stand in front of Ash's ward contemplating whether to go in or not when the door suddenly swings open and Madam Emily walks out. She glares at me with her hand crossed over her chest without saying a word for few seconds and we both stare at each other.

"What are you doing here?" She eventually asks and I flinch at the harshness of her voice.

"I want to check on Ash..." I mutter while wringing my hands nervously. "...I haven't been able to check on her since she was admitted yesternight."

"You still want to check on her? Don't you have any conscience at all?" She whispers close to tears.

I gap at her in confusion. "I don't..."

"Of course, you don't understand." She cuts in sharply. "You did this to her, you ruined her life, or did you not hear what the cops said? That you were the target of the attacker, the attacker only mistook Ashley for you. You should have been the one on that sick bed writhing in pains and not my daughter, never my daughter." She sobs into the handkerchief in her hand and my heart constricts painfully in my chest as I process what she said.

It's painful but it's the truth, I did this to her and I feel so guilty right now, Madam Emily is right. I ruined Ashley, I brought that pain upon her and I should have been the one there and not her.

"Why didn't you just leave when I asked you to? Why did you have to implicate my innocent girl? Huh?"

"I—"

"We can't even tell her that it was acid that was dumped on her face. We can't tell her that her dream of becoming a model has been ruined! That her face is damaged. Now you want to go in there to add salt on her injury right?"

I am sure I couldn't control the tears that are now gushing out of my eyes even if I tried to as the realization of everything dawned on me. Of course, Ash wouldn't want to see me, I did that to her. If she had just stayed in her room and didn't come to spend the night with me, she will still have her pretty, flawless face, and Cassie too wouldn't have to go through the pain she also went through.

We both hear the door creak open and a wide-eyed Ash is standing there with her lips trembling. "D-did I hear you say that my face is damaged, mom?"

"N-no, I-I..."

I watch her rush into the ward and grab the first steel she could lay her hands on, it was a tray. She started unwrapping the bandages on her face hastily.

"No Ashley, you can't do that. The doctor said that your face hasn't healed yet." Her mom got closer to her and tried collecting the tray from her but she quickly grabbed a knife from the table.

"Step back or I will stab myself." She warns and Madam Emily quickly takes a few steps back.

"Ash my darling, please look at me, just drop the knife and let's talk about this."

"There is nothing to talk about." She yells and keeps on unwrapping the bandages.

I have no idea what to do, I just stand rooted to my spot while watching the scene unfolding in front of me, it is as if I am in a trance. All I am thinking about is that I did this to Ash, that I am the cause of the pain she is going the right now.

Ash was able to remove the bandages from her face, she saw her damaged face in the steel tray and let out a piercing scream. The doctor and nurses rushed in at that moment asking what happened.

Later, Madam Emily and I were sent out of the room with the door firmly shut on our faces while the doctor and nurses attended to her.

"You have brought nothing but bad luck to this family, I don't want to see you near my family ever again."

Those are the last words Madam Emily said to me before I walked out of the hospital.

I walk into the house feeling tired and exhausted, I walk straight to my room to take a thorough hot shower to wash off the hospital smell of antiseptics and others.

After having my bath, I am walking to the kitchen to prepare something to eat since I haven't eaten anything since morning when I hear the sound of someone crying. I pause midway and listen intently till I discovered that the sound is coming from Sasha's room, her door is a bit open and I peep in to see her sitting in front of her reading table with her head buried in her crossed arms which is on the reading table crying. She doesn't even realize when I entered the room, I walk over to her and place a hand on her shoulder. I startled her a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," I mutter an apology and crouch down beside her.

"It's okay." She wipes her tears with jerky motions and looks down at her lap nervously.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

I furrowed my eyebrows at her and she let out a small humorless chuckle. "Honestly? No, I'm not okay."

"Are you worried about Ash and Cassie?" I ask, she nods in affirmation and I pick up her hands in mine gently. "They will be fine, Cassie's condition seems to have stabilized while I already spoke to the doctor about Ashley. She is going to have plastic surgery done on her face." I explain the situation of things to her.

She takes a deep breath and looks straight into my eyes. "I feel like what happened to them is my fault, I was the one the attacker was looking for not Ash. He only went to check if I'm in Cassie's room and Cassie got hurt while trying to stop him."

I open my mouth in shock as I listen to her blame herself for what happened. "Hey, who the hell told you that? None of what happened is your fault, okay?" I hear her mutter something along the lines of mother and son under her breath. "The cops are on it, they are going to get to the root of this."

"Like they did when you almost got killed through a staged accident." She scoffs.

"That was different." I stand up from my crouched state. My gaze landed on the luggage bag beside her door. "You're leaving." I muse under my breath but she heard.

"Yes." She is staring at me with a look I can't decipher plastered on her face.

There is something about Sasha that everyone is hiding from me, I know. I just can't figure out what it is, I don't know why my heart speeds up anytime I see her or why anytime my eyes land on her lips, I feel like kissing them till they are heavy and red.

"I have to." She is saying while walking over to where I am slowly. I also move to her till we are standing so close to each other, so close that we are sharing the same air as oxygen.

I bask in her sweet but spicy scent which is going straight into my head from my nose.

"I have always wanted to do this." She mutters while looking directly into my eyeballs.

"Wha..." I open my mouth to ask what she meant when the sudden feel of her warm lips against mine cut me off, all reasonable thoughts vanished and I feel paralyzed as she kisses me passionately.

She goes stiff against me and tried breaking the kiss probably realizing that I'm not responding. Instantly, I wrap my arm around her waist and draw her closer till she is flushed against me.

I draw her lips in mine and kissed her senselessly, I bite her lips and suck them greedily till she is breathless and I had to break the kiss. I place my forehead against hers and stare into her deep brown eyes while breathing heavily. She takes a step back and smiles shyly while looking anywhere but me, there is a deep but cute blush on her cheek as she looks around awkwardly.

I don't know what prompted me to do what I did next but I brought out my wallet and removed the necklace that I have been keeping in there, I couldn't find it in me to give it to Cassie as I'm supposed to. I take a few steps close to her, unclasp the necklace and wear it around her neck. "I shouldn't have taken it from you in the first place even though it looks like mine, I'm sorry." I apologize while scratching my head nervously.

She looks surprised at what I did but I can't be too sure. She picks up the necklace and stare at it like it's so precious to her and then she placed a soft kiss on it before dropping it back. "Thank you."

"Who are you, Sasha? What about you is everyone hiding from me?" I whisper with my eyes still fixed on the necklace around her neck.

"You have to figure it out yourself but I hope this will help." She walks to where her luggage bag is, unzips it, and take out a... a photograph? "But you have to promise me not to check what's in it until Ashley's plastic surgery is done."

I arch an eyebrow in confusion.

"Please." She pleads desperately.

"I promise." I whisper with a nod.

She walks over to her drawer, opens it, and keeps the photograph in there. I jump at the sudden ring of her phone which is on her reading table, she excuses herself to pick up the call while I'm lost in my thoughts.

After speaking to whosoever ever it was that called her, she swirled around to face me. "My ride is here." She swallows and takes a deep breath "Goodbye." She turns away from me to carry her luggage bag.

I feel my heart constrict painfully as I watch her walk out of the room. But why?