No matter how many times I get through this with Kiara. We go back to square one.

We had gone back to the mansion and Kiara was refusing to eat anything. We had the place to ourselves, so she was extremely comfortable with fighting back.

"Kiara. Sweetheart. You want to be my good girl, right?" I asked her.

"Right." She nodded, agreeing with me.

"Then eat." I said, pushing forward a plate of soup with a piece of soft, light bread that Aunt Sophie had dropped off a few minutes ago.

"No." Kiara refused, trying to remain strong in front of me.

"No baking a cake, then." I said, plopping down on my chair and starting to eat my own soup. I felt horrible for saying we couldn't bake a cake.

"No! Vivi, I don't want to eat it, please!" She begged me.

"You know why I'm doing this, right?" I asked her.

She nodded her head.

"Why?" I asked.

"To make me healthy." She said.

"Exactly. So eat." I said, pointing at the plate.

"No!" She yelled.

"Watch your tone, Kiara. I don't raise my voice at you like that, I'd like to be respected." I said to her, maintaining a gentle tone.

"I'm not Kiara!" She screamed, running away from me and locking herself in the bedroom which was near the kitchen. I sighed, knowing I had the key to the door if I needed it. I finished my dinner and I went into the kitchen to wash the dishes.

I was hoping her time alone would make her feel better and help her cool down. I honestly didn't know how to handle these tantrums sometimes. I knew how she felt about eating, but I didn't know how to fix it.

Nothing made me feel more like a failure than when I couldn't even get the love of my life to eat. She'd rather starve than eat at this point and it hurt me.

"Alright. Kiara, come out of there now. I just want to discuss." I said to her, trying to lure her out of the room without having to use the key.

"No!" She yelled and I could hear her sobbing her heart out in there.

"Please, Baby." I said desperately.

"I'm not a baby!" She growled, making me smile.

"Of course you aren't. But you're precious to me, and I want to take care of you..." I said to her.

"I'm still not a baby!" She yelled at me.

"Ok, I won't call you that anymore then." I said to her.

"I'm not Kiara!" She added.

"Yes you are." I insisted, not understanding her sudden aversion to her own name. She had done this before, but I explained that it had nothing to do with me being mad.

"No!" She yelled angrily, sobbing even more.

"Kiara, I'm not in the mood for this argument right now. Can you please come out so we can talk, or at least let me into the room?" I asked her.

"No." She said weakly.

"Bab- I mean.... just...." I sighed, not even knowing what to say anymore.

I just paused, trying to figure out what to say or do to fix this.

"Ok. You want me to sleep out here on the ground?" I asked her.

"N-no." I heard her hesitate.

"Well, I'm going to. Unless you let me in." I told her.

I heard her shuffling closer to the door and sitting down on the other end.

"Are you ok?" I asked her.

"No." She said to me.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"I don't want to eat." She said.

"Ok. We'll do something else. Let me in though." I said to her.

"You won't force me to eat?" She asked me.

"No." I sighed.

I heard the door unlock and I heard her run away from it. I opened the door and I found her hiding under the comforter. I walked over and pulled her out of bed, carrying her to the bathroom and setting her down on the counter in front of the mirror.

"Look at my girl." I said.

She looked up at the mirror in front of us and she cringed, probably at the sight of her fading bruises. Then she broke down, finally expressing her emotions and thoughts a little bit.

"I know. I know I'm a bad girl and that's why I got bruises and I know that you don't like me and you don't like how I look. But I don't want to eat and I don't want to gain weight!" She sobbed.

"Kiara. Look at me, right now." I said sternly.

"N-no." She cried, shaking her head.

"Will you please listen to me this once and look at me?" I asked her.

She cried harder as she looked up at me. I wiped away the tears that ran down her rosy cheeks and I kissed her forehead.

"That's my girl, calm down." I said.

She lost herself in her own misery, crying her heart out as I held her head so she was looking at me.

"Sh... Come back to me, Kiwi." I said, kissing her forehead.

She snapped out of her minor panic attack and looked at me.

"I'm your kiwi." She said softly, her eyes leaking with tears.

"Yes, you are. Always. I already told you that. Is that why you keep saying you aren't Kiara?" I asked her.

She nodded her head.

"Alright, I'll keep in mind that you prefer Kiwi over Kiara." I said to her.

"Only because you say Kiara when you're mad." She explained.

"I see, but remember before? I told you, you have a beautiful name, I'm not mad when I use it, baby, I promise. I use Kiara to be a little more stern, Sweetheart. But it doesn't mean you aren't my Kiwi. And I'm not mad at you." I told her, kissing her cheeks and watching them turn more and more red.

"I want you to turn back around and look at my beautiful Kiwi. Please look at her and tell me how beautiful she is." I said, kissing her forehead.

"B-but... but I'm not pretty." She cried.

"Are you out of your mind, Kiwi? You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen in my life." I said to her, kissing her cheek and running my fingers through her hair.

"That's not true." She said, her body shaking with grief.

"It is." I said to her. "Do you think I look good, Kiara?"

She nodded her head, her eyes finding me in the mirror.

"You're very handsome." She said with a light smile and flushed cheeks.

"Thank you. You know lots of girls used to come up to me and try to make me... notice them I guess or try to make me like them. But I turned them all down, I was waiting for the girl that would be special. She would be different. Prettier, more compassionate and caring. She wouldn't like me because I had money or because I looked good, she would like me for being me." I explained.

"Did you find her?" Kiara sobbed, my topic of conversation making her feel threatened by those other girls. It wasn't my intention to scare her like that though.

"Yes I did. I was going to the hospital to tell my uncle about the family dinner and to bring him some food and then I found him in a hospital room with the prettiest girl in the world. My little Kiwi." I said, running my fingers through her long blonde hair.

"B-but they.... they wanted to be your girlfriend right?" She asked me, still stuck on the other girls.

"I guess so." I nodded.

"I c-can't be that." She said.

"Not now you can't. But one day, hopefully we'll get there." I said to her.

"You want me to be your girlfriend?" She asked me.

"Yes." I nodded. "Not now. But eventually. Because you're beautiful. From your long blonde hair to your pretty green eyes and the way you hide your cold toes beneath things all the time... to this heart right in here and this mind up in here."

I watched her examine her hair and eyes and even look down at her toes and wiggle them a little. Her eyes followed my hand which gestures to all the things I mentioned about her.

"You have such a good heart, Kiwi. You're scared by a lot of things but you don't let it stop you from caring about me or other people. You supported me and made me feel better when I was hurt and you do things that take you out of your comfort zone just so you can get better. You knew my family meant a lot for me and you tried really hard to let them in a little." I said, kissing her forehead.

"But I couldn't. I still cried and freaked out and you had to take me away.... and I don't listen to you when you tell me to do things and I'm a brat." She cried.

"It doesn't matter. You try your best to do what you know is right. And it's ok to be scared, Kiwi. Everyone is scared sometimes and after all you've been through, you have every right to be scared. I know that adapting to life with me is hard and sometimes I really don't know what to do, but I'm working on it. I want to be better for you." I said to her.

"You're perfect." She said, turning to me and stroking my cheek gently.

"I'm not. Nobody is. I try my hardest and sometimes I fail. I've failed you, Kiara. I have and I'm sorry, Kiwi." I said, sighing as I kissed her palm.

"You haven't." She said.

"I have. I've failed you. Somehow you didn't realize that you're incredibly beautiful and it's my fault for not making you understand. And you don't understand that all I want is for you to be healthy. You think you're going to be fat if you eat when you're too thin now, Kiwi. You're too thin, you need to eat to live and you need to gain weight to be healthy." I sighed.

"But you told me all that. It's not your fault." She said.

"But, it's not about that. It should've been enough for you to believe it." I told her.

"I just... I don't want you to be mad when I get fat and become uglier." She said.

"You think fat means ugly? I disagree. People can be a fat and very, very pretty, you know." I said to her.

"You really think so?" She asked.

"Of course. And even if you have some extra fat here and there, I don't mind at all. Guys don't like girls who are too skinny." I said to her.

"So you don't like me?!" She asked in horror.

"Woah, woah. I like you no matter what, Kiwi." I said to her. "Appearance doesn't matter. But I'm just trying to say that real men don't care if you have a little extra fat, they prefer you to be healthy than for you to be unhealthy."

"Do you think it would make me pretty to gain weight?" She asked me.

"I think that you're already pretty but that gaining weight will make you even prettier." I said to her.

"Really?" She asked me.

"Yeah." I nodded.

"But when I was... when I was at that facility thing... they... they told me I had to be super skinny." She said.

"They told you a lot of untrue things, Sweetheart. You shouldn't ever think that you have to stop eating and be skinny. Food is amazing! Don't you want to just eat all those yummy things and enjoy them? Not eating will make you feel extra tired and weaker. If you gain weight your period might even get a little better. Being healthy makes all kinds of things a lot easier, Kiwi." I said to her.

"But it's so hard to eat. I don't like feeling sick." She said.

"I know. That's why I need you to cooperate and stop refusing to eat. Get this weird stuff about being ugly out of your head. Even if you were fat, you'd be the prettiest girl ever. Just forget it, Kiwi. If I know that you're not trying to just escape eating because you think it'll make you fat, then I'll be able to trust that you actually feel sick and that you're not just saying it to get out of eating." I said to her.

"I promise I won't lie about feeling sick anymore and I'm sorry that I lied before." She said, wiping away her tears.

"Promise me it won't happen again?" I asked her.

"I promise." She said to me.

"Then I promise to always listen when you tell me you're sick. We can sit down and make a list of all the foods you like and don't like and then I'll make sure we only eat the tasty stuff." I said to her.

"Ok." She nodded.

"And we'll make a schedule. We'll eat at certain times and only as much as you can. Then we can plan some fun stuff in between." I said to her.

"Like seeing the bunnies?!" She asked excitedly.

"Yes. Like seeing the bunnies." I laughed.

"Ok! And I'll tell you when I'm hungry." She promised me.

"Thank you." I said, kissing her all over her face.

"Now look at that mirror and tell me what's beautiful about my kiwi." I said to her.

"Uhm.... I don't know. I don't like the bruises." She sighed.

"They'll go away. They're almost gone." I said, grabbing the cream for the lashes and welts on her back and unzipping her dress, planting a kiss on her shoulder.

I started applying the cream to her back as she looked at herself in the mirror.

"I think my hair is kinda pretty if it's brushed out and it's not all knotted up." She said to me.

"It sure is." I said.

"And.... and my eyes aren't bad, I guess.... they do have the same colour as kiwis which is nice." She smiled.

"Your eyes are gorgeous and you're right, kiwis are great." I smiled, kissing her cheek and seeing a smile appear on her face.

"How come your dad doesn't like them?" She asked me.

"Oh." I laughed. "When my mom was pregnant with me. She craved kiwis like crazy. She just wanted to eat kiwi after kiwi after kiwi."

"So he hates them?" She asked me in confusion.

"He doesn't hate them... he just had to buy so many kiwis and he once couldn't find any at all and my momma started crying because she didn't have any kiwis and she really wanted them. So I think he's just afraid of the mention of kiwis now." I laughed.

"That's kind of funny." She giggled, brushing her hair behind her ear and looking at me through the mirror.

Our eyes connected in the mirror and I lost myself for a moment. The only thing I could think of was kissing her. I just wanted to turn her around and kiss the life out of those pretty lips.

You can't kiss her, Vidal. Do not take advantage of her.

"Alright, all done." I said, snapping out of it and zipping up her dress.

"I'm hungry." She said, letting me know as promised that she was hungry and needed some food.

"Let's go try again with the soup, alright?" I said.

"But the bread will hurt my belly." She said to me.

"Well guess what? Aunt Sophie brought you some stuff that won't hurt your belly that much, just eat a little tiny bit." I said, kissing her forehead.

"How does she know?" Kiara asked.

"Because Arabella was in a coma for a whole year and when she woke up, she had the same problem. Her belly wasn't used to food anymore." I explained.

"What's a coma?" Kiara asked me curiously.

"It's kind of like sleeping, except it's not good because no one knows if you'll ever wake up, and a lot of the time the person who is in this sleeping state is injured or sick." I explained.

"Oh, was she injured?" My Kiwi asked me, with a concerned look on her face.

"She was. She was in an accident on the road, and then she slipped into a coma and didn't wake up for an entire year. So when she woke up, her belly wasn't used to any food anymore." I said.

"S-so she had to eat stuff like the stuff I'm gonna have to eat?" Kiara asked.

"Yup. And since Aunt Sophie heard that your tummy hurts when you eat certain foods, she made a bunch of good stuff for you." I said softly.

"Oh.... but that's really nice." Kiara whispered as if in shock at the kind gesture.

"It is. Aunt Sophie loves to make food for everyone. She has the sweetest heart ever. She already loves you. I get a text every day from her asking how you are." I smiled.

"She kind of.... understands me, I think." Kiara said gently.

"You think so? You got a little scared when she told us about her past." I mentioned.

"No. I was so angry and sad and I just felt like everything was unfair. We were both hurt by people and those people didn't have a good reason." Kiara said.

"There's never a good reason to hurt someone. They're all just messed up in the head, Kiwi. But both of you guys are safe now." I told her. "You and Aunt Sophie."

"She's very pretty." Kiara smiled.

"Oh yes. Very pretty." I said.

"And so is your momma." Kiara giggled.

"She's your momma too, you know." I laughed, carrying Kiara back to the kitchen and sitting down with her on my lap.

"No.... I don't have a momma." She said.

"Yes you do, my momma is your momma. Everything that's mine is yours, alright?" I said.

"But I'm just an orphan and... and I lived at the orphanage and then they took me." She said, shuddering and clenching her jaw tightly.

"Loosen your jaw, Kiwi.... Your past doesn't matter anymore. You're not the only orphan among us. Remember my uncle? Uncle Killian?" I asked her.

"Yeah...." She mumbled with a nod.

"He was also in an orphanage, it wasn't a bad one like yours, but he also doesn't have parents. But he married my aunt and he started calling her parents Momma and Papa." I said, kissing my beautiful kiwi on her precious head.

"Really?" She asked me.

"Yup." I told her.

She thought about that for a minute, coming to terms with it before speaking again.

"Vivi...?" She whispered.

"Yeah?" I asked her, setting her down on the counter in the little kitchen.

"Soup." She said in a whisper.

I nodded, kissing her cheek and grabbing the little bowl of soup, spoon feeding my sweet kiwi until she was full.