Flashbacks

Noah and Mr. Lavins were in my hospital room with me, talking to each other. I say each other because I was pretending to be sleeping. Basically, I was sleeping until Mr. Lavins came into the room and began holding my hand, squeezing it once in a while.

I wanted to ignore the squeezing and go back to sleep however he began apologizing to me over and over again for not knowing I existed and for being absent in my life. He kept saying he would do anything to make it up to me. To be quite frank, I was extremely close to crying. My stomach was filled with butterflies that I didn’t know how to calm down.

When he began crying, I was about to pretend to wake up and speak with him but Noah entered the room, interrupting Mr. Lavins. They began talking about how Noah should become my personal bodyguard and how he should report to Mr. Lavins about anything that’s even mildly concerning happening in my life.

They then talked about how they opened an investigation to find out who attacked me. As soon as I heard the news, my heart dropped. I didn’t understand why they would do that. Nor did I want to.

I began panicking to the point where the heart monitor began beating rapidly and a nurse had to come in and check up on me. She told them everything was okay then left, allowing them to keep talking about what they wanted to do with me.

Mr. Lavins told Noah that he didn’t care if I consented to live with him or not and that I’d have to live with him so he could protect me. But like I said before, I’d rather die than go with them. Mr. Lavins and his family. I don’t want to interrupt his life or be a burden on him.

No matter how badly I wanted a family, I knew I wouldn’t get one. At least not one with Mr. Lavins being my father.

After talking about the whole living situation, Mr. Lavins spoke about how he didn’t like the lifestyle I lived in. That was when I had enough of them talking behind my back.

“I honestly don’t care if you like my lifestyle or not. It doesn’t concern you at all,” I told him before adding, “Besides, you’re the last person whose opinion I want to hear.”

Both the men looked startled. They turned to look at me.

you were awake.” He, Mr. Lavins, smiled sympathetically. “How are you feeling?” Likewise, he was wearing an expensive black suit that fit him perfectly. His eyes were a luring dark brown, and he had short black

Mr. Lavins for longer than they did on

more relaxed. He was wearing khaki pants and a tight white shirt. Unlike the last time I saw him, he had dark eye bags under his eyes.

the reason he wasn’t getting sleep? …It doesn’t even matter. It’s

him, rolling my eyes. I didn’t even mean to say that, it just slipped past

from one foot to the other. It was clear he was a bit uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Noah stared at

want me to call

Eleonora if you don’t know since, after all, this is our first time meeting and talking to each other.” Maybe I was being too harsh on him, but at that moment, I didn’t really

understand where all this is coming from, okay? But please act a little more mature. At least for now, since we have a few things to discuss. You’re getting discharged from the hospital today and we have your room at my house ready, so you’ll be coming over today. Now, I’m going to go sign

him, he left the room, leaving Noah and I

noticed Noah had a bag in his hand. He handed it to me. “These are some clothes you could change into, unless you’d prefer to stay in that hospital gown,” he

but I gave him a small smile anyways. “It's been a few days already?”

The doctor said you’re ready to go, we just have to keep close watch.” That’s when I noticed I no longer had all those needles stuck into me. They

began trying to get off of the hospital bed but my legs felt numb since I haven’t used them in a few days. I was about to fall

think the doctor would like it if you stayed here any longer.” He chuckled. I couldn’t help the smile that came across myself despite me trying to not be happy. Noah was just the type of

to the bathroom where I cleaned myself up and wore the clothes - which happened to be a sweatshirt and