She got inside, Owen following close behind.
The view when she swung the door open devastated her. It was chaos.
It was a humble home, nothing much of value but it was their home and to see it in this state shredded her heart into pieces. Lucy felt a crush in her chest and warm in her eyes as she pick up the first broken thing she could touch in front of her.
Furniture, they have very few, were all swung across the room. The things that surrounded them on happy days, cold days, warmer days. They were all destroyed. She felt her little world crumbling.
She went to Nana's room sloppily and it was the same. She saw her Nana's closet leaning on the wall, one door hanging by a single hinge.
The articles fallen on the floor were the old woman's memorabilia. She cherished these photos, the treasured letters from her youth, trinkets from Lucy's early years. It hurts.
It hurts so much. Lucy would have cried if she were alone but she knew she wasn't. There's a man accompanying her here.
She had a purpose.
She swallowed her tears, bit her lips, and dragged a nearby box. She picked up all the articles she could find on the floor and went to find more in the smashed closet. When she was sure she got everything, she packed clothes for Nana, for when she gets out of the hospital.
Lucy is sure the old-timer would want to wear her usual clothes when she gets released.
She only took a few sets of clothes but the inside of the closet looked already deserted. The realization dawns on her again, how her grandmother had been living deprived all this time. Her heart broke for the second time today.
She gulped another round of tears that was forming in her eyes as if it would be swallowed down her throat.
Lucy got the box filled up, picked it up and turned around to get to her own room. Owen met the box with his body and took it from Lucy's hands.
"You should go take some more. I got this." There it was again, a soft look from the man's usually expressionless face.
Lucy nodded and left the man to go to the other room.
Everything is in disarray, as expected. She let her tears fall as she picked up some books from the wooden floor. The drops directly left her face without rolling down her cheeks. She sniffed and swallowed again while standing up, rubbing any leftover tears that might have touched her face.
She found an oversized bag and shoved all the things she could salvage. She went to her desk which was left upright, at least, but all the drawers were pulled out and were thrown haphazardly on the floor.
Lucy touched her desk and in the familiarity of the space tilted her head to the side. She saw her sketches on the wall untouched. She felt something. Was it consolation? Comfort? Relief? She's not sure but if there were thousands of thorns stuck in her heart, the sight took at least one off.
She took the sketches down from the wall carefully and packed them unceremoniously in the bag.
Owen was waiting for her outside.
She takes the last step, completely leaving the premises. She paused and pursed her lips. Her tears threatened to flow again. She automatically tilted her head to recover from the impending outburst.
There was a sound of light scuffle from the front.
She felt hands hold her arms, telling her to let go of the bag she was holding onto and she did. A second later a warm body flushes itself to her front, completely enveloping her body.
It was not a tight hug but it felt safe and comforting.
A hand pats her back, the way Nana did when she was young and when she was older when she was having a particularly tough time at school, with friends or whatever. The nostalgia and comfort and hurt hit her all at the same time and she finally gives up putting on a brave face.
Lucy buried herself into the hug and ugly-cried into the man's chest like a child. She hugged him back and hit him with balled fists as if he were a person at fault. Owen simply maintained the hug like a boulder, unmoved and grounded.
They stayed like that for a few minutes until Lucy calmed down and wiped her face with her own sleeves. She knew how she ruined Owen's shirt but she couldn't bring herself to apologize.
"Thank you." She decided to thank him instead.
Owen, as usual, just nodded back.
The young woman picked up the bag and Owen lifted the box that was discarded earlier. They walked silently until they reached the car and loaded everything before driving off.
Lucy was still in a daze during the car ride. Will they be able to come back to their old house? She looked at Owen across the driver's seat. Can he really fix this?
Owen, as if reading her mind responded to her thoughts. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you'll come back there." His words felt different this time. There's no arrogance, no need to dig past a rude facade to find a hidden meaning. This time he said exactly what he meant.
"Thank you." Was all Lucy could muster at the moment.
—
It's the third time they'll be passing through the fancy building's entrance today and Lucy is starting to get conscious of the eyes that could see them but tries to brush it off, for now.
They got into the building, the bag and box from the house were left in the car. Owen assured her it would be brought up later by the staff.
They settled on the couch again, in the same seats they occupied in the morning.
"Do you swim?" Owen popped a random question.
"What? Yes." Lucy's mind was wandering already but caught the query.
"Good. Follow me." Owen stood up and walked to another hallway connected to the living room.
"Wait." Lucy got up despite the confusion and followed the man with hurried footsteps.
They arrived at a pool, inside the building, with a view of the city.
Wow.