ELEVEN YEARS AGO.His brush met the canvas with light brown strokes, and he looked to his magnificent drawing from all the corners. It was beautiful, not because of his talent for he was only learning but because of the person that was in it—the person Oscar Baron drew.He was the new boy at the elementary, and being the invisible brother he was, Oscar was fond of camouflaging. He would sit by the corner with his pen and paper by lunch and act so mysterious while the class went on. He was used to some attention because a few of the popular girl liked him—they fell for his mystery before his dark glistening hair and freckles.Oscar knew but he was quiet.It was so hard to decipher what he was thinking at any moment, so hard to tell if he found a joke funny or if he understood the lessons. In his six months that he was there, no one did as much as form a relationship with him before he disappeared.Sofia was one of the dozen girls who couldn’t take her eyes off him. She’d pray on her kn
“Sofia!”Even his voice couldn’t stop her from ravaging the closet ls for a few clothes and whatever she sought after. Sofia was on edge, running her hands through her hair before reaching for the one bag she’d brought.“Hey” Oscar reached out to deter her, and only then did she pause for a deep breath. She looked into his eyes and he looked into hers to see how much anxiety had overcome her dilated pupils. “Hey hey” His voice was calm and towering and she was restive within his clasp.“I need to go” Sofia asked of him and having already known of her mother’s fate, Oscar nodded reluctantly. “Okay i’ll drive you, Sofia. Just let me get some work finished up” Oscar added but with a hand, she pushed him away.“I don’t have much time. My mother doesn’t have much time” Sofia was back in her state of agitation once again and she groped her bags. “You have to be careful, Sofia. What if it’s a trap?” Oscar roped her arms back and she snapped at him.“My father is everything but a liar. I know
“Damien.”“What are you doing here?” Sofia asked, using a finger to push a strand of hair behind her ears. The sun reflected in her brown eyes and she found herself taking a conscious step back. She was meters away from the roads and a few steps below from where he stood.With his arms against the railings, Damien sauntered towards her.The car tires and noises echoed her ears and were a little louder because of her sudden anxiety. Sofia dreaded the moment that she would face him alone—especially after he came to Salem with her father. She could never comprehend how fast one could detest someone you once loved until it was her story.Until it happened to her.And now when she called his name, and when Sofia looked into endearing eyes that wasn’t so much so, she didn’t feel anything for him.“I was just with your father and he told me you were here. I couldn’t not want to see you” Damien spoke in his signature hoarse voice as his hands slipped into his pockets. She pushed a hard lump
“Aaron!”“Aaron it’s here!” Francesca assumed a sing-song voice as she used her feet to push open the door. She was met with her husband who had paused with a tie around his neck which he knotted. And she hefted the piece of documents she’d retrieved from the mail in her hands.“They got back to us!” Francesca squealed, unable to hide her excitement as she closed back the doors. She tore off seal of the envelope before throwing it to the center table. By the way Aaron looked at her, you could tell he knew the one thing that could get her this excited.And he wasn’t even trying to hide his.This was something they’d waited for the longest time—and something that would bring them several steps closer to finally clinching the inheritance of his father before he passes. Francesca scaled through the papers before letting her palms find her heartbeat.“His name is Diablo” She whispered with a light scoff and Aaron as well as he looked with intrigue. “Is he the donor?” He asked, retrieving t
“Sofia” His voice and his brittle fingers gnashing against her cheeks sent an electric sizzle up her body. There was a flash of light behind her eyes as Sofia reluctantly and completely surrendered herself to Oscar’s touch.He pulled off her clothes and allowed it fall to the ground. And then he stood to mount her. She lifted her gaze, moving backwards with her elbow buried into the rumpled silk sheets. She pushed a lump down her throat as he framed her chin and Sofia was faced with the immense desire that pulsated through his veins and glimmered in his stormy eyes.“I want you.” He declared, all that was left between their electric skins being the black brassiere she still wore—the brassiere he was quick to rip off and a shaky breath escaped her lips. “I want you too, Oscar” Her breathes drowned into his ears as her arms wrapped around his neck. She pulled him into her as he crashed his lips for a lasting kiss.It was the hundredth that night but his kiss still felt so refreshing, so
Francesca’s head fell backwards with her feet raised into the air. Shaky breathes fled her lips as for a moment, her eyes drowsed. Drifting her back into consciousness was Aaron’s hands which held firm around her wrists and she turned with frailty to look at him.“You’ve got this” He muttered above the chattering of the home nurses beneath her. She felt a hand move up her inner thigh and Francesca gasped. Looking down, she met the eyes of the gynecologist that urged her to be still as she grabbed the syringed semen.“It’s going to pinch a little” The nurse warned before sticking her head underneath the blanket that hung over Francesca’s knees. Her legs wobbled a bit in shyness but Aaron grappled her attention to him. When she gazed into his dwindling grey eyes, all she could hear were the echoes of his words the day before.“By tomorrow, we’ll be parents” Aaron said.And as much of a terrible person that Fran was, those words resonated in her and reminded her of the fact that for the
“Here you go!” With a tainted smile across her lips, Sofia handed the freshly brewed cup of coffee she’d made over the counter to Brenda, who was nearly as enthusiastic as she was.Brenda looked into the cup before spreading a few dollar bills across the table and she returned a smile. “You’re getting better at this, newbie” She commended and Sofia’s eyes sparked as though she craved that much validation from someone she saw only once a day. But then again, it was Brenda—the same Brenda who didn’t like her a few weeks ago when she started because of how many times she mixed up her order.“Really?” Sofia echoed, thrilled to hear that and Brenda rolled her eyes.“Don’t push it, newbie” She turned around and left the queue, she wasn’t going to stop calling her that even if overnight, Sofia turned into an expert. She, on the other hand liked the name and Brenda. She was one of the early morning customers that Sofia looked forward to. Merely a love-hate relationship but Brenda soon began t
“He’s drunk.” Aaron reached out to him only for Theodore to yank his hand away. “Why is it so impossible that i find a wife for myself huh?” He raised his voice but his eyes set between both Cynthia and Sofia. “Am i not a Baron?”“Or is it because you’re not my mother?” He snarled and a tear rolled down Cynthia’s cheeks. Her face was red and flustered and her lips quivered slightly. “I didn’t say that” Came a whimper from her lips and Sofia remembered the time in the coffee shop where Theo had told her all about his father and how his mother never came back for him.How all his life, he was conflicted over how much a Baron he was and how much he didn’t want all of this but somehow here he was, here he was being the person he claimed to hate. Sofia wiped her tears and realized that the Theodore from the coffee shop was gone and it might’ve been because of her.“That’s enough” Oscar chastised him, seeing how he caused the whole countenance of the room to fall. Theo, with his hands rais
FIVE YEARS LATER.“Aunt Annie!” A child’s scream reverberated through the halls before a little girl of about five years scurried into the room in a bright yellow dress and the first thing she did was embrace Ann who was waiting with her usual open arms.“How are you, Mia?!” She lifted the girl into her arms, adorning her flustered face with kisses. “Where is your mommy?” And just as she asked that question, Sofia scurried right after, Oscar by her right hand. “Have you got the keys?” She asked, panting from her lips and looking around the room perhaps for anything they might’ve been forgetting. But just for a brisk moment, Oscar reached out to her hands.“You look beautiful.” He didn’t fail to compliment her whenever she did, in the last five years at that. Oh how time flies, truly. And to say a lot had changed would be a massive understatement but then again, not so much, I mean Oscar and Sofia were still so madly in love with each other.“Mommy, aren’t we running late?” Mia called
SIX MONTHS LATER.The sun was out on this chill Saturday evening and the winds filled the trees around the magnificent canopies. There were flowers of every kind and colors and balloons scattered across the garden fields. Everyone was seated with their eyes turned to the couple, the main reason they were here in the first place.“Theodore Baron and Victoria Freya Winters” The officiator called both their names and it was hard for a tear not to well in Sofia’s eyes in that moment. Her sister looked beautiful in that flowing white dress and it was exactly how they’d both envisioned everything since they were kids.Including her as her maid of honor and the same could be said about Theo who by his right hand side had Oscar beside him as well. In that moment, his eyes met Sofia ever beaming with a smile. Six months had passed since his very first surgery and all the events that came after. So did the second and the third, and now that the trial was over, there was only one final test left
Sofia was the never one to believe in miracles.Well that was until today. Three hours had passed since everything that happened, Dimitri’s arrest as the everything in context. And as she sat there, she kept replaying it all behind her eyes. She was wrapped with a blanket and Theo and Damien were right beside her.Of course they knew now of what had happened to Oscar and how Annie had dived in front of a bullet to save Sofia, falling off the building in the process. They were just as shocked as the person who unfortunately had to witness it all. It was no wonder she stayed quiet for those three hours, reeling in the aftershock and post trauma. However, the silence had to come to an end as the doctor came out of the room just then. She stood with aching feet, feeling like she’d always spent weeks in these particular hallway. Her lips parted but her eyes said the most words as the doctor heaved a sigh.“It was a success. You can go in now” The doctor broke the news and in that moment,
“We can’t let her leave” Dimitri muttered to David, whose name Sofia had only just come to know. The two of them were at a safe distance but she could hear the murmurs from their lips. They stood at the foot of the door so her only likely escape was jumping down down the five foot building and she couldn’t dare to scream because Dimitri had already assured her his non reluctance to shoot if she tried anything funny.And so she stood there, with her fingers intertwined with each other, playing it off as though she wasn’t genuinely scared for her life. Her skin was pale and her face was flushed off every color. A million thoughts ravaged her head, most especially the ones about how she could escape.She wondered how unfortunate it was that she’d walked into yet another predicament but in that moment, half the thoughts that roamed behind her eyes were about Oscar. And each time she stared at Dimitri, she was so full of vengeance that she wanted to pay him back for what he’d done.Howeve
As Sofia stood there, she couldn’t even utter a single word. Her whole mind raced with a thousand thoughts as the chaos behind the curtains echoed back to her. Her eyes were flooded with tears and there was a shooting pain that pierced up her spine.In a moment, her eyes fell to her open hands and he was all she saw. It was as though she had drifted back to the moment that she held unto him, begging him to open his eyes…to wake up. But the hardest part was she wasn’t even certain that he could hear her. She wasn’t certain that he would ever actually open those eyes again. And hers, well they darted to the piece of sandwich that laid capriciously on the hospital floor and before she could even start blaming herself for leaving, something she would have never done if she knew things would turn out this way. And for what, for food.Before she could blame herself or further immense herself into the guilt, an arm drew her back. “Hey hey” That shrill rang into her ears and Sofia had to ac
There was always something so terrifying about nightmares. Especially for Oscar and so that was why when he plunged his eyes open, only to find out that he was surrounded by an impaling darkness, the first thing he did was scream at the top of his lungs.The atmosphere was cold, sending a chill up his spine so much that he shivered. The hollow halls returned an echo of his voice as well and he was too afraid to move even an inch forward. He hated the darkness, he wasn’t scared or, although there was something quite eerie in the air.He just hated being lost and in that moment, he was.But that was until a shrill whisper crept up behind him and Oscar sharply turned around. He could swear that someone was here, was close to him but alas, when he threw his head over his shoulders, there was no one. Maybe now was the right time to get scared.His hands fell to his side, feeling the crisp texture of his scrubs and as he moved forward, the noises were all he heard. It was hard to move with
“It’s been four hours” A voice echoed from behind Sofia and it wasn’t until she turned around that her eyes fell upon Damien. His hands slipped into his pocket with an elongated gaze right next to her. She threw a look over her shoulders though she still clung to the stairwell.“It’s you” She happened to mutter plainly before he raised his hands into the air. “Well I’m no doctor,” Damien teased. “But I brought you a sandwich and a cup of coffee” He stretched out his hands and while her eyes to it, there was the ghost of a smile that made it across her lips.“I’m not hungry” Sofia heaved but by the look in Damien’s eyes, she didn’t have much of an option but to cave in, taking the food from his hands. Though she sipped the coffee, she kept the sandwich aside and for a brief moment, there were comforted by the shrouded silence between them. That was before Sofia suddenly piped up after a few minutes.“Thank you by the way” She said.Damien folded his arms with a shrill nod. “For this as
For the longest time, Ferdinand wanted to say those words to Theresa. It had even a really long time since we last saw him, rock bottom and fresh out of jail all while being handed divorce papers from his long term partner but just like everyone else, a lot had changed for him.And even more had come into perspective, like realizing how bad he’d been through the years, to Theresa, to Freya and then to Sofia. And now that he was all alone, he wanted nothing more than to finally tender his apology to those who he had hurt.But the fear that it might have been too late plagued Ferdinand, causing a few sleepless nights. There was no way he would have survived without Damien, who had come to the house to pick up some things and Ferdinand had told him everything that had happened.Damien didn’t have to do all of that including showing up at least twice a week but he did. He did because for him as well, everything had changed. Luckily, even as things weren’t as bad as they once was, he didn
The chilly rush of air breezed into Sofia’s face and through her hair, swaying it left and right across her shoulders. In case she drifted so far, the distinct scent of pharmaceuticals and the rapid beeping of the heart monitors both far and near were enough to remind her of where she was.She stood with her arms crossed in front of her, reminding herself by taking deep heavy breaths to calm down. Today was the day of Oscar’s first surgery which was a bypass graft procedure undoubtedly the most important and complex of the three he was recommended.The doctor might’ve said a million words to Sofia about how this was to repair the damaged blood vessels around his heart, both narrowed and clogged to improve his blood flow so it betters the chances of the trial working but it didn’t stomp her anxiety. It could be good but then again, she was well aware of the risks to know that it could also be terrible.So she stood still and even her deep breaths didn’t work so much. No one knew the am