ANMELDEN~~~CAIRO~~~I’m sitting on a cheap plastic chair next to the hospital bed with my elbows on my knees and my hands hanging between my legs.The monitors keep beeping harshly in the quiet room. Sienna looks small lying on her bed, pale as hell, with an IV taped to her small arm. Her eyes are red-rimmed like she’s been crying in her dreams.The doctor already came and left. He said she’s stable now. At least she doesn't have any major sickness I have to worry about.Said she just needs rest and she’ll wake up when her body is ready. So I just sit here and wait.I'm looking at her face and I don’t even know what the fuck I’m supposed to feel. Five years of searching, wondering if she was dead or alive, and now she’s lying right here in front of me looking fragile as glass. I should be pissed. I am furious. But right now, watching her breathe so weakly, the anger just sits and waits in my chest like a heavy rock I can't just throw away.She looks a bit weaker. Softer. The Sienna I kne
~~~DIANA~~~"Are you okay, Diana? Diana, talk to me," Pippa yells from behind me as I fully step out of the courthouse, staring into the far end of the road.The sun is hot on my face, but I don't feel anything.Pippa grabs my arm, holding me tight, tugging me to say something, but I can only hear her voice somewhere in the back of my head. It sounds like she's speaking underwater—muffled and far away.I'm staring at the taillights of Cairo's car that just left the courthouse a few seconds ago. They're red and small, disappearing into the far end of the empty street. The car keeps getting smaller and smaller until it's just a dot, and then it's gone.I stare into the empty street for one more second, waiting just to see if the car reappears. Just to see if it turns back and remembers I'm still here.But... I don't see his car anymore.I'm supposed to be shocked. I'm supposed to scream because of how much that girl looked like me. But that's not happening to me right now. I don't kn
The room is still buzzing like a damn beehive after Sienna dropped that bomb. Everyone is whispering, shifting in their seats, turning to look at each other. The judge bangs his gavel twice like he wants to break it.“Order! I will have order in this courtroom!”The noise slowly dies down. Sienna stays standing at the witness stand like she didn’t just blow up my entire life in front of everyone. Her face looks too fucking calm, like she practiced this for a whole year before stepping in here.The judge looks at her. “Miss Harris, before this court proceeds, I have a few questions for you.”She nods. “Of course, Your Honor.”“You claim to be the mother of Mr. Arsher’s child. You claim to have knowledge of your mother’s activities. But you’ve been absent from this entire process until now.”“Forgive my skepticism, but I must ask—have you been compensated in any way for your testimony today? Has anyone paid you or promised you anything in exchange for speaking on Mr. Arsher’s behalf?
My time is still frozen. My brain is splitting with the shock.What the fuck?I’m staring at Sienna, and I can’t look away. She’s wearing a long black leather jacket that covers her whole body. A white shirt tucked under a black leather skirt that almost touches her knees. High heels. Brown hair exactly like Diana’s used to be. Amber eyes exactly like Diana’s.Our eyes meet across the room and the floor tilts for a second. I can’t tell if I’m breathing. I can’t tell if I’m standing or sitting or floating. All I know is that she’s really here. I spent five years looking for her and now I don’t know what to do with that.The memories I’ve tried to forget start gunning against each other in my head. The way she used to laugh. The way she used to tell me I’m the only man who can keep up with her. I thought I was over her. I told myself I was over her. But seeing her standing there in the flesh, after five years of hunting and wondering and giving up, is doing something to my chest t
Ms. Delgado sits down. Her eyes are sharp as a hawk. I can tell how much she doesn't like this. None of us knows what Kandice is about to say."I've been sick for years," Kandice says, her tone getting softer than before. "My heart has been failing me ever since I turned forty. I couldn't walk properly. I couldn't cook. I couldn't even take care of myself.”“My daughter sacrificed everything to keep me alive. She sacrificed her college years, her time, her strength. She married a man she didn't love because he promised to take care of me. She worked jobs that drained her soul because she needed to pay my bills. She endured things from her husband because he held my life against her."Her voice is trembling, and I see her take a big breath."And then Mr. Arsher came into our lives. He didn't know me. He didn't owe me anything. But he paid for my treatments.”“He found me donors, paying them monthly to donate for me. He kept me alive. Not because I asked. Not even because Diana begged.
~~~CAIRO~~~I’m sitting at the table, flanked by lawyers who are ready to murder the most ridiculous questions targeted at me. But none of that shit matters to me this second.The prosecutor is up in the pulpit, flapping his gums, but I’m not fazed by a single word he says. My eyes are lost, staring at the girl at the back. My girl. She’s sitting under those shitty white lights, the sight of her making me forget I’m in a courtroom facing a life cage.Her silver hair is glowing like a damn halo. She’s wearing a white corporate shirt tucked under a black skirt. It’s like a message, telling me she’s fighting and hasn't given up.Then I see her mother sitting next to her like a silent ghost. Kandice. The woman who hated my guts, who tried to destroy me with a video she kept hidden for years. Diana actually did it. I don’t know what kind of hell she pulled through or what she had to promise that woman, but she brought her mother here to save me.That’s my girl. She isn't that scared g







