Sebastian’s POV
I didn’t reply to Scar’s message. She would never leave. She just manipulates with threats like this.
I might have spent too much time on Ava recently, and Scar is throwing a tantrum. She should understand that it’s a life on the line, even if that life belongs to the sister she hates.
Not that I don’t understand Scar. I do. Being the healthy one, she is jealous of all the extra attention Ava is getting. That’s why she is the problem child. Always rebellious but proud, acting indifferent but begging for love. She is always looking for attention, with sour messages, tears, or a divorce.
I didn’t think she would really give me a signed one. Think of the catastrophe if I dared to really go through with it.
Surely enough, Scar came back.
No longer with that half-empty suitcase either. I guess her show ends tonight.
After all, today we got the best result on Ava’s blood platelet, almost reaching normal level. Today is the day Ava finally gets to live a normal life.
“For a moment there, I really thought she would leave,” Ava says, holding her smoothie with two hands cupping it like a child. She has to be careful with everything, and that makes her the quiet lady she is, “...you win.”
Ava saw Scar’s message. She bet that Scar would leave, me the opposite.
If Scar could leave, then she wouldn’t have used Ava’s injury to blackmail me five years ago.
“...Sebastian...” Ava hesitates, and I turn to her, “Is it super horrible of me to...to wish that she would?”
“Scar hurt you five years ago, so no, you are not horrible to feel that way.”
Scar knew how powerless Ava felt about her disease, and yet she still used that as leverage when Ava needed her the most.
She could have earned my gratitude if she saved her own sister without a condition, instead, she had to blackmail me, and make me hate her.
There is a reason why everyone hates her.
“Stay here tonight?” Ava glances at the sky getting dimmer, “You can’t drive. You had a drink.”
I look at my watch. Scar has been in there for almost twenty minutes now, I frown as I mumble at Ava’s question, “Scar can drive...”
If she doesn’t make it too hard on me and go home with me tamely.
She put in a lot of effort in this time’s tantrum, all the way to divorce papers. I know I would have to pay for it, but getting everything about Ava’s surgery sorted out is still worth it.
Besides, Scar is not hard to coax.
“That watch...Is it from Scar?” Ava looks over and I hide my watch, but it’s too late, “I guess the watch I got you is too old now, huh?”
It’s not old. It’s broken, by Scar. She is petty like that. Breaking things Ava gets me “by accident”, and replaces them with hers. I don’t like how she is marking me like a dog marking territory.
She doesn’t like staying at the Fullers, nor does she have her suitcase with her. So what’s taking her so long?! Thinking about the fight we are going to have tonight, I feel my patience drain fast.
“Scar buys me luxurys only when she’s upset with me, using MY money,” I joke with Ava, not wanting her to be hurt at her gift being treated so meanly, “you know how cats claw the sofa when they are upset? Like that.”
“A cat? She is so cute in your eyes,” Ava laughs, “so what am I to you?”
A nightingale, I want to say. But this is the moment a loud crack breaks out above our head. Something glass broke. Along with a string of shouting too far to make out from where we are.
Jack Fuller’s study.
Of course it’s Scar. Who else.
Rubbing my nose bridge, I stand up and sort my suits, “Sorry about that, guess I have a mess to clean up...”
I shouldn’t have let our domestic problem blow up at other’s homes.
To my surprise, when I got to Jack’s study, I saw Scar sitting on the ground, her palm covering her face with broken china pieces all around her, and a few small cuts on her legs.
Scar was not the one lashing out?
Looks like Jack slapped her. Falling to the ground, Scar knocked a vase off the cabinet with her.
I know Scar must have said some nasty things, but even so, Jack shouldn’t have raised his hand at a woman, let alone his own daughter.
“What’s going on here?” I demand by the door, blocked by the broken shards.
It’s that moment Scar notices me, shock in her eyes before they turn into vicious anger. Her cried-red eyes take me aback. I have never seen that look on her face...
Well, never one directed at me.
Scarlett's POVSitting on the cold floor, I realize I made my judgment too early.I thought my life used to be a living hell. How wrong was I. Though everyone treated me horribly, never did they lay a finger on me. After all, I was the precious blood vessel for the fragile Ava. They couldn’t afford to lose me.But not anymore.I palm my face, looking up slowly at the man I once called father, only to realize the coldness in his eyes: I’m still the blood vessel, just not “precious” anymore. I’m now a nice-to-have.After all, Ava is all but healed now.They won’t toss me away because I might still have value. What do they have to lose if I don’t get my chance of a normal life?For that slight “might”, I can’t have my freedom. I’m not allowed to leave the city and have my own life. They don’t care if my heart would be broken a million times every day here, seeing Sebastian with Ava. They don’t care that I might also need love, from somewhere, anywhere.And they can afford to physically hu
Sebastian’s POVThere are broken shards everywhere on the floor. I dare not put down Ava. Her blood platelet might have reached a normal level now, but no one dares to test if the monster that’s been haunting her is still lurking nearby.The last time Ava needed blood from Scar was because of a paper cut, literally. One that Scar caused no less.“...Please?” Scar mumbles when she walks over to me, not looking at me.“I can’t put her down, you know why.”Scar snorts coldly, finally looking up from under her messy hair. Jack must have slapped her really hard, to mess up her hair like that, as well as leaving a scarlet red palm print on her cheek.“Excuse me,” Scar says with a clear but cold tone that I’m not familiar with, “coming through.”I stopped Ava by the door.I frown, hating the sarcasm in Scar’s eyes. She knows why I misunderstood and she is mocking me for it. Every time I even just stood close to Ava she would come up and break us apart.“Where are you going?!” Jack yells behi
Sebastian’s POVI know how sensitive Ava is about her condition. To beg the sister she doesn’t like to save her life, over and over again. That’s why when Scar used that to force my hand, Ava started having real hatred in her eyes toward Scar.“Of course you can say that,” Scar spats at Ava viciously, “you can take the high road all you want, because your army will tie me to the table and drain my blood for you if they need to.”“Scarlett Fuller!” I warn her, and Ava raises her hand again. I dodge to the side so Ava can’t reach Scar, but Scar catches Ava’s arm at the same time. It all happens so fast, and Ava bursts into a painful shout. I have to push Scar away.Scar falls to the ground, her hand pressed on a sharp shard. I see.I didn’t even use too much force. I did push her, but the fall was mostly her way of making me feel bad. I want to put Ava down, but she wouldn’t care about the shards in the room and she would definitely hurt herself.“I’m sorry,” I can only apologize with w
Sebastian’s POVScar shakes her head slowly, throwing her disappointment into my face: “So, she DOES know.”Does she have trouble understanding English? That’s not what I meant!“Saying you want me gone, and yet you report me to your daddy,” Scar sneers at Ava with pure viciousness in her voice, “I guess between your loving Romeo and my blood, you still want the latter just a tiny bit more, huh?”I can understand why Ava would hate her. I want to seal those poisonous lips too at moments like this.“You took him from me!” Ava bursts into a hysterical cry, “You did! You took him! He was mine! We were meant to be together!”“Okay,” Scar is calm while smiling at Ava, too calm for me to recognize. The red palm prints on her cheek adds a touch of seductive fragileness to her, “If you beg your daddy to let me go, I will divorce him, today.”I roll my eyes with a huff.She is just playing Ava, but Ava would fall for it. I would have married Ava even if I couldn’t cure her.Ava cries harder.“
Sebastian's POVI felt that something was off with her, now I know.It’s her loving eyes. She has been looking at me with obvious love in those eyes even before we were old enough to understand what love is, and she never hides that.That love was still there even this morning, when she gave me the divorce papers. But now, that lively light is gone.I could barely recognize her without it.I feel like I lost something important. It’s not supposed to be this way.Her love has always been a bother to me. If she didn’t love me, she wouldn’t have blackmailed me, and I wouldn’t have hated her. I wouldn’t have been locked into a marriage I didn’t want, and I would have been with Ava!If she didn’t love me, none of this would have happened. She would save Ava just like the sister she should be, and I would have been with Ava, just like how I wanted since the first time I met her.But she did give her love to me. She gave it, and now she is taking it back. And I feel at a loss.It’s not fair.
Scarlett’s POVI slept - more like, blacked out - for three whole days after that horrible fallout with my, well, ex-family.I can barely remember how Aurora got me back to her penthouse alone. I have been in and out due to a low fever, remembering only glimpses of Aurora feeding me stuff, some sweet, some bitter.Of course, Sebastian didn’t reach out. Surprisingly though, nor did the divorce papers that he said I could expect in two to three days. He knows Aurora’s address.“Back to life, sleeping beauty?” A big smile crawls onto Aurora’s face when she comes in with a glass in her hand, “How do you feel?”Numb. So, better than most days.“Ginger honey water,” Aurora settles down by my side as I rub my face to try to wake up more, “it helps with the fever. No argument.”I hate ginger, she knows! But I also know I can’t afford to joke with my body, now more than ever. I have a little thing in my womb to take care of.“I guess that means you are keeping the baby?” Aurora’s eyes land on
Scarlett’s POVI want to sit down right there on the staircase and let the overwhelming emptiness gulp me, but I dare not. I know if I let it, then I will stay beaten. I will lose the strength I’m pretending to have and collapse.I thought I could let go of Sebastian. Ever since I walked into their kiss three months ago, I have been preparing for this day. I did it.It just hurts more than I expected.Closing my eyes, I try to chase Sebastian out of my head. I just need something, anything, to take up the hole left in my heart now that I carved him out.Something I could value. Something for myself. I lived my life around him, but I used to have a life of my own. I used to have friends to laugh and cry with, used to be competitive just like any student. I used to have a dream.I was going to be a writer, before I gave it up and stayed home to build a family.Richard Hanson.Jack Fuller’s mean face when he mentioned that name pops into my mind, like he was throwing a bone to a pitiful
Scarlett’s POVWorking on my script for the whole day, I was drowning in an unfamiliar sense of satisfaction. I have put “family” as the core of my life for so long, that I forgot the fun of living for myself.When I finally put it down, I almost missed my date with Aurora. Hurrying out of her place, I got to Nightingale 10 minutes to 8. I prefer being early.I wish I didn’t.Nightingale is the biggest nightclub in town. Best place for entertainment for any and everyone, so long as you can afford a drink. We used to come here all the time in college, enjoying its “safe hour” for a little alcohol and a lot of fun.8 pm to midnight, four hours of light, fun music with drinks and chats and snacks. Safe hour. Because after midnight, the heart-pumping DJ would get up there and boil this place into a crazy porridge. Drugs, sex...You name it.But tonight, the safe hour is not safe, for me.I ordered a non-alcohol at the bar. I regret coming in the moment the bartender shoots me that weird gl