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Ryan grasped Lena’s shoulders in another frantic attempt to calm her down. “I know you’ve been through a lot, but we can show that you…”
“Prove? “That made Lena lose it, and she pushed Ryan away hard. “Can’t you see it doesn’t matter to me anymore? Nothing can bring back my child who has died! Nothing…!”
She laughed bitterly as she took another step back and saw Ryan freeze in place. Now the dam had broken—Lena couldn’t stop. “According to Kellen, it was your bastard.” My little one! “
She felt the same way she had months ago, in that hospital bed, when Damien told her the horrible news that her baby was dead. She had played there on the bed then because the drugs in her system made her unable to even thrash with the horrible sobs that came from her soul.
Ryan was still terrified. He felt like all of his ideas, intellect, and feelings had been taken away.
Ryan and Lena were so upset that they didn’t hear the sound of a can screeching to a stop near them. They also missed the door slamming open and closed. It wasn’t until Lola’s fist hit Ryan’s jaw that he snapped out of his traumatic state. Ryan’s eyes were blurry with pain as he cupped his jaw and looked up at Lola, who was yelling cuss words, and quickly got Lena almost up her waist and into the car.
Ryan remained there, unable to do anything as the automobile sped away. “I will prove that we are both innocent, Lena.”  I’ll get back at the people who hurt you by hurting them. Kellen will regret the day he was born. I promise, Lena… “I promise.”
“I assumed he did something bad to you, like molest you or take you hostage. “You’re telling me now that he was the best friend who you thought had framed you until this day?” Lola exclaimed in frustration. What if he truly set you up? “
Lena was putting a bandage on Lola’s injured knuckles with a blank expression. “He wasn’t lying; I would have known if he had,” Lena said simply. How could she not read her best friend’s eyes? If she couldn’t, she would be a hypocrite, just like Kellen.
Lola rolled her eyes and didn’t look at her broken hand. It ached! The man had a really obstinate jaw. She hoped it cracked after she hit him, even if Lena said he was innocent. Lena was just the kind of person who saw the good in everyone.
“Then who really framed you if that Ryan man is innocent? Lola said in a confused voice.
Lena rubbed her temples and winced. She could feel another one of those killer headaches coming on, the ones that made her faint and left her with a bloody nose last night. She made sure that no one but her doctor knew about that. She didn’t want to worry Damien and Lola more.
And suddenly, Damien burst into her room and shouted, “Lena!” “He yelled, and both Lena and Lola jumped in surprise.
Lola hit her hurt hand on the chair and yelled a curse at Damien. He didn’t even look at her.
Damien ran up to Lena and stopped in front of her with an angry look on his face. “Tell me…” Why didn’t I know about your hospital tests?
After that, he looked closely at Lena’s face, and his wrath went away. “Why the hell do you look like you cried?” “he screamed.
He saw Lola’s hand wrapped in a bandage and pointed at it. He cried even louder out of fear, “And why the hell is your hand bandaged?”  What’s happening?
Lena jumped to stop Lola from jumping on Damien and raising her good hand to hit him again. “You silly person, ask one question at a time!”
Lena felt like she could breathe again. The weight on her shoulders slowly lifted as her thoughts and heart turned to her wacky friends in the present. She smiled and sighed softly, wondering where she would have been without these two.
Kellen sat in the dark, drinking himself into a stupor with the several bottles of scotch and whiskey he owned. The light in his room was out, but the window was open. The little bit of light seeping in from outside pained his eyes.
It was almost dawn, and he still couldn’t sleep, even though he had drunk a lot. The pain in his chest was still throbbing, and he could almost feel himself withering away. Maybe then he would finally be free. This life full of memories of her love and betrayal was killing him from the inside out.
His phone rang again.
Kellen didn’t need to look at it to know it was Selene. All he wanted to do was sleep or, better yet, pass out from all the alcohol. But that woman kept telling him how much she loved him. It had gotten worse since he got to Velden; Selene was going crazy.
He had stopped answering her calls, and it seemed like it was time to…
Kellen grabbed his phone from the table in front of him and flung it at the wall farthest away with a snarl of rage.
At last, everything was silent. What a relief!
Lena felt like she was at the very center of heaven. Children were like heaven on earth.
She smiled as she watched the kids play in front of her. Some were toddlers, and some were older but still very cute. A group of them rushed by her with a ball, and their innocent smiles and screams filled the ache in her heart.
She was in the playground of Gwen’s Home for the unfortunate children, as she was every Sunday evening.
It was close to the boutique, just a block away, next to a beautiful lake. During her beginning days when she joined Damien’s boutique to restart her life, it didn’t take her long to discover this ethereal place close by. Since then, she has become a permanent face around the children every weekend and sometimes more than weekends. Gwen’s home became her solace, for she found her own child that she could not see among these children. Sometimes, she took a toddler to sit on her lap and showered them with kisses and affection that she would have given to her own.
She still remembers how the first day the kids tackled her on the ground and hugged her fiercely when she brought them snacks and gifts. She cried right then and there. If anyone can find heaven on earth, it can only be through the open, innocent, and trusting hearts of children. And she found hers. It took her a while to get her emotions under control so she wouldn’t cry every time she came here.
She couldn’t offer them a lot of money since her finances weren’t great, but she did her best. The kids wanted more than money; they wanted love, and she could give them a lot of it.
Lena turned to see a pleasant, wrinkled face next to her on the mat.
“He’s a newbie here,” Gwen said with a smile as she looked down at the little one in her arms. “He’s about five months old.”
When Lena saw the baby, her heart leaped. She extended her arms, and Gwen put the child in them. When Lena lay the kid’s head on her chest, she sighed. A grin spread over her lips as the warmth filled her spirit.
“How did we locate this sweet little one? She asked in a quiet voice, running her finger gently over the boy’s cheek, which was covered in saliva.
Gwen let out a long sigh of tiredness, and the lines on her forehead got deeper. “One of our junior sisters found him in the trash.” She was walking through the ghetto district of West Velden.