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During the times she was conscious, she would ask whoever was with her about the prince, but no one was willing or able to give her a straight answer. The nurses would only give her uncomfortable smiles while Grant’s parents and her mother didn’t even acknowledge her questions and would change the topic all the time.
And Grant—-
He would mumble incoherently and never meet her eyes when talking to her.
On her third night in the hospital, she could no longer bear it, and when she had a moment alone with Grant, Fawn captured his hand, begging, “Is it because I look like this?”
Grant was confused. “Is it because of what?”
Fawn smiled painfully. “You were there before my face was wrapped in bandages, Grant. You know what I’m talking about and—-” Her voice choked off, fear of the unknown clogging her throat. Looking away from Grant, she whispered, “Tell me the truth. Is it because h-he knows I look like this that he doesn’t want to come?”
Ah.Grant swallowed. “It’s n-not that.” At his words, she slowly turned to look at him, and he forced himself to meet her gaze. Her brown eyes were the only things he could see of her face.Everything else was hidden under a swath of bandages, but even so what he saw in those big brown eyes—-
In spite of how fate had tried to beat and carve it out of her—-
In spite of how the love of her life turned his back on her—-
In spite of her going through more horror than someone like her would never deserve—-
Hopestill struggled to live in those eyes, enabling her to stay whole—-
And he would do everything to keep that hope alive,Grant thought feverishly.
Everything.
“It’s your mother,” he heard himself lie. “She has my parents c-convinced that Chalkias will only c-cause trouble, so she’s had him b-barred from visiting you.”
Tears of relief glistened in Fawn’s eyes, and the sight of it told him he had done the right thing.
Fawn’s hands in his moved, and this time she was the one tightly holding on to him. “H-help me, please?” The tears fell, and the bandages below her eyes started to darken at their wetness.
It was a horrible sight, a heartbreaking sight, and it tore him apart.
Why?
Why did someone like Fawn have to suffer this much?
“I need to see him, Grant.” The wet, dark stains spread on the bandages. “Please help me.”
Grant nodded jerkily, and looking away, he mumbled. “I’ll do my best.” But it was another lie.
From the very first day, he had been trying his best to get the prince to come.
And he had failed.
Again and again.
When Fawn finally succumbed into an exhausted sleep, Grant left the hospital and went straight to the prince’s compound. The guards stationed on the parapet above nodded to him in greeting, and he managed a strained smile as he slowly backed his car to block anyone from entering through the gates.
When he stepped out of his car, he saw the speaker box mounted next to the side door light up just before a sound came out of it, a voice asking soberly, “Making an ultimatum?”
Recognizing the voice as belonging to Reid Chalkias’ security chief, Grant muttered in explanation, “I h-have no choice.”
Still inside the guardhouse, Noah frowned as he had the CCTV zoom in on Grant Bennett’s face. The man looked all too pale, and he asked sharply, “What’s happened to thesignorina?” Everyone knew that Bennett had been coming every night to plead with their employer to visit Fawn, just as everyone knew that the prince had coldly turned Bennett’s request down without hesitation.
“It’s b-bad.” Grant swallowed. “She’s never cried since she was rescued, you k-know? But today, she c-cried when she a-asked me to help her see him.”
“In that case...” Noah’s face became grim. “We’ll back you up.”