jason's trick and cut him off.
He would hurt her too much if she let him.
"There never was." Cara continued.
So she had to hurt him first, to save herself.
"And there never will be." Cara determined firmly.
Jason dropped his arm and she walked away from him and headed back to Cindy's room without another word to Jason.
Jason looked after the way Cara departed but didn't follow her.
She was right. There was nothing between them. Except for this unhealthy obsession which only stemmed from the hatred they both shared for one another. Jason shook his head. He had to follow after Cara's example if he was to save the last drop of sanity and common sense he had. So with that thought, Jason turned the opposite way, and left.
As soon as Cara reached Cindy's door, Vincent opened it. He appeared slightly taken aback that she was right there, but then he stepped into the hallway and noticed that Jason wasn't with her.
Cara avoided eye contact and Vincent could assume that something had happened, so, with a breath he pulled Cara into his arms and kissed her forehead.
"Cindy says she won't be going back to the mansion." Vincent explained when he pulled away, but still held Cara's arms.
"She wants to talk to you, but I need to let you know that I'll be leaving too. I'm going back to pack my bags. Isabella and I are going off together." Vincent continued.
"Isabella? Is that the girl you almost stabbed Thomas with a fork for?" Cara wondered.
"I wouldn't have stabbed him. At least I wasn't as close to doing it, as Jason was with killing me with a paper cup earlier." Vincent hinted.
"He wouldn't kill you Vincent."
"No, Mia Dea (my goddess)," Vincent mused while touching Cara's cheek, "he'll do anything for you. I can see it in his eyes. Just like I'd do anything for Isabella. I'm going to make her my wife."
Cara's hands flew to her mouth as tears welled in her eyes.
"Really?" She whispered in wonder.
"Really." Vincent said.
Then he pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Cara.
"This is my number. Don't be a stranger." Vincent expressed, then he kissed Cara's forehead again.
Vincent prepared to step away, and Cara reached out and held his arm.
"You'll always be my Italian lover." Cara said softly.
Vincent smiled. He pressed two fingers on his lips, then softly placed them on Cara's mouth. She closed her eyes, and he caressed her face again, and then he turned and left.
Cara breathed out shakily and entered the room again. Cindy was lying on her back and staring at the wall. Cara closed the door and sat on the chair. For a moment neither one of the women spoke. Cindy kept staring at the wall and Cara stared at the door, her heart pounding in her chest with pain. She lost her dad, she just lost Vincent, and now, Cindy too would walk out of her life. She couldn't stay alone with Jason. She couldn't trust him with her heart. He'd already taken so much from her, she refused to just give herself up entirely to him.
Cara breathed out and closed her eyes.
"So, Francesca." Cara inquired without asking a question.
Cindy licked her lips and gulped while blinking slowly.
"My little sister." Cindy explained.
Cara didn't say a word.
"She was about your age, maybe a little younger than you. But she was four years younger than me. My dad migrated with my mom here from Haiti when I was three years old, and she was pregnant with my sister. She died while giving birth, and my dad did all he could to raise us. We first lived in an apartment, and then when I was fifteen, I landed a job at a grocery store, and we were able to move to a small residential neighborhood lined with duplexes." Cindy began to recount.
Cara gulped and decided to look at her.
"Now, during my senior year, I was seventeen, my sister was thirteen. There was this house across the street where a single dad, white, lived with his son who was my age. They smoked a lot and I never saw him at school. My dad warned us to stay away from him. He worked three jobs just to have a savings for both me and Fran. But Fran, she was a free spirit, just like you. No one could tell her nothing. She was stubborn and hardheaded and had no real sense of danger."
Cara tensed, she could sense where this story was going.
Cindy looked Cara in the eyes, "She started hanging out with that boy. He got her into smoking, and sometimes she'd sneak out to see him when I go to work. One night, I was working on a project for a full ride scholarship. She snuck out and I didn't even realize she was gone. The next morning, I go to wake her up and she's not there. That's when someone knocks on my door. I open it and it's the kid from across the street, and do you know what he tells me?"
Cara shrugged but feared the worst.
Cindy chuckled coldly, a bitter tear running from the corner of her eyes.
"He says, 'come get yo hoe ass sister off my backyard.' So I ran across the street and found my sister in the backyard with no underwear, and cold. He had drugged and raped her, and she overdosed right then and there. I called 911, and he got out on bail." Cindy shrugged.
"Cind, I'm so sorry." Cara said, pulling her chair next to Cindy and grabbing her hand.
"A year later, my dad comes home from work on the anniversary of her death. I didn't get the scholarship, so I attended community college. He did lawn work on the weekends, so he grabbed his machete and headed across the street. He beat the sh*t out of that kid with the blade, but he never cut him nor stabbed him. But he's a Haitian immigrant, who wasn't too proficient in English. So he got deported, and I was left alone here."
Cara kept Cindy's hand pressed between hers but said nothing.
"Jason found me two years later, and three years following that, in walks a girl through the doors of the mansion, and as soon as I saw you, I saw Fran. And whenever you stood up for yourself whether it was to Jason or Thomas or Vincent, I saw Fran. And when I couldn't get you to budge on the lifestyle I chose to survive, it was all Fran. I was already on drugs before Jason met me, and I really tried to not make it a habit. But, as soon as the anniversary of her death comes around, I just want to forget."
"And my showing up didn't really help." Cara said softly.
"No." Cindy denied, then she breathed out shakily.
"You showing up gave me exactly what I had been missing this whole time." Cindy admitted.
Cara looked at her.
"You gave me someone to love, and a reason to find peace in this awful world. So I won't go back to the mansion, although I have no idea where I'll go from here, but at least, I have peace, and I have you to thank for that Cara." Cindy admitted.
Cara smiled and sniffled then wiped her tears.
"Stop it. You're going soft on me Cindy."
Cindy smiled and closed her eyes, as two more tears leaked from the corners of her eyelids.
"Thank you Cara." Cindy said, then her monitor began to beep erratically.
"Cindy?" Cara called and jumped to her feet.
"Cindy?!" Cara screamed, shaking her shoulders.
Cara pressed the call button, and the nurses and doctor rushed into the room. Cara backed away and pressed herself against the wall. It was like Deja Vu. A nurse pulled the lever under the bed and Cindy's body was flat. The bed was lifted and orders started flying all over the room.
Cara drew in a short breath.
Not again.
It happened quicker this time. Her liver failed and the drugs in her system was enough to facilitate a multi-organ failure. She never stood a chance.
"Time of Death-"
"No." Cara stopped the doctor this time too.
Everyone in the room looked at her. Cara's eyes were dry, but her heart was weak and empty.
"No." Cara said again.
Cindy was cleaned up, and Cara signed over for the hospital to call the mansion so Jason could handle Cindy's funeral.
Cara walked out of the hospital and took a taxi back to the mansion. She paid the driver, then headed inside. To her surprise, Marcell was still awake. Vincent was already gone. Jason was in his office. Cara walked up the stairs and headed to the room she once shared with Cindy. When Cara entered the bedroom, it felt emptier than usual. She walked toward her bed when she noticed an envelope on her nightstand.
Cara sat on her bed and picked up the envelope. It had her name on it from Vincent and Cindy. Cara opened the letter. There was a note. She opened it, and it was written in Vincent's handwriting.
It said:
Dear Cara,
I think by the time you read this letter, both Cindy and I will be gone. This isn't a goodbye, so we won't make it sad. Use what's in the envelope to pay off your debt and get out of the mansion.
Matter fact sis, get yourself a brand-new life, a good man, and you know the deal, loosen up.
That last part was Cindy, but she's right Mia Dea, take care of yourself.
With love,
Vincent Bianchi and Cindy Pierre.
Cara sniffled and wiped her tears. She looked inside the envelope again, and there it was, a check for exactly ten thousand dollars.
Cara drew in a breath, her scalp bursting with a warmth of relief. She didn't know what to do. But her feet and hands did. Cara instantly began to move around the room. She packed her bags in a haste, and she didn't stop until she had everything she brought to the mansion packed and ready to go. The clothes which she had bought but didn't have a chance to wear still had the tags on, and she decided to leave them behind. Everything she bought during her shopping spree but never used, Cara decided to leave them at the mansion. Maybe they'd be of use to someone else. When Cara was sure that she was ready to go, she grabbed her stuff and looked around the room one more time.
The other entertainers were asleep, and so was the house staff. Cara wrote a letter for Luiza and thanked her for being her anchor in the mansion. Cara brought her bags down the stairs, and Marcell, who was preparing to head to bed noticed the baggage.
"Shall I ask the cab driver to return?" Marcell asked, and Cara nodded, then she turned and headed to Jason's office.
For the last time, Cara waited for Jason's permission. She entered the office with the check in her hand. She took a seat. Jason was working on his laptop on the funeral arrangements for Cindy.
Cara didn't wait to be acknowledged. She simply placed the check on the desk and slid it towards Jason.
The debtor stopped typing and looked at the check. He noticed the amount and didn't even have to ask what it was for.
Jason picked up the check and looked at Cara. She had this brightness in her eyes. An expectancy, an excitement. And so Jason saw it in her eyes. She was leaving and there's no way he could stop her. He wouldn't... He shouldn't.
Cara, seeing that Jason was now mute, sighed and stood up from the chair. She turned her back on him for the last time and released a soft smile. Cara walked towards the door and opened it. She stepped out onto the hallway, and Jason said nothing.
Cara sighed and nodded, then she pulled on the door to close it.
"It was a pleasure doing business with you Miss Thompson." She heard just as she closed the door.
Cara wanted to laugh. Even on her last day here, he still refused to call her by her first name. This said a lot about the level of respect Jason had for her. But it didn't matter now, Cara told herself. She returned back to the front door, and the cab was already there.
Cara retrieved Luiza's letter from her purse and gave it to Marcell, who had already delivered her baggage to the taxi driver, and now held the door open for her. Marcell accepted the letter and Cara prepared to walk out of the mansion. She stopped beneath the doorframe and she turned and hugged Marcell, catching the Butler by surprise.
Marcell tapped a hand on Cara's back, and she laughed and backed away. Cara looked inside the mansion one more time. She remembered the first day she walked through those doors and met Cindy and Vincent.
"Yeah." Cara whispered to herself, then she turned and left the mansion without looking back.
Her departure wasn't only witnessed by Marcell, but also by Jason. He tracked the cab on his monitors until it left the premises of his mansion entirely. Jason released a breath and leaned back in his chair. He looked at the check and threw it on his desk with a huff. He didn't want the money anymore. Jason stood up and ran a hand through his hair. He loosened his tie and unbuttoned his cufflinks.
He paced the floor of his office and poured himself a drink. He emptied the cup only to hurl it across the room and smash it against the wall. Jason grabbed another glass and shattered it again, then he grabbed another, and finally the last one. Jason prepared to throw it, when he realized it was the glass that Cara drank from not too long ago.
Jason placed the cup down and sighed. He sniffled and ran another hand through his hair, then his eyes fell on his phone. Jason walked back to his desk and unlocked his phone then he opened his contacts.
Jason chose the person he wanted to call and brought the phone to his ear.
It rang once, twice, and finally a third.
"This is Declan." Jason heard him say, but before Jason could say anything, Declan spoke to someone else, "Caitlyn babe, you don't want to test me. Get over here, now."
"Stop telling me what to do." Jason heard a girl's voice answer.
"Is this a bad time?" Jason decided to speak.
"No. Go ahead Jason." Declan replied.
"I need a favor." Jason expressed calmly, though on the inside he was raging.
______________________________________
Hello lovies!
Here is this week's first update!
So extremely tense and emotional chapter. We have a few unexpected goodbyes and other emotional instances, which begs the question, what did you guys think of this chapter? Jason seems like he's already up to something, what do you think it is? And Cara has left the mansion. With that being said, what do you think is going to happen next?
Let me know what you think by VOTING, COMMENTING AND SHARING!
Lots of
-Tania.