Meanwhile, Kristine was currently back at Eric's Mansion with no memories of all she experienced a few hours before her unfortunate accident.
Her memory was still foggy and the last thing she could remember was when she was tailing Sam in the taxi.
An additional bad news she wasn't expecting just hit her in the face when she began to process what Eric said a moment ago.
"Well, you were in a Coma because of the accident. You hit your head hard and we even thought you wouldn't recover_ Coma for Three months?" These words were stuck on replay the entire time inside Kristine's head.
Moreover, the meaning behind this conclusion sunk deeper to enkindle a phase in her worse nightmares which lead to an overflowing tears from her eyes.
As Kristine's silent tears turned into continuous sobs, overwhelmed with pain and regret at the thoughts of her family's current miserable condition about her sudden disappearance. This made her heart heavy and all the more unbearable.
It was the only reason that bothered her since she couldn't comprehend the fact that she was the one who caused that distress to her family.
"What in the world would they be going through at this moment? A grave mistake. Now see what my impulsive decision caused me." And the sobs continued with nonstop tears running across her cheeks.
Suddenly, Kristine remembered one hope she thought she could count on, a desperate faith to hold unto even though she couldn't be reassured, it's about Taylor pulling a good excuse about her absence to calm the worried state of her family.
But what in the world could be a good enough excuse that Taylor could manage to come up with that would cease the distress in her family after three months-long agonizing days away from them?
Thus if he is not hooked in his own worries too.
To top it all, Taylor was an awful lair who turn to blow things out of proportion instead of solving them. It's the one thing he was quite awful at since college...Lying!
After Rhea went through that awful ordeal upon her return from camp, it left her with no option, all she could see was red.
A fury of anger that developed deep within her, as well as a strong determination to go to any extent to bring all Rhea's perpetrators to justice.
How could they do that to her innocent, vulnerable little sister? It was simply inhumane.
However, Kristine was beginning to admit her hasty decision to embark on this mission without her family's knowledge.
It was all because of her desperation to get to the root of everything as soon as possible, before the trail the monsters who hurt her sister left behind from their atrocities becomes cold.
But she won't regret coming to this extent, even though her current situation seems to be draining her of all her strength and purpose.
She left a distressed family deeply concerned about her absence in her wake, an additional torture for her sister on top of what she went through.
Oh, the guilt!
The more Kristine's mind pondered on the current state of her family, the worse the agonizing suffocation tightens her heart and was ready to burst, and the ceaseless tears felt like a flood that wouldn't stop flowing.
Right now, she would be happier to be diagnosed with cancer compared to being in a coma for three months leaving her anxious family with no knowledge of her whereabouts, and the worse guilty feeling she was currently going through.
On the other hand, Eric watched all these heartbreaking responses his lies had resulted in.
His face was filled with an unimaginable definition of horror and shock from the turn of events, by Kristine's continuous tears.
He was amazed and stunned at the same as he looked on..
From the investigations he carried out on Kristine and what Henry reported so far about his discovery into her detailed life, he found out Kristine was a top-ranked beauty both in college and high school respectively.
A truth he couldn't deny when he first saw her photos.
She had also won countless athletic competitions including karate championship titles, Taekwondo black belt, and even the best runner award.
One word running through Eric's mind when he read her files were...
"Wow! She had a pretty energetic mind-blowing carefree life so far compared to that of the past."
Eric couldn't believe his eyes when he read these achievements about Kristine's life since he couldn't help but compare her to the teenage introverted girl his Dad brought home that day, ten years back.
A young innocent girl who was brought home soaking wet from a heavy downpour, and shivering.
The girl who barely uttered a single word for the entire duration of her stay at the Kurt Mansion.
Eric could vividly remember the first time they met.
Would you believe this was the first time Eric saw Kristine's entire face despite meeting her in the past? Even though he could only recognize her upon the accident on his way back from his birthday party the other night only thanks to the pictures his friend Henry sent during his investigations.
Eric couldn't help but wonder how the young teenage Kristine used to hide this pretty face behind a messy long hair that mostly covered her entire face to hide away from the world and everyone, except for their Nanny Rachel.
He could even bet his entire fortune that she wouldn't be able to recognize them even if she sees his and Evans's teenage photos this instant.
The young Kristine had never spoken a word to either him or Evans since her stay at their Mansion.
At first, they thought she was mute because her head was always down. She wouldn't even look up to meet their gaze whenever he and Evans try to strike up a conversation or become friends with her. She just preferred solitude all the time, locked inside her room.
Yet, she became the biggest rival in the competition for their Nanny's love ever since they met her.
It wasn't even a meeting, more like she intruded into their space out of nowhere, looking like a scared weird girl from the streets. She was quite an introverted teenager who was even afraid of her own shadow.
The foggy memory of that first meeting happened a week before their Prom day in high school.
The same day their Nanny left too
It was also the day of their birth.
That day could be known as the most unfortunate day of their life that made all the birthdays which followed after that incident to be filled with anguish and resentment until they decided to thrive through it.
It came to a point where they wished they could uproot every memory of that day from their head.
That unfortunate incident happened ten years ago on a rainy day.
Eric could vividly remember seeing the young Kristine the first time she stepped out of his Dad's car that night.
He was inside his room when the arrival of his dad's car horn ushered him towards the window which viewed the entrance into the house.
Eric stared down and noticed his Dad come down from his car. He watched on as his dad motioned around it to open the back door and gestured towards someone to get down. Then he reached his hand to help.
This reaction poked Eric's curiosity and he wondered whom his Dad brought home this late at night. He looked on as a fragile hand came into view and fell into his Dad's outstretched hand. Then a face covered with long black hair came into view.
The teenage Kristine came down from the car drenched and shivering with a thin shawl wrapped around her.
His Dad's efforts to keep her warm maybe, but he would have done a better job by giving her his coat instead.
Meanwhile, the shawl lost its balance on her tiny shoulders and fell to the ground to reveal a torn and tattered dress that clung to her body, sticky and wet.
Probably, she appeared like a homeless street girl who was too skinny and starved for a week.
From where Eric stood, he couldn't make out her features clearly, although he could guess she was around fifteen or sixteen years.
But Kristine stood rooted in the same spot scared to follow their Dad into the house until Dad held onto her hand to lead the way. He said a few words to her which Eric could barely make out before she moved willingly to follow their Dad into the house.
She was like a frightened teenager who had been through a very rough experience from her looks, which may be the reason why their dad helped her.
Something that speaks a lot about his character despite his tough aspects.
"What are you staring at so intensely down there." The young teenage Eric was startled by his brother's voice.
"Why did you enter my room without knocking Evans. You startled me!" Eric scolded.
Evans chuckled as he stared suspiciously at his brother. "What's happened?...what in the world could startle my mischievous brother.
"Come here and have a look at this! Dad brought home some homeless weird girl."
Eric pointed in the direction of his father holding the hand of the girl as they entered the house.
But before Evans could move to see what his brother was pointing at, the main door closed. So they both rushed out of the room to descend the stairs and met their dad and the girl halfway.
The moment the young Kristine saw both of them descending, she run and hid behind their Dad out of fear or maybe a social phobia.
That was the twins' first impression of her.
"What happened? She never came across twins before?" Eric inquired.
"Who is she, Dad?" Evans asked after staring at the drenched girl for a long time.
"Well, she is a girl I met on my way home. I nearly run her over with my car and she fainted. She wouldn't tell me where she lived or who her parents were. So I brought her here since it's raining heavily outside, maybe until we find her address." Nicholas replied to his son.
"She looks strange..can't she talk?" Eric asked as he took tiny steps to approach her but Kristine kept drawing back, away from their sight until she accidentally bumped into a flower vase which shook and fell, shattering on the floor.
The clattering of the glass vase startled her and she held her hands tightly to her ears, as if to muffle the sound. She wouldn't allow either Eric or Evans to touch her until their Nanny Rachel came down looking concerned at the poor girl after noticing her drenched state.
Rachel took the whimpering shivering girl into her comforting arms in an embrace.
The young Kristine loosen up to her and held tightly onto Nanny Rachel's clothes.
"Oh, dear! That's okay..you are safe now." Rachel soothe Kristine's back in a comfortable rob and she hugged their Nanny tightly in return. She never let go of her grip on Rachel so Rachel took her along to her room.
That was the last they saw of their uninvited visitor until the next morning.
Since he and Evans were both busy with their exam preparations, they barely noticed Kristine, but mostly, when they see her in passing or approach her, she usually flinched and looked scared. Then she began to avoid them, so he and Evans also ignored her and it went on for a week.
However, that last day was the day of their Prom party night in high school. But it became the day that shattered their lives since it took the most favorite person away from their lives.
Eric could remember that day so vividly when they returned from Prom night and they couldn't find their Nanny to ask how their prom went or anyone to share their newfound happiness with.
Rachel chose their Prom outfits and even styled their hair personally. She was all over the place trying to make their Prom night the most memorable one, but they didn't realize that was the last and final time they would ever see her or be with her.
But after they got home, neither their Father would tell them what happened nor their stepmother Clara, who later told them their Nanny left and abandoned them to run away with a homeless girl.
That was the last day they ever met or saw Kristine.
It seemed she appeared out of nowhere and doomed their fate by taking away their beloved Nanny Rachel. So, along with their Nanny, they hated her too, as much as they hated their Dad who brought her to the house in the first place.
Now to the matter at hand;
Eric walked silently toward the crying grown-up Kristine whom he didn't realize still had a part of her past downtrodden life despite the unbreakable mind-blowing reports he received from his investigation of her.
As all the flashes of their past memories mingled with this present uncomfortable atmosphere before him which his prank caused, Eric cleared his thoughts and fought for composure concerning how to peacefully sort out this mistake.
"She was really crying her eyes out and the tears seemed real. Telling the truth now was the only option left, but how will she react next, it scared him." Eric's thoughts were mixed with all sorts of confusion on how he should handle the situation before him.
His playful prank had turned sour and only brought tears to her eyes. What worse harm would he cause now once he confessed the truth?
To make matters worse, he didn't know if Kristine was crying about being in a Coma or was it the duration of the three months he mentioned. He simply had no idea.
However, a part of him didn't want to tell her the truth.
And it wasn't out of vengeance or hatred or another prank, and neither was it because he enjoyed the agony she was currently experiencing.
It's from a tiny part within him fearful not to invoke her anger.
It's a strange and weird feeling he couldn't understand or comprehend.
Nevertheless, another part somewhere within his heart lingered a discomfort, an intense feeling to protect her from the pain she was currently feeling too.
Eric also abhorred the consequences
concerning the hatred Kristine might develop towards him the moment he confessed the truth.
Therefore, the battle between wrong and right, confess or lie, coupled with these insecure unfamiliar feelings made Eric so confused as to what reasonable decision he has to come up with, to tackle this crying girl before him.