XLV

"We're finally here!" Carol squealed with glee, her loud voice echoing within the metallic walls of her car as she, together with Emerald seated on the passenger seat, drove down the streets of Lenox hill, Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Beautiful and high-end mansions lined both sides of the road and from the rear view mirror, Emerald could see Jordan's car following closely behind them. She stifled a chuckle as she pictured his overly annoyed face when Carol had come to interrupt their moment in the room earlier, singing "Jordan and Emerald sitting on a tree, f-u-c-k-i-n-g," in an exorbitantly shrill voice.

His annoyance had escalated when Carol had suggested that they all visit her house with the excuse of wanting to show Emerald her humble abode, as well as to introduce her to her husband, Leonardo. After seemingly hours of arguments between the two siblings, Emerald had agreed and Jordan had no choice but to also concede begrudgingly.

Coming back to reality, Emerald watched as Carol turned the corner and stopped in front of a gate. She rolled down her own window before placing her thumb on a metallic button beside one of the pillars supporting the gate.

A buzz came from the automaton before the gates slid open, paving way for both cars to enter the premises. Both siblings parked their vehicles in the spacious driveway in front of the modern day mansion.

All four inhabitants of the cars alighted and Carol hurriedly rushed over to Emerald - who was busy trying to fix the tight dress around her body - clapping her hands in excitement. "Come, come on in, Eme," she grabbed Emerald's hand and began tugging her towards the entrance, not bothering to wait for the other two men.

"Welcome to my humble abode!" Carol exclaimed after pushing the entrance doors open. They stepped in through the threshold and Emerald couldn't help but look around the interior of the house. There was a clear difference between the tastes and preferences of both siblings and it was very conspicuous.

Unlike the monochromatic decorations in Jordan's home, Carol's home was more brightly decorated, but not in an overexaggerated or exuberant way. The walls of the hallway were painted in a light blue colour and walking into the living room, Emerald noticed that the colours, cream and honey brown dominated most of the area with similarly cream coloured couches and sofas beautifying the living space.

Compared to what the exterior of the house revealed, the interiors were quite spacious, elegantly yet humbly furnished and very well conditioned.

She moved her gaze back to Carol, who wore a smug smirk on her face. Clearly, this wasn't the first time she was seeing an awed look on the visage of someone who was just seeing her house for the first time. She even appeared to take pleasure and pride in it.

"You love it, don't you?" her voice carried the same smugness her face showed. "I know you do, everyone does. And why's that?" She wiggled her eyebrows at Emerald before sharply turning around to regard the entire house with her short arms. "That's because I decorated the whole place!" she exclaimed.

Amusement yet wonder, filled Emerald's green eyes as she stared at the spectacle of a woman standing so animatedly in front of her. Just then, she heard a familiar deep voice grumble directly behind her. "I keep wondering what the hell I'm doing here."

Emerald chuckled, craning her neck to look behind at Jordan. The displeased look still hadn't evanesced from his face and now, he was even wearing a pout on his lips. Emerald couldn't resist finding him cute.

Before she could say anything, however, Carol made her usual gibe. "That's because you couldn't resist being a puppet to the love of your life, so you followed her all the way here like a cute, wittle piggy," she cooed at him, as if he were a child.

A scowl immediately graced Jordan's face at her words and mocking tone, but as he opened his mouth to reply her gibe, an unfamiliar voice suddenly spoke up, interrupting the impending storm between the always clashing siblings. "Bragging about your handiwork again, are we?"

Three out of four pairs of eyes slid towards the source of the voice, which came from the corridor, and they watched as a tall man walked into the living room with an apron covering his torso and quarter of his thighs. He brought with him a whiff of the delicacy being prepared in the kitchen.

"Nardo," Carol muttered shyly as the man approached the group with a fond smile directed at his wife. The bold and mettlesome Carol was nowhere to be seen and standing in place of her, was a bashful version.

Emerald watched in amusement and intrigue as the tall, lean yet slightly muscular man reached his wife, scooped her up in his arms before placing a kiss smack on her lips. Carol immediately turned pink and hid her face in his chest when he chuckled alongside Keelan, who let out an exaggerated'awwn' as a tease.

Noticing that Jordan was being oddly quiet, Emerald turned around to gauge his reaction to his sister's and brother-in-law's PDA but when she did, Jordan was no longer behind her but had receded to one of the couches in the living room. With furrowed eyebrows, she tilted her head, regarding his unimpressed look with one of confusion.

Keelan must have noticed where her attention was, because he moved closer to her to whisper the answer to her unasked question. "J isn't a fan of Leonardo's."

"Oh," Emerald said, not sure of what else to say, so instead, she turned towards Keelan who was smirking at Jordan's sulking figure. Grasping his attention once again, she spoke. "I believe we haven't been formally introduced to each other?"

Keelan chuckled, nodding in affirmation of her words. "The bickering siblings haven't given either of us time to do that. So if I may," his eyes gained a mischievous glint and his gaze momentarily flickered to look over Emerald's shoulder before taking her hand to his lips and brushing a kiss over her knuckles. He let his lips linger on her skin whilst sneakily passing a sidelong glance at the brimming storm seated on the couch.

Before he could detach his lips from her knuckles and rise back to his full height, however, he was suddenly roughly shoved on the shoulders, causing him to stumble back a few steps. A loud gasp emanated from Emerald when she was pulled back into a rock hard chest as strong arms wrapped possessively around her waist.

Keelan, including Carol and Leonardo, burst into laughter, disregarding Jordan's predatory eyes. "Not funny, you guys," he gritted out, but that seemed to have added to their amusement as Keelan guffawed even louder.

Jordan's face reddened with rage and he took a threatening step in Keelan's direction. "I warned you to stay away from her, Mars." Keelan's eyes immediately widened and he took a thousand steps away from Jordan on seeing that his friend was a millisecond away from pouncing on him.

He raised his hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry, J. I just wanted to rile you up a bit," he gave a sheepish smile, breathing a sigh of relief when Jordan replied with a grunt and an eye roll. His grateful eyes moved to Emerald, who was clearly trying to control her laughter while rubbing her hands soothingly on Jordan's chest. That little action of hers was his saving grace.

He took a tentative step forward and immediately halted when Jordan growled at him. "I just want to introduce myself," he rushed out over the sound of laughter coming from Carol and her husband watching the scene from the background.

Jordan narrowed his eyes at Keelan, his arms tightening around Emerald before speaking, "His name is Keelan Mason Mars, the biggest idiot in the entire universe," he gibed.

Keelan chuckled with a wink directed at Jordan. "Yet you love me so much you can't do without me. I'm practically the thread that holds your life together," he puckered his lips as if asking for a kiss but was only met with Jordan's disgusted expression and more boisterous laughter, even from Emerald.

Jordan gave him a murderous glare before looking down at the woman laughing so charmingly in his arms. His chocolate eyes seemed to sparkle as his gaze remained on her laughing profile. A smile slowly crawled up his lips, breaking through the usual stoic expressions.

'Whipped,' Keelan thought, watching his friend glow with love for his woman.

▬▬▬▬▬

Having gone past all bickerings as well as introducing Emerald and Leonardo to one another, the two groups of lovers and a very sulky third wheeler sat in the living room, listening to Carol rant on and on about how she had been hired to design something of the ancient French culture for a family that had just relocated to SoHo from the central Transalpine Gaul.

She gushed endlessly about how their French accent had been so thickly interlaced with their words that it had felt like she was indeed in the City of Love. She also fangirled over one of the old couple's sons and she narrated how he had flirted endlessly with her with his honeycomb of a baritone voice.

Needless to say, third wheeler Keelan had found immense pleasure in Leonardo's obvious jealousy from his scowl to how he had kissed Carol so possessively to shut her up.

Emerald and Jordan, on the other hand, couldn't keep their hands off each other and every so often, they would sneak glances at each other, catch each other staring and then look away, blushing. They were acting like two elementary school students, experiencing first love and crushing on one another.

Keelan, who couldn't help but observe the two sets of couples, only snorted at their childishness, earning a glare from Jordan and a violently thrown couch cushion from Carol.

"Are you okay?" Emerald whispered to Jordan after scooting closer to him.

He looked at her, wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to sit on his laps. Placing a kiss on her temple, he mumbled against her cranium, "much better," before pulling away to look at her blushing face with an adoring smile.

"Yes, I am. Why do you ask?" he answered her question.

"Well," she inhaled sharply, her face turning up in a grimace before she exhaled in puffs. "You've been scowling for most part of today."

Jordan silently observed her. She kept moving her shoulders awkwardly and occasionally, her hands would move towards her cleavage to pull lightly on the fabric of the dress Carol had lent her from one of her clothes over at Jordan's. Her breaths were coming out in short pants and she seemed to be having difficulty in breathing.

"I'm fine, actually. I tend to be like that whenever the pests in my life, Carol and Keelan, are around. Their presence brings out the annoyance in me," Emerald chuckled and Jordan watched her with squinted eyes as she panted slightly again.

He had noticed her wheezing after her laughter earlier but he had let it slide, thinking that it was because she had laughed so hard, but now, it appeared that wasn't the case.

"I guess you're right. They are pests," she concurred.

Jordan ran his big palm down the smooth fabric covering her back, leaving scorching heat to travel down the path of her back. He watched her sigh softly before wiggling her shoulders again. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Emerald turned to look at him before nodding. "Of course, I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You tell me," he stared into her eyes, stilling the movement of his hand on her back. "You aren't breathing well. Your breaths are coming out in pants, you wheeze while laughing and you grimace whenever you take a deep breath," he stated all in one breath.

Emerald blinked her wide eyes, staring at him in astonishment and awe. "You observed all of that?" she asked in surprise.

"That's not the answer to my question, Gem," he moved his face closer to hers, staring her deeper in the eyes.

"Ok, fine," she huffed, her face turning bright red. "The dress is too tight," she whispered, gesturing towards her chest region, "particularly the erm. . . breast area. It's suffocating. I probably should've just worn my dress back, but I didn't want to turn Carol down."

Jordan let his eyes sweep momentarily to her boobs and truthfully, they looked squished up against the dress. Emerald was very much, more endowed than Carol and the only reason the rest of the dress didn't suffocate her was because the skirt part was flare.

Jordan bit on his bottom lip in thought, trying to find a solution for her. "Hey, it's ok, Cal. I'll just suck it up, quite literally, for the rest of the day," she smiled reassuringly, trying to ease his troubled look.

After a few seconds, he gently turned her around, making her back face him in such a way that the others only saw her face. Emerald only remained quiet, confusion and curiosity swimming in her eyes as she waited for what he was about to do.

She felt his hands move to her zipper and her eyes immediately went wide, but still, she didn't utter a word. Appearing to understand her affirmation, Jordan slowly pulled it down - all the while, looking away from her to give her some privacy - revealing her creamy back and in a swift movement, he pulled her back into his chest and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

Emerald looked as red as a cherry when she remembered that she had opted out of wearing a bra when the zipper had failed to work in Jordan's house. But all of that was short-lived when her tightened chest area immediately loosened up and she was finally able to breathe again.

The immense relief she felt left her slightly dazed and she sat limp, resting her entire body against Jordan and no longer feeling shy about her braless back resting against his front. Jordan, in return, wrapped his strong arms tighter around her, making sure that what was currently happening was hidden from the view of the others present in the room.

"Thank you so much," Emerald whispered quietly and in return, she got a kiss on the corner of her lips. Jordan didn't seem to mind the PDA but his younger sister and devil of a best friend wouldn't let him live it down as they both erupted into fake gags and shouts of 'eww.'

Choosing not to mind them both, Jordan, instead, gently turned Emerald's face just enough for him to kiss her directly on the lips this time. More 'ewws' and fake gags, alongside laughter, filled the air until the couple pulled away from each other, leaving Emerald as red as an apple.

With a smug look in his eyes, Jordan left a kiss on her cheek before looking straight at Keelan. "Fucking third wheeler," he gibed, smirking as a scowl invaded his friend's face.

"Haha, funny," Keelan muttered, unamused, eliciting laughters from Carol, Leonardo and quiet chuckles from Emerald when he crossed his arms over his chest and receded into the couch with a pout.

The sudden ringtone from Leonardo's phone was successful in saving Keelan. "I need to take this," he excused himself, placing a kiss on Carol's forehead and regarding Keelan and Emerald with a small nod and smile respectively before leaving the room.

Jordan grunted, making Emerald feel the movement of his chest against her back and she noticed that his body went stiff for a bit when Leonardo stood up and when he left, he was relaxed again. She had also earlier felt the heavy weight of the colliding tension between the two and it had been so palpable and thick, it could've been sliced through by a knife.

Emerald didn't quite blame Jordan for that, considering how much pain his brother-in-law had put his sister through and being Carol's therapist and well aware of what had happened, Emerald had also been a tad indignant when she was being introduced to the man himself.

However, after watching the couple's neverending public display of affection and how genuinely happy Leonardo made Carol, Emerald had eased up. The look in the man's eyes whenever he gazed at his wife was one of true love and pure adoration. It had melted away any lingering dislike for the man.

But, Emerald couldn't help but suspect that there was something more to Jordan's evident hatred for Leonardo. It ran deeper than just his previous behaviours to her, but she refused to pry. In due time, he would open up to her, but would she be able to open up to him?

Discarding her thoughts, Emerald watched as Leonardo walked back into the living room with a sunken expression. Carol must have also noticed because she immediately stood to her feet and walked closer to him. "Is everything alright?"

Leonardo only sighed before running his hand down his face. Carol held both his hands, worry clouding her expression. "Is something wrong, Nardo?" she asked and held his chin, directing his gaze to hers.

"Kathy's gone," he muttered and confusion shortly dominated Carol's face before it slowly cleared off and stiffly, she questioned him.

"What do you mean by Kathy's gone?" her voice was small as she asked and her husband only responded by looking away from her while running his hand through his hair.

"No," Carol suddenly whispered, shaking her head. Her voice sounded so sorrowful as she withdrew her hands from Leonardo's. "No, it can't be. She can't just die like that, Nardo. She can't!" Tears streamed down her face and that appeared to grasp everyone's attention.

"Carol, honey? What is the matter?" Emerald softly asked, gesturing for Jordan to zip up her dress in an attempt to also calm him down since he was looking so livid as he glared daggers at Leonardo, probably assuming that the man had done something to hurt his sister again. They both rose to their feet.

"Yeah, what is it?" Keelan piped up, also standing.

Leonardo sighed again as he held his weeping wife in his arms. His eyes were bloodshot when he turned to look at them. "I had a patient, who just passed away." He explained vaguely and tried to calm his wife.

"She wasn't just any patient," Carol wept, "she was a young girl, only thirteen but she had been a victim of rape ever since she turned eight."

Emerald stiffened and her face paled at Carol's words. "What?" she whispered inaudibly.

"Yes, she was being raped by her mother's boyfriend secretly before her mother passed away from a car accident, but after her death, it became much worse and it kept up for five whole years." Leonardo explained, letting Carol settle on the couch again.

"The secret got out when she was kicked out of the house by said boyfriend and a good Samaritan had brought her to my hospital where series of tests were carried out on her and we discovered something," his voice turned grave and Carol wailed even harder.

Emerald's heart thudded erratically against her chest and Jordan, standing beside her, noticed how her hands fisted and relaxed occasionally. He stared worriedly at her extremely pallid face. Her previously blushing cheeks had gone as white as a sheet of paper and the sight immensely unsettled him. He could barely hear what Leonardo was narrating.

Emerald, on the other hand, latched onto Leonardo's every word, dreading the final outcome.

"She was pregnant," he revealed and just then, a teardrop slid down Emerald's cheek before another followed. "She was having a baby for the bastard," Leonardo gritted out, his jaw clenching.

"We began taking care of her but the trauma was too much for her to bear. She had been caught frequently trying to end her own life, but we had done all we could to prevent that. We got her countless therapists but she wouldn't open up to anyone. Carol then insisted on meeting her and they both began to bond," he looked at his sobbing wife and pulled her closer to him.

"Although it took a long while before she finally spoke, but gradually, she began to open up."

"She wanted to keep the baby," Carol's pained voice came up. "She wanted to keep the bastard's baby, because she couldn't bear to take the life of her own child despite how it came to be. She was so strong, so mature for someone so young yet-" A sob racked through her, preventing her from completing her speech.

Emerald's chest danced violently as she heaved, taking in deep breaths yet unable to get air to fill her lungs. She had no idea she was convulsing until Jordan held her in his arms tightly. She couldn't even register his words clearly. He sounded like he was speaking to her from the other far end of a pipeline.

"Emerald? Gem? Are you okay?" Jordan asked, his eyes filled with worry. Looking up, he met with Keelan's worried gaze as well.

She made no response as she continued staring at Leonardo and Carol who were so engrossed in their narration to notice anything.

"I was informed now that she-" Leonardo cut himself off, letting out a shaky breath before continuing, "she went into labour but didn't make it. They lost both her and the baby. Her mind and body were too frail for such agony," he concluded, closing his eyes tightly before resting his chin on his wife's head while comforting her.

'She died. . . And with her baby too.'

Such a young soul had to endure such sexual abuse from a very young age up until her early teenage years and it wasn't just once. She had to go through that for five whole years, yet she still chose to bring her child to life. She still chose to give herself a second chance but life still didn't grant her that.

'She died. . .'

Emerald could feel herself getting light-headed. She felt suffocated. She tried to breathe but air refused to aerate her lungs. Her eyes blurred with tears, her throat burned, her chest tightened and all the scars she had previously buried were suddenly ripped open again and blood flowed afresh from them.

She heard voices calling out to her but she couldn't comprehend what they were saying. She seemed to be in a black hole, in an abyss that only promised her a world of agony and neverending sorrow.

Feeling her breath abandon her, Emerald succumbed to the darkness.