Ryuha looked at her sister-it was the first time in many months that she had seen her. Golden locks framed her face in a halo, her skin was stained with tears and Ryuha couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. But she clamped it down immediately, Eliza was the only one who was kind to her when she was going through bad times. Yes, she didn't do anything to stop the bullying but what could she have done anyway? Eliza was the only person who understood her pain and Ryuha felt ashamed of herself because she couldn't stop the seed of envy that sprouted inside of her. Perhaps it would have been better if they had found out she was a fake sooner. Perhaps it would have been better if she had grown up in an orphanage. At least, she wouldn't have to hungry that many times. Ryuha shut that train of thought down.
"Oh-You're alright. Thank goodness." Eliza sniffled pitifully. Xavier pushed Ryuha's wheelchair inside the house as Eli beckoned them inside. "Do you want to stay for coffee?" Eliza took the wheelchair from his hands and pushed me towards the living room. Ryuha could see Xavier now, his eyes fixated on Eliza, a fond look and a faint smile of affection etched on his face. So he can make that kind of expression too. Ryuha had only seen fake smiles and cold eyes. It was the first time she had seen him look like that. If it was a year ago, Ryuha would have felt her heart flutter, but now she only felt a disgusting feeling spread through her body. It seemed the shock of waking up in a hospital had finally worn off. Ryuha no longer felt the panicky, nervous energy around her, she no longer felt vulnerable and defeated. The car ride was long enough to give her time to sort her mental priorities. She would have never survived that long in the streets if she flinched everytime someone came near her, she would have never had the will to live twenty one whole years if she had a mental breakdown every single time she was reminded of her past. Ryuha felt her mask slip back on, the one she had worn every single day.
Ryuha felt deeply embarrassed at how weak she had acted. In her countless fantasies in the middle of the night, she would punch her abominable brother and kick him in the groin, she would scream at her parents for vengeance, someone rich and powerful would rescue her from that hell and give her the love of her dreams. But she was no heroine.
Ryuha was just the fake daughter who the real heroine, her sister took pity on.
"You don't mind, do you?"
Xavier flicked his eyes towards Ryuha sitting nonchalantly on the couch-he had shifted her from the wheelchair, as if she were a hindrance to him spending time with her sister. Xavier had been shocked when he first saw her-the ice queen of high school-so weak and vulnerable and not being able to talk, not that she had ever talked in school but he did feel bad for Eliza who would have take care of her. And him who would have to marry Eliza's sister. Why couldn't he get the business deal by marrying Eliza instead of her sister? But he had to in order to get his grandfather's inheritance, and they weren't willing to marry Eliza to the 'second son'. It didn't matter anyways. He was going to beat his brother and become the chairman anyways, and then Eliza would be his. Xavier thought he must have imagined Eliza's sister looking so weak because here she was with not an emotion on her face, her eyes looked like they were dead.
"No, my maid just made the coffee. I'll go bring it." Eliza smiled and wandered off to the kitchen leaving Ryuha seated on the couch with a fractured leg and a broken arm and Xavier plopped down on the coffee table. Ryuha really didn't know why she ever liked him. Why she had still felt something towards him in the hospital. Maybe it was because time had warped how thing were percieved and she had twisted events in order to make him prince charming. When there was no one to help her and she had to depend on others for surviving, the thought of an unbreakable, fated love was the only thing that kept her alive. The only thing that kept her sane. The clock ticked by as she craned her neck a little, the anesthesia still pressing on her nerves, her entire body feeling numb, but she could also feel it wear off little by little, the prickling in her leg grew into something like glass shards carving into her skin. She tried not to wince. Her pain receptors must have lost their experience.
Eliza came back tripping on a carpet, like the free soul she was.
Ryuha wished she could have run like that.
Sometimes she wished Eliza could betray her family and protect her from them. But then what kind of big sister would she be if she depended on her little sister with no power and whose only wish was a family? How could she deny her the innocence of not knowing her parents malice when she herself couldn't have any? So she kept quiet and endured.
"Mom told me you two were engaged." Eliza smiled wistfully at her. Did she know? That she jumped in to end her life?
Xavier took the cup of coffee from her and grazed his fingers on hers. "It's just a business deal. You know?" Ryuha ignored the pang in her heart. She had never appreciated how free it was to speak. It would take two weeks more to heal. Some shard of wood or something had slightly injured her vocal box. Before Xavier had taken her, the doctor had given the list of injusries along with the discharge forms.
"Don't say that! If you don't want to marry my sister, then don't!" Eliza defended her, an enraged expression on her face.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
Ryuha who was watching the exchange with a solemn expression on her face chuckled.
Wasn't he supposed to apologize to Ryuha?