Kiera took a deep breath and remembered all the regrets she thought of while she lay dying in the middle of the street on her last breath.
"I'm sorry for being a stubborn fool and just running away when you vehemently disagreed to my joining the showbusiness industry. I know I should have logically made my case, pleaded with you until you both listened, instead of just leaving. I'm sorry for not getting in touch at all over the last three years. I know you must have been tremendously worried about me but I have managed well enough for myself."
Eileen took hold of Kiera's shaking hands and gave it a squeeze, "You have always been an impulsive idiot. Being the youngest, we have spoiled and given in to you far too easily. And we've sheltered you from the realities of the world. You have no idea how much we panicked when we couldn't find you anywhere, we were calling the cops and all the emergency rooms. We were frantically looking for you until we got a call from Nan that you went to her. Did you even think what would have happened if Nan was no longer living there? If someone abducted you along the way?"
Kiera shook her head, "You knew where I was?"
Thea snorted, "Of course, we did. Did you think your school books, your uniforms, your electronics bought itself?"
Kiera always thought it was part of her private school's perks for being a top student. She remembered inquiring if there was a scholarship and told her counselor she might have to drop out due to her family's financial situation.
'There must have been no scholarship at all. They must have paid the tuition fee and had an agreement with the school.'
"We made sure to send Nan money from time to time and she told us what you needed. We made sure you survived on enough but would still feel the struggle you put yourself in. Nan dipped into the money until you started going to your part-time jobs and going on shows. Then though we sent the credits Nan barely touched it since you never asked her for money. She did buy you groceries from time to time to make sure you were eating well."
Kiera felt the lump in her throat getting bigger. She remembered how Nan, their sixty-year-old nanny, had handed her a laptop on her birthday, saying she won it in a lottery at the senior center and how her old one was working well enough. She remembered how she would drop by every Saturday from her morning of park Tai Chi with the neighborhood aunties, she would always have a bag of groceries she picked up at the farmer's market.
"We owe Nan a lot for the help she has provided our family even though technically she should be enjoying her life as a retired nanny. She would call us every weekend to let us know how you were. She was the one who told us to let you go through with your running away plans. We thought you'd be back home in at most three months. But a year past, then two until it's been nearly three years. You persisted too much."
"I love acting. It makes me feel alive. I can't give it up."
She never reached out to her sisters because they would have welcomed her back with open arms and after experiencing so much hardship she didn't think she would have persisted if an easy choice would suddenly open. If she can just blame her sisters for not letting her continue acting, she knew there was a possibility she would cave. So, she firmly shut that door. She gritted her teeth through high school classes and late-night café shifts, auditions and shoots as a background character.
Thea sighed, "We know you won't listen, so we won't stop you. But if you've persisted this long then you need to see it through to the end. You can't give up halfway. You should know by now how hard the path of success will be. You should know how dirty that industry can be and you need to be ready to get your own hands dirty. You need to be decisive or it will be you who will be stepped on."
"I won't give up."