On Our First Attempt

Chapter Thirteen

THREE DAYS TO DYLAN'S BIRTHDAY

Ariana ended the call because she couldn't control her emotions as tears threatened to fall freely from her eyes. She tried holding it in for sometimes but she soon let herself free and she cried her eyes out though with a smile on her lips till Valeria came into her house and met her crying.

"What happened this time?" Valeria asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I just......(breathes out heavily)......I just called home. I called my brother in a long while and I know he's coming to find me." Ariana exclaimed as she wiped off her tears since it was supposed to be a joyous news.

"Woah, that's such a relief. How do you feel now?" Valeria asked.

"I feel wonderful..........great." She exclaimed.

"Oh am glad you are happy." Valeria said with a smile.

"Do you know what he calls me? My Ugly duckling, can you believe that?" Ariana asked.

"But you seem to love it." Valeria said.

"I use to detest it so much back then, but now that I think about it, it brings happy memories rushing in to my head and it relives my stress a great deal." Ariana explained, but then she started to feel some slight pain in her head and she rubbed it rigorously. "You know, I feel like.....(stop to think for a while as if in a state of bewilderment)......I can see all my childhood memories right in front of me...........in my HEAD." She said, releasing a heavy breath.

"What's wrong with you Ana? Are you alright?" Valeria asked as she stood up to hold her hands as blood stains could already be seen at the place she rubbed.. Ariana also stood up and pushed Val off just so she could release her hands and continue to rub her head.

"I'm alright, it's just this......uhm....." She was still trying to explain when she suddenly started falling slowly to the ground as she was now unconscious but Valeria was fast enough to grab her on time before she reached the ground. She panicked as she saw how Ariana laid on the ground and then she quickly carried her phone and called Dr Hawkins to hurry over to Ariana's place as soon as possible.

Haven explained Ana's condition to Dr Hawkins, Valeria was told to get extra bandages to prevent her from bleeding out which she did carefully, quickly and diligently and after few minutes Dr Hawkins arrived.

With the help of Valeria, he carried her to her room. He sent Valeria out afterwards and began treatments on her. Valeria paced up and down the whole house untill Dr Hawkins came out of the room all sweaty and bloody.

"How's she doc? What's wrong with her? What happened actually?" Valeria asked worriedly.

"Hmmmm, her wound reopened due to stress and some sudden outburst of emotions. Did you have a serious quarrel with her?" Dr Hawkins asked.

"No not all. We've been good since three days ago. But this emotions, could it also possible be something good. Like a kind of trigger that brought back her old memories from childhood?" Valeria asked.

"Yeah, yeah. That's also a great cause of such out burst. I think cells are resistant to the drugs she's using now. I'll check back at the hospital and get her something different and more efficient." Dr Hawkins explained.

"Ok doc. But please when is she gonna wake up?" Valeria asked.

"I can't say for now, but she might wake up soon." He replied.

"She has to wake up on time Doc if not she might loose her family with even knowing." Valeria said as she was now moved to tears.

"You can't be broken now Val because she needs you alot. So rest up and inform your husband about the development. I would leaving first." Dr Hawkins advised before taking his leave.

Valeria stayed with Ana all through the day and also planned to spend the night with her after haven informed her husband as Dr Hawkins advised. She prayed earnestly as she anticipated Ariana's recovery.

KINGS PALACE, SUMMERLIN NORTH

After two days of continuous but fruitless search of Ariana's whereabouts, Kyle stood at the scene of Ana's accident thinking of what to do next. All possible ways of finding her seemed abortive and he had no one to talk to for help. He missed his sister alot, which was the second motivation of looking for Ariana with the first being the fact that he really hoped to not be a murderer as memories with Ariana kept tormenting him day and night. He visited the scene of the accident for two consecutive days yet nothing good to show for it as the CCTV cameras along the street wasn't functioning on the night of the incident.

He decided to use the opportunity to walk round the street and as he paced about the street walking carefully along the pedestrian lanes, he marvelled at the beautiful serene of the sky. Why would the sky look so happy and accompanied while he who is standing underneath so sad and lonely? He looked confused and unsettled yet the feeling of been a murderer to a real human can be very appalling and considering the jail term can be very annoying, even though a man of his statue could easily wave off such horrible act, afterall he didn't actually hit her with the car and ran off.

As he walked down the flyover just across the scene of the accident, he came across a spoilt car which seemed to have been parked for quite a while now and an idea came rushing to him.

He quickly typed down the plate number and sent it to a person on his contact and afterwards called him.

"Hey, I need you to run a quick check on that plate number and send me the contact of the owner as soon as possible." Kyle said and after a positive reply from the caller, he ended the call and in less than ten minutes, he received a text on his phone with contact of the owner of the car. He dailed the number but it wasn't reachable so he continued calling it untill he got back to his penthouse and to his surprise, Jasmine was in his house, infact in his kitchen cooking God knows what.

"What are you doing here Jasmine?" Kyle asked angrily as he entered into the kitchen and stood right behind her.

"Doesn't this house feels more peaceful with that b***h out of it?" Jasmine said mockingly.

"I asked a question." He scolded.

"Well, what does it look like am doing?" Jasmine replied with a question.

"Burning down my house." He answered harshly. That was when Jasmine realized the food she was cooking was getting burnt.

"It's all you fault afterall." Jasmine blamed, infuriating the already infuriated Kyle more.

"What! You wanna apportion blames now? Then let me tell you what your faults are. If you hadn't said that to me the other day, Ariana would have still been here, alive and healthy. I wouldn't have turned into a murderer and my sister wouldn't have forsaken me. It's all your fault Jasmine. All the negative things happening to me right now is all your fault so now you know who's faulty." He lashed angrily at her, transgressing his anger and frustrations at her. He was broken and emotionally wounded with no one to ask for help so how dare her add to his troubles. Guess she got what she deserved as she wasn't aware when tears fell freely from her eyes. She left the kitchen, infact the penthouse or rather the whole Kings Palace crying.

The transgression of anger worked like magic as Kyle now felt light at heart and relieved afterwards. He went into his room and continued trying to reach the number throughout the day and was finally only successful at the dead end of the night.

"Who the f**k are you to call me by this time of the night?" The owner of the car scolded harshly. Usually Kyle would've been totally enraged by that remark but then he was indifferent.

"Am sorry for disturbing your sleep but I've been trying to reach you since earlier today but all effort proved abortive, but you have to hear me out." Kyle replied as calmly as he could.

"So what is it?" A manly voice asked.

"Few days ago, there's been an accident very close the location of your parked car which seemed to have been there for a long time and I would love to review the dash camera of your car to see if anything was caught on it as all the cctv's in that area where totally out of function on the day of the incident." Kyle explained.

"You are right about it been there for sometimes now, like a month, but, Are you a civil servant or do you work in any private investigation organizations?" The receiver asked.

"No.......I'm just...uhmmm..... it's for a personal purpose." Kyle replied.

"And you think I will just gladly hand it over to you?" The receiver asked mockingly.

"Will you hand it over for a million dollars?" Kyle offered.

"Woah.....we........we have a deal. But I have to receive the m......." The receiver was unable to complete his statement due to Kyle's interruption. Excitement could be detected in his voice as he stuttered.

"Just send me you back details and drop the location where I would be receiving the footage." Kyle said and after he reached an agreement with the person, he ended the call with him and immediately he made a call to his accountant to send some money to the bank account he just sent. Few minutes after, he received a text from the owerof the car on the location and time for the collection of the footage.

Kyle couldn't sleep throughout that night as he thought about what the outcome of this might be. What if she really died from the accident? How the hell was he going to live with the trauma of it especially without his sister to support.

Sleepless night made him very hungry the next morning and as he went into the kitchen to fix something for himself, he was shocked to the brim when he saw a lady in a wet and bloody gown with a suitcase by her side cooking in his kitchen.

At first he got a scared and ran back to his room but then this was his house and he was supposed to be here alone so how the hell was there such a dirty lady in his kitchen of all places? Then he tiptoed to the kitchen, though the continuous sound of cutting knife drove fear down his spine.

He got close to the strange lady and was about to question her when he realized this was the exact same dress and suitcase Ariana had on the day he sent her packing.

He remained frozen to the spot for a while with his eyes closed as he reminisce over his mistakes for a while but this dirty lady wouldn't give him that much pleasure as she turned around and cursed him harshly.

"You're a murderer, you son of a gun." The lady said.

"I agree with you, am a total asshole. I shouldn't ha........" He was still talking when he finally opened his closed eyes and saw that the lady had no face of her own rather he saw his own face on her's.

Fear was an understatement to the emotions that rushed through Kyle's whole body as he tiptoed backwards trying to run away from the faceless lady who was also walking towards him but soon, he fell on the ground and getting up seemed impossible as if he was glued adhesively to the ground. The faceless lady didn't stop walking towards him as she increased her pace, all the while not stopping her curses on him.

The lady bent over to meet Kyle's gaze on the ground when she finally got to where he had fallen. She was about to place her hands on Kyle's neck when he screamed as loud as he could and with shut eyes, he rolled on the ground just to avoid her touch.

What happened to him next was even more surprising as tried to stop himself from rolling down his bed which was few inches high but he didn't succeed as he came crashing to the ground. How the hell was he rolling down his bed in his room when he actually thought he was rolling on the ground in his kitchen? He didn't stop screaming until he finally understood what was going on.

"Hmmmm." He heaved a huge sigh. "So this was all a nightmare? And here I thought I had sleepless night." He muttered to himself.

Even though it all ended up been a nightmare, it didn't stop him from being frightened. "I know I was such an asshole, but don't you think this suffering in too harsh?" He said sorrowfully to no one in particular.

Regaining his sanity took a while and when he did, he realized that time was far spent. It was already 10am which makes it exactly an hour and thirty minutes before the agreed time of collecting the footage. He quickly rushed to his bathroom and took his bath and afterwards, dressed as cool as ever. He went out of his room and met his house help working in the living room.

Immediately she saw her, she quickly stopped what she was doing and greeted him.

"I didn't know you where still home if not I wouldn't have been here." The middle aged lady apologized. On a normal, Kyle was supposed to fire her but who the hell is going to go through the stress of sending him a new house help now that he's stranded and lonely?

"Don't worry about that." He replied and was about to leave when the house help stopped him again.

"Sir......uhm......are you.......uhmmmm......Al... right? I-I didn't..... mean to but I overhead......you screaming earlier." The lady stuttered as she asked. She didn't mean to be nosy but then anyone that heard Kyle scream the way he did would surely be worried.

Though embarrassed by the question, he still had to give a proper response. "Uhmmmmm..........I should be fine. I guess I should be." He replied and without further explanation or questions, he left for his appointment with the car owner.

SUN CITY, SUMMERLIN NORTH

Two Days To Dylan's Birthday

Valeria had sleepless night as she worriedly took care of Ariana all through the night that she was only able to fall asleep later the next day. Her phone was switched off to prevent Kyle from disturbing him but then this got Carlos worried and came rushing over as he couldn't hear from her.

When he saw that she slept off beside Ariana with her head resting on Ana's bed while she sat on a chair, he quickly carried her to another room and laid her properly on the bed so she could rest well. After taking care of his wife, he came back to Ana's room to check up on her and see how she's doing himself. He took Valeria's position and cleaned her up with a wet towel which he saw there, but before then, he made sure to pull off his suit, hung it on a racket stand and also fold the long sleeves of his white inner clothing. "Val must have slept off on this." He thought as he cleaned her up. "You have to wake up soon girl, your family is waiting." He said as he cleaned her face with the towel and marvelled at how keenly she reminds him of someone he missed.

A sound from the doorbell and he wondered who could be here of all places. "Oscar or Doc." He thought to himself as he awaited the appearance of the person. Who else knows of this place if not him, Valeria, Doctor Hawkins and Oscar. Oh! And obviously the securities guarding the house.

A security personnel called from the gate and told Carlos of an unknown and probably an unexpected guest in front of the gate. Carl wondered who it could be, so to satisfy his curiosity, he asked the security man to send the person to the living room while he stepped out of Ana's room to see who it might be.

"Hey man! Whom do you seek here?" Carl asked the young man sitting on the couch.

"Uhmmmm............(stops to glance at his phone once more).......I can't say I got the house wrong because i believe this is it." The man said.

"Young man, that doesn't answer my question nor explains anything, are you lost?" Carlos asked.

"Actually..........I was supposed to see a lady, but by the way the building looks, I guess she lives with someone." The young man paused for a while. "I came to see Ana." He said.

Carlos was surprised to here his reason for been here. "How did you know Ana, or rather who are you?" Carl asked.

"Hmmmm, am Logan Lee. Her elder brother." Logan introduced, gesturing for a handshake but after knowing who he was, Carlos pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Woah, I can't believe am finally meeting my princess's family. She was obviously right about you. You're so fast, she called just yesterday and you're already here. Am happy to have you here once again. Am Carlos Rodriguez." Carlos introduced. The hug was becoming uncomfortable for Logan so he pulled out before saying anything further.

"Your Princess? Woah. Who are you to her? Where's she now?" Logan asked with an irritated look on his face. In his mind, this godforsaken man though handsome, wasn't Ana's style. She wouldn't date some one that older than her. So who the hell is he? This question bothered him though he was even more bothered by the absence of Ariana in the house.

"Where is my sister?" He asked boldly.

"You've got to be strong for her Logan, she needs you now more than ever." Carl said, thinking about how Logan might feel when he sees his sister's condition.

"I know. That's why I'm here in the first place." Logan boasted, not comfortable with the way Carl advises him about his own sister.

"You don't, that's why am telling you. Let's go to her." Carlos said as he walked Logan to her room.

Logan chuckled softly. "What do you think you know about my sister to give me such advise, huh?" Logan nagged as they walked to Ana's room. "We've been together all our lives and just four years she might have spent with you make you act all.........." Logan continued to nag at Carl until he set his eyes on his kid sis. He was shocked to the brim and he covered his mouth in utter disbelief.

"What happened to her?" Logan asked worriedly as he was now moved to tears. "We spoke just fine yesterday." He added.

"She had an accident a week and few days now. She got better just two days ago but then after her call with you, she bleed and fell unconscious again but the doctor said it nothing to worry about that she could wake up anytime soon." Carlos explained.