On Our First Attempt

Chapter Four

Ariana wasn't offended by Kyle's words, rather she felt his pain afterall she'd been in his position all her life as well. She stayed there for a while wondering what Kyle's story could be. She was the cause of her own pain and therefore had no one to blame so she wondered what could be the reason behind Kyle's pain. She sat down and for sometimes and reflected on her past. She missed her family and most especially her son and older brother even though she still talked with her son recently, not until he threatened not to speak with her until she sees her physically. After waiting for sometimes outside, she decided to go back into her room to rest her head.

Early the next day, Valeria and Ariana woke up early to prepare breakfast since they had am important place to visit that morning. As they set the table, Kyle joined them and helped practically in everything Ariana was trying to do.

"Did he annoy you yesterday after we left for bed?" Val whispered in Ariana's ears.

"Not really, I assume he was just in pain and I happen to be the only one he could transgress his anger to." Ariana defended.

Val chuckled softly, "Then I guess he's feeling guilty that's why he's helping you out today." Val said.

"But what does this have to do with helping me out today?" Ariana asked cluelessly.

"That's he's own way of loudly saying 'Am Sorry'." Val explained.

"Oh! So he prefer outright bribery rather than real apology!" Ariana wondered.

"Hmmm, I think I love the way you just put it." Val said.

"Don't you girls think he has ears to hear your loud whispers?" Carl asked as he walked into the room and heard them talking.

"Oh, we should have been more cautious. I hope he doesn't get mad about this soon." Ariana said worriedly.

"Don't worry Ana, at times like this he pretends not to have ears." Val said and just them, Kyle stopped what he was doing and walked up them with a straight face. Ariana was gripped by fear while Val and Carl just stood neutral.

"Uhmmmm, sir it's not........" Ariana was trying to explain herself even before she was asked, but Kyle interrupted her.

"Where do I keep this?" Kyle asked, stretching out his hands to reveal the second part of the earring Ariana was putting on.

Jilted out of shock, she quickly touched her ear and noticed that one of her earrings was missing.

"Oh! I think I would just wear it back. Thanks for this." Ariana said and immediately tried collecting the earring from him but withheld it.

"I would put that on for you." Kyle said.

"No you needn't............" Ariana was still trying to protest when Kyle moved closer to Ariana and pushed her hair backward so he could reach her ears safely.

Ariana was dumbfounded and surprised even after Kyle was long gone out of her sight.

Val called out on Ariana who was still spacing out as a result of what just happened.

" Can we eat now please, we have somewhere important to go." Val said and immediately, Ariana joined the rest of the family at the table and they ate both deligently and silently.

After their breakfast, Kyle, Valeria and her family went all went in a Golden Limousine which took them to the graveyard to pay respect to their dead father, while Ariana stayed back and decided to prepare dinner for them since she knew they'd be coming back late and might be too tired and stressed out to cook. After she was done with work, she went to the living room and tuned the TV onto the news channel and learned a few things about the great Dylan Kings, since he was the topic of every news channel that day.

"Woah, he even have the same name as my son, turns out he's gonna be someone great in the future." Ariana remembered her son as she said this so she decided to try calling him again and see how things turn out.

After several minutes of continous ringing, Hector finally picked up his phone.

"Where the hell have you been, I've been calling since forever." Ariana lashed at him.

"And where the hell are you Ariana? Do you think this silly game of yours is going to continue forever?" Hector lashed back.

"Where's Dylan?" Ariana asked.

"Oh! He won't speak with you anymore even if he wishes to because your family has him now." Hector said.

"What? Why did you let them take him?" Ariana asked angrily.

"How can a single father take care of a child all his life when the mother desperately loathes him and only calls whenever she feels like? That was what your parents said and you know what? It's the absolute truth." Hector explained.

"How can you say that Hector? I also wanna see you all too, but I just can't bring myself to just go back. I more of a mess than when I left." Ariana said.

"It's been 4years since you left Ariana, 4 good years. Did you even consider how we feel? Huh? Have you even speaked with Logan since then? Obviously not because if you had, he would have tracked you down a long time ago." Hector said.

"How's he doing?" Ariana asked.

"Why don't you call him if you are that worried?" Hector asked. "And where the hell are you? That place doesn't seem like your house or some café." He asked.

"Uhmmm, tell Dylan I love him, and I will see him soon." Ariana said and immediately ended the call.

She sat for sometimes thinking about her family and the good times they've had together, she couldn't prevent herself from crying as she remembered those times. Since she was the only one at home, she cried freely without fear of being seen.

It took Kyle and the rest of the family few hours before they got back home. Lucas and Jason also decided to come home with them and spend the rest of the night talking about the good times so as to prevent Kyle from brooding over his father's demise.

As they entered the penthouse, they found Ariana sleeping on the couch.

"Why's she lying here when she has a room." Valeria muttered to herself and went closer to help her lay properly on the couch. She took her twins who where already asleep to bed and asked Lucas and Jason to help set the table for dinner. Once she was done, she went to wake Ariana up.

"Ana, get up and go freshen up let's eat." Val said to Ariana.

She slowly and sluggishly went back to her room to freshen up and in the next few minutes, she joined the rest of them at the table.

"I thought this was just for family, so why is she here?" Kyle asked Val, making Ariana to stop eating.

"I'm sorry for intruding." Ariana said and stood up to leave before Val stopped her.

"You are going no where Ariana, so sit back and eat." Val said. "She's family now K, so deal with it." She said.

"I forbid her being my family. Since she ain't leaving then I guess I should leave." Kyle said and stood up to leave before Ariana stopped him.

"You needn't leave sir. It's my fault I should have known my place since am only a house help here. But when next you talk to others, you should learn some manners, because I'd rather be without family all my life than to have a trash like you call me family." Ariana said and angrily left for her room.

Valeria rushed after her to apologise on Kyle's behalf.

"Ariana, am sorry about Kyle's behavior and annoying mood swings. He's always like this on days like this. He's been hurting since Dad's demise." Valeria explained.

"That's not an excuse for his rude behaviors Val, everyone's hurting, so we can't just annoy others because we are hurting." Ariana lashed at Val before she went straight to her room.

Ariana followed her to her room as she noticed she wasn't her usual cheerful self today.

"By chance Ana, did something happen today?" Valeria asked.

"What could have happened if not that your brother was unnecessarily nice to me in the morning and in the evening he seemed like a totally different person." Ariana said.

"I mean something more personal. Did you talk with your son or his father today?" Val asked.

"It's not something to concern yourself with. I'm absolutely fine. I just hope to keep my job for the remaining weeks so I could go see my son." Ariana said sadly.

"Everyone's hurting as you said, and we all need someone to talk to and rely on, and I want to let you know that am always here for you." Val said and left the room to go back to the dinning room while Ariana just sat down and cried to herself.

As Valeria walked back to the dinning room, she overheard Carlos upbraiding Kyle on his attitude towards Ariana.

"That was way too rude of you man." Carlos said.

"Well that's your wife's fault. She brought her here." Kyle said remorselessly.

"When are you going to grow up K, you are giving your sister a really hard time, and I won't let you do that to her anymore." Carlos threatened.

"Do your worse. Take her to some other countries again and never let me see her. You have that much power at least since she's all yours." Kyle replied angrily and left the dinning. He stopped to glance at his sister who was right in front of the door before going to his room. She tried stopping him but he wouldn't listen.

"Oh God. He keeps getting worse yearly, it's really heartbreaking." Val lamented.

"We are sorry sir and ma for the turn out of today's event. We'd try to talk some sense into him and have him apologise later on." Jason said as he and Lucas went after Kyle.

The rest of the night went moody and quiet for everyone at home and most especially Kyle, but Ariana couldn't just lay back at home and sleep. She was restless and felt pressured. She kept feeling totally uncomfortable with her current self and an unknown force kept pushing her to change things, get high and feel relieved.

As she noticed everyone was now asleep, she dressed up in an unusual black outfit and went out of the penthouse. She took a taxi in the ever busy city of Las Vegas and went straight to Tule Springs clubhouse. She went into an enclosed underground room in the clubhouse(which was a place where hard drugs are sold illegally) and ordered for Cymbalta and Prozac (a hard drug that makes a person feel numb to emotional pain). She went back to the main clubhouse and got herself a strong alcohol which she used in taking some of the drugs she'd bought.

After few minutes of taking the drugs, she had to find her self somewhere to rest her head as she now felt dizzy and unstable.

Early the next morning, Valeria decided to wake up early and prepare breakfast for everyone without disturbing Ariana's sleep as she was hoping the previous day's ill luck should not befall the new day's.

After making the food, she started waking everyone up on after the other but Kyle wouldn't let her into his room.

"Hey K, you better open this door or I might just break it." Val threatened as she rigorously banged the door.

"Just let me be okay. I'm not hungry." He said.

"Lucas! Get me the spare keys or get me a hammer." She said to Lucas.

"Val, don't stress yourself, I will personally breakdown that door." Jason said.

"I will help too." Carlos said as he walked up to Kyle's door. He quickly collected the hammer and started banging the door hard as Kyle had already swept out all the spare keys to his room and also changed his passcode.

"You don't have to be so serious. Am coming out now." Kyle finally agreed to opened the door which was almost ruined.

Kyle was surprised to see Carl in front of his door immediately he opened up because he was now feeling guilty for what he said the previous night. He tried to hide his face from him but Carl knew him too well to hide anything.

"Just apologize if you are sorry. I always pardon you on days like that." Carl said.

Kyle was even more embarrassed now that Carl had clearly read his mind but he felt relieved that he wouldn't have to act awkward towards him and now the only problem was Ariana.

He sure knows that he can't outrightly apologize to her and been unnecessarily nice to her today won't even work. Nevertheless he wasn't completely bothered about it. He then joined the others at the table.

"Does anyone know where Ariana is?" Valeria asked as she walked into the dinning room after haven checked her in her room.

"Did you check her restroom?" Carl asked.

"Yes, she isn't there. And her bed seem quite smooth, It doesn't seem like she slept on it." Valeria replied worriedly.

"What? Where could she have gone?" Kyle asked.

"I swear K, if she left because of you, I won't forgive you." Valeria lashed at Kyle.

"Lucas, go check if her things are still intact." Carl said as he was now alarmed by Ariana's disappearance.

Lucas came back almost immediately and announced that her things where still intact.

"How about we check the security desk and the CCTV cameras." Kyle suggested.

"Yeah, he's right, I will give them a call immediately to send us the footage." Jason said and went to the center table to call the securities through the landline.

Within a few minutes, they received the footage and began watching it.

"What's going on here?" Ariana asked as she walked into the living room and saw everyone watching the footage. Valeria quickly walked up to her, held her hand and began questioning her.

"Where have you been? Why didn't you tell anyone you where stepping out? Did you even get any sleep at all, your eyes are bulging out. You got us worried. Are you okay?" Valeria asked worriedly.

Ariana kept rubbing her face and scratching her body. "I'm fine." She replied bluntly in a coarse voice and walked out on them.

"She must not have slept all through the night." Val said worriedly.

"And she reek of alcohol." Carl added.

"I can't believe she's going through all this because of me." Val said.

"She isn't going through this because of you, but rather because of him." Carl said, staring at Kyle.

"How does this have to do w........" Kyle couldn't complete his statement because of the look everyone gave him as he tried denying being the cause of Ariana's pain.

"Lucas, I think we have a meeting to attend today right?" Kyle asked trying to avoid the topic at hand. He left the penthouse with Lucas whilst Jason went back to his house. Carl also left with the twin while Valeria waited until Ariana was stable before going back home. She tried questioning her on her way about but Ariana won't yield.

"What happened to you yesterday?" Val asked.

"Nothing, am doing great. I slept at a friend's place so you needn't worry. Am sorry for making you worry today. I just need a different air that's why I left the penthouse." Ariana explained.

"That's a relief dear. And about Kyle..."

"No! Let's not talk about him now. I get it, he was mourning. And anyways, I'm just a house help." Ariana replied bluntly.

"Ok, I won't. Just get some rest. I already prepared seaweed salad for you. You can have them when you are hungry." Valeria said before leaving for her home as it was already past midday. Ariana laid down on her bed after Valeria left and soon enough she fell asleep.

FEW HOURS LATER

Ariana woke up this time feeling more relaxed but hungry, she went to the kitchen to get her food which had been prepared for and as she walked back to her room, she overheard Kyle and Lucas discussing in the living room.

"You defended her at the community meeting today, so why don't you just apologize to her and end this bad blood." Lucas advised.

"What do you expect me to say? Tell her am sorry?" Kyle wondered.

"Yes, if need be explain to her your reason for been so rude. Carl is already acquainted with you that's why he was able to let go so easily but Ariana is not so you have to explain to her." Lucas advised further.

Kyle chuckled loudly, "Why would I do that? Why should I explain myself to her?" Kyle queried.

"To avoid any misunderstandings." Lucas replied.

"Do I look like I care if she misunderstands? Look I know I was wrong but I won't say that to her face, that would only make me look weak. She already looks down on me now thanks to Val. If I bring myself to apologise to her, I would become even more useless." Kyle said.

"Whatever you say K, but this isn't the best of choices. I gotta go." Lucas said and left the penthouse.

Kyle relaxed in the living room for sometimes before heading to bed in his room. Ariana haven gotten an ear full of Kyle's pompous act, released her hate for him a bit, afterall, he admitted he was wrong. But nevertheless, Ariana still wanted him to say it directly to her.

Nevertheless she planned to avoid contact with him until then. She decided to sleep on it, maybe she might have a good idea on how to make Kyle apologize wholeheartedly, but sleep did not come so easily as she slept alot in the afternoon.

Early the next day, Kyle went very early to work which made it impossible for him to see Ariana that morning even if he would have wanted to. He stayed in his office and thought hard about Ariana.

"Why haven't I seen her since yesterday, or did she leave again?" Kyle muttered to himself. He was still wondering about this when it dawned on him that he had CCTV cameras all over the house except in each room. He turned on his laptop and checked the footages to see if Ariana might come into the living room or kitchen or any other part of the house with a camera. He watched the footages for almost an hours without any signs of Ariana coming out of her room.

"What's even the use of checking up on her, it's not like I care." He said as he shut his laptop down. He then got himself engrossed in some paperwork before Lucas came into his office.

"Where's the documents for the shareholders meeting today. I need to go over it." Lucas asked.

"I gave it to you when you came by the house today." Kyle replied.

Lucas dropped a document on his table. "This was what you gave me. A real estate plan for KT global." He said.

"Oh shoot I must have made a mistake, and I can't even remember where I kept it." Kyle said.

"We'd be needing it in an hour K, you better go get it." Lucas said and went to his office before Kyle could make him do it.

"Guess I have to go myself." He muttered to himself before sluggishly standing up from his chair and hurrying off to his car.

It took him twenty minutes to get to Kings Palace and an additional two minutes journey in the elevator to get to his penthouse. As he entered into living room and saw how quite it was he wondered if Ariana had even came out of her room since morning. He went directly to his room and searched for the files he was looking for and after few minutes of searching, he finally found it under his bed. He hurried off to the elevator and halted on opening it.

"There's no harm. I would only be checking on the welfare of my staff." He persuaded himself before going over to Ariana's room to check on her. He knocked for sometimes with no response. The unusual silence forced him to open the door with it's spare keys and he was shocked to see Ariana lying helplessly and unconsciously on the floor, emitting foams from her mouth and nostril.

"What the heck happened here?" He lamented.