Gone is the boy that had so many complicated emotions inside him that all translated to overprotective of his family.
Gone is the boy who kissed me just to prove a point.
Gone is the boy who insulted unicorns and rainbows just to make me laugh.
Gone is the boy who I saw a piece of myself I’ve never seen before.
In his place now, I notice the coldness coming over him, like a cloak. He seems to get bigger right then, as the journalists rush to surround him, he just stands there watching me.
A vow of revenge flashing in his eyes.
With the echoes of my heart shattering outside the ER, I turn on my heel and run out into the rain, feeling a heavy pressure on my chest that’s suffocating me.
As I run, I start hyperventilating, even though I know there’s enough air around me.
I don’t look back. I don’t dare look for him hours later when I come back to check for my mother. But when I go trudging back to that hallway from hell, dripping like a wet dog, four-hundred-dollar shoes ruined like the thin makings of my damn heart, I see him again.
He’s standing with a tall man who looks exactly like him, only older and meaner looking, standing in the hallway.
It was his father.
They both looked at me for a minute, his father staring at me like he knew what I did and Julian… he looked at me with hate in his eyes burning to a point where I felt it in my guts.
There was a promise in his eyes, a promise that he was going to not only break me, but he was going to make me suffer.
A kiss does more than tell you how a person feels about you. It shows you that no matter what, those feels might take you out if you let them, and that kisses like sickness and diseases, are deadly.
And still, the rain couldn’t wash away his blood still in the palm of my hands.
HEADLINES
IT’S A BURNING HOUSE OF FITZ WITH LIES ABOUT HEIRS AND INFIDELITY AS COMMON AS THEIR SHADY BUSINESS PRACTICES.
Infidelity seems to be a house special for the Fitzgeralds. From one generation to the next, there have been messy divorce cases, women demanding payment from the wealthier than God men who carry on the Fitzgerald name. But the thing that seems to recur is, there seems to be no custody battles. Do the children matter? Or are they just heirs? Maybe the Fitzgerald men are nothing but a weak breed that only cares about upgrading the plastic trophies on their arms.
POWERHOUSE FAMILY OF PALOS VERDES, TRAGICALLY TAKING BLOWS OVER THE FRAUDULENT NATURE OF JOHN FITZGERALD’S MORALS.
The share price for Fitzgerald Inc has dropped by a blowing 42.5% since the news of John Fitzgerald’s firstborn son’s return to the public eye rocks the financial world like a bad case of an STI. What kind of man hides their child? Surely not an honest businessman in charge of your money. If John Fitzgerald’s been hiding his son all these years, what else is he capable of hiding? The man is a disgrace and should resign.
LYING ABOUT HIS OWN CHILDREN? IS HE ASHAMED OR HE’S A DISCRIMINATOR TO THE DOWN SYNDROME COMMUNITY?
Down syndrome isn’t a death sentence. Many people who’ve had this syndrome have lived long and joyful lives. That doesn’t seem to be the case for wealth loving, too good to pay taxes, corporate wolf with his pen in company ink and otherwise, John Fitzgerald.
THE IMPRESSIVE FITZGERALD BUILDING GOES UP IN FLAMES. NO ONE INJURED. CAUSE OF FIRE STILL TO BE DETERMINED.
Just as Fitzgerald Inc is recovering from a blow in share price, there’s been a report that the impressive spire of steel glass structure we’ve all admired for the past ten years, caught on fire last night. Officials have ruled out arson and have since ruled the cause of the fire to be a burst pipe which was coupled with the malfunction of the control room to cause such angry flames to burn the building down. By the time the fire department arrived it was already too late. It looks like John Fitzgerald’s son, Aiden won’t have to work at Fitzgerald Inc—that is, if John would ever consider Aiden his son.
A HOUSE IN PERIL. MAYBE A DYNASTY IS COMING TO A PATHETIC END?
There are no words but, good riddance. We all deserve honesty with those handle our monies. John Fitzgerald, I suggest you find another line of work and dedicate your time to fixing your clearly broken family.
3
A year later.
In the weeks following that kismet of death, the drama that unfolded not a minute after Julian showed me his true colors, the papers and gossip channels were all about the Fitzgerald house and how John and Courtney Fitzgerald lied about their older son.
It was a huge deal.
The assumption was, if John lied about Aiden, then he must’ve been lying and hiding way more to important people like shareholders. Needless to say, the entire Fitzgerald family was put through the wringer, their family scrutinized to the point where everywhere I went, my ballet classes, to the mall with Mom, hell even my Pilates class, all anyone could talk about were the Fitzgeralds.
And it was all because of me.
As if that wasn’t enough, not a month later after the kismet of death, it was leaked that Aiden had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia, something that was quite common in people with Down syndrome.
That broke my heart to a point of where I started getting panic attacks in the middle of the night when I’d dream of Julian or when I’d have to go to the hospital with Mom.
The guilt of what I did hung over me like a cancer, eating me up inside. I could hardly breathe without thinking that he was coming for me and the hell storm that the Fitzgeralds were in was all my fault.
I’m the one who opened my mouth and rattled sensitive information that I didn’t know would cause this much damage.
“I wonder who the raven beauty is who leaked all this information,” Kristine, my new best friend said in P.E one afternoon, making me freeze in the middle of a stretch.
“A raven beauty?” I croak, my heart in my freaking throat.
“Yeah, didn’t you hear?”
I mutely shake my head, discreetly looking around to check if any of my new classmates of my new school that I had to transfer to, running away from impending carnage from St. Jude’s High, suspects me as the ‘raven beauty’ in the tabloids.
“Well, this past weekend’s issue of People magazine said that a young raven beauty was the source that revealed Aiden Fitzgerald’s condition. If you ask me, I think that bitch had to be Julian Fitzgerald’s bitter ex-girlfriend.”
I almost start choking as soon as she says that.
“Why?” I gasp, beating at my chest. “Why do you say that?”
“I mean, it’s obvious isn’t it?” She shakes her head, her nose scrunched up. “Bitter, broken hearted girls do the most shit. Destroying a family like that bitch did, yeah I think she fell in love with Julian only to find out that he doesn’t give a damn about anyone who isn’t his brother.”
Oh my God. What did I do?
My skin starts itching, my cheeks growing red as my insides shrink and twist inside of me, I can hardly breathe.
“You know, I’ve also heard nasty stuff about the Fitz brothers and trust me Mia, whoever that girl is, she’s probably going to pay big time for opening her big mouth. The Fitz brothers don’t play. They’re brutal, ruthless and they don’t follow the same social rules as everyone else.”