Chapter One Hundred and forty six

"Why's Zara so shy?" I asked while Kumar took pictures of me in front of the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Damien and I were up early and out of the house to go get Kumar who was going to take us round the city. Our first stop was of course having breakfast at a nice spot before finding our way down to the Palace.

"Well uh, she's been through a lot." He said, coming over to show me the photos.

"Like what?" I asked, absentmindedly swiping the pictures.

"I'm not sure it's in my place to tell but Zara was born with a hole in her heart." He sighed, taking the phone from my hand.

My hands flew to my mouth as a gasp eluded me.

"She's always so weak and she believes she's going to die soon so she just keeps to herself all the time. She doesn't even have friends." He said.

It felt so bad for her.

"But the hole can be fixed via surgical procedures right?"

"Yeah," he nodded before his eyes drooped.

Why hasn't it been done? I wanted to ask but he beat me to it.

"But we can't afford it."

"Oh." I understood.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." I said, placing a comforting palm on his shoulder.

"It's alright. We'll all be fine in the end." His sad demeanor vanished like it didn't exist at all.

"Where's your husband?" He asked, switching to a more light-hearted topic.

"I wonder." I shielded my eyes from the rays of the sun as I looked around for Damien. He had been taking calls nonstop and kept excusing himself.

"Babe!" I jumped and waved him over from the distance. He turned to wave back at me before pointing at his phone and raising his index finger, telling me to give him some time.

I turned to Kumar and shrugged before going on to ask him about school and other stuff while we waited for Damien's return. All the while, thoughts of what he had told me plagued my mind.

It got to me so bad that, that night after a very eventful day, I had to talk to Damien about it.

"Babe, you know Aunt Karla's daughter, Zara?" I softly asked, feeling the rhythmic beat of his heart as I laid my head on his chest.

"Yeah, what about her?" He said, as he ran his fingers through my hair as usual.

"She, uhm, she has a hole in her heart." I told him.

"Ohh, that's bad." He said empathically. "She told you that?"

"No," I went on to tell him how I found out about it and how the conversation went.

"Whoa,"

"Babe," I sat up to stare into his eyes. "please can we help her? Her life's in great danger, she's so young and has a promising future ahead of her-"

He hushed me with a kiss.

"You don't have to ask. It's done. We just have to have her parents' permission before flying her abroad for surgery."

"Oh, I love you." I cried out grabbing his face to lock his lips in a sweet deep kiss.

****

"Zara we're going to get help for you!" Aunt Karla cried, practically going on her knees, I had to hold her from the side to stop her.

We had just given them the good news. Zara smiled and went over to hug Damien.

"Gracias." She said, wiping her eyes of the soft drizzle of tears that clouded her cheeks.

I could tell Damien was getting uncomfortable with how emotional everyone was getting, especially how they thanked him.

"I already called the doctors. We'll first take you with us to LA before you go down to India. Who's coming with you?" He said to Zara.

"Mama is." She said without delay.

"Typical mummy's girl." Antonella teased.

There and then it was settled.

We were leaving for LA the next day so they didn't have that much time to prepare but I was sure we could get them anything they needed before heading for India.

"You're such a blessing to me." I said to Damien when we left their house.

"I beg to differ, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." He said, melting my insides with his adorable smile.

"I guess we're even." I giggled.

"I guess so." He said, pecking my nose.

****

"Home sweet home!" I yelled as soon as we touched down in LA, startling Aunt Karla and Zara who probably thought I was the calm, quiet type.

The ride to the villa was smooth. They had the same looks on their face as I did when I first saw the interiors of the mansion.

"Welcome to our home." I said to them.

The butlers ushered them to the guest room where they were to rest before joining us for dinner.

They met the family and were warmly welcomed and everything went on pretty smoothly after that.

Aunt Karla and Zara left for India the very next day and a few days later, we received good news. The surgery turned out successful and Zara was responding well to treatment. I was so happy. Too happy.

***

Weeks rolled by, I got back to working on the restaurant, and soon I started feeling sick.

I was feeling nauseous for no reason all the time but I tried not think much about it. I believed I was just stressed out.

I didn't let Damien know cause he had so much going on with work and he was always tired.

One fateful morning, I drove to work like every other day.

I walked in and there was this stench I couldn't stand, I shook my head and answered all the salutes from workers before going over to sit in my office for a while, to clear my head. Damien had been out of town for the last few days for business and I missed him a lot, despite the fact that we talked and chatted almost all the time.

"Ma'am," I looked up when I saw Lucy staring down at me in my office.

"Lucy?"

"I've been knocking and you didn't respond. I just had to be sure you're okay." She said.

"Yeah I'm fine." I nodded.

"Your attention is needed ma'am."

"For the umpteenth time Lucy, just call me Ariana." I rolled my eyes as I stood up follow her out into the restaurant.

I came out and was met with an overwhelming crowd of customers. It threw me off balance.

"Why's there so many people here?" I asked.

"Ariana, this is just about twenty percent of our daily intake of customers all at once. It's still early."

It didn't feel like there were just few people around.

I blinked rapidly, feeling the room close in on me. I tried grabbing her hand to steady myself but I soon found myself on the floor slipping into unconsciousness.