Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Ava Devlin's pov;

While I was in the soloist performance event, I saw Isabella being alone. I walked to her and tapped on her shoulder.

"Ms Devlin?" She asked me.

I looked around and asked her, "Where are your friends? Why are you standing alone here?"

"Noah is practising in the court, Sophia and Evelyn took absence and Liam was around here somewhere i guess."

"Does that mean you don't have anything to do right now?"

"Kinda..."

"Then help me with this. Your niece hasn't shown up yet so can you call your brother and ask when she will be here?"

"Oh, okay."

She walked away from me and made a call to someone on her phone. I think she's making a call to her brother.

After some time, she came to me so I asked her, "What did he say?"

"He said he's on the way, Ms Devlin."

"Thank you for your help."

I walked backstage before the event began and talked with the participants about the event and gave some encouragement to them. Since I'm one of the members of the event organiser, I take care of some events like soloist, Acapella and some solo performances competitions.

After a while, the event started and it was going well. One person after another went on the stage and sang their practised song well.

In the middle of the competition, I saw Isabella among the audience area waving at me to go to her.

I walked to her and asked, she said, "Ms Devlin, Yuyang came to school and she's in her class along with her classmates practising for the dance performance."

"Okay. Thank you for telling me. You can go and enjoy the events with your friends."

I came to the elementary building after the soloist performance ended.

"Ms Devlin!" Yuyang shouted as soon as she saw me entering her class.

Yuyang looked cute in her dance costume. When I looked around the class, there wasn't any teacher in the class or a dance instructor.

I asked Yuyang, "Where's the teacher?"

"She didn't show up yet."

"Okay. Can you go and tell Jenny that I asked her to come here?"

She gave a cute nod and ran from the class.

After some time Yuyang came along with Jenny.

"Good morning, Ms Devlin."

"Why didn't your teacher show up yet? Where's she?"

"Her line was busy when I contacted her, Ms Devlin."

"Then, what about you? Do you know their dance?" Asked while pointing at Yuyang and her classmates.

"Yeah, I've seen them while I was playing the piano for them."

"Then, can you make them practice since the teacher hasn't shown up yet."

"Yes, Ms Devlin. I'll take care of them."

"Thank you for your help."

I left after encouraging Yuyang for her dance performance.

After the music events ended, I went to the basketball match which was the final event of the day. And I came here to check if Yuyang's father kept his word.

When I entered the basketball court, everyone's shouting like it's the end of the world. I'm not very fond of sports since I took biology as my major in my school.

I walked down the stairs and looked to either side of me to look for Yang's father. While I was walking, suddenly everyone cheered. I think someone gained a point. I looked on the basketball field. I spotted Isabella and Noah running around the field. After looking at the time, i came to know that there's still few more minutes for the halftime.

I spotted Mr Johnson, Yang's father among the crowd since he's the tallest person among the high school students. After finding him in the crowd, i walked towards him. As I was walking closer to him, i saw yuyang standing along with him.

Suddenly I heard Yuyang shouting loudly as 'Isabella!' Woah. That was loud. When I looked at her, Yuyang was holding a microphone in her hands. In no time, they got the full attention of the crowd on them so Mr Johnson tried to take the microphone away from her but she held it tightly and shouted again that 'You can do it!' while looking at Isabella who's playing in the field. Mr Johnson also cheered Isabella after Yuyang and they took turns.

I chuckled at them and thought 'Isabella got a really good supporting family'

I stopped myself from walking to them and started watching the game. Halftime came and Yuyang danced along with her friends on the basketball field. It looks so cute seeing little girls and boys dancing in the field.

Our school team won after a goal thrown by Isabella. Since she's good at sports, I couldn't force her into assignments many times but still academics is important.

After the game ended, everyone celebrated the winners by lifting them up in the air, shouting their names, and cheering for them.

I walked to Mr Johnson who was standing near the stand.

"Yuyang's looking happy today."

He turned and looked at me and asked, "What?"

"Thank you for coming today. Yuyang's face is filled with smiles and she's happy today and it's because of you."

He gave a nod and stood still.

I pointed at Isabella and yuyang while saying, "I never gave a thought that these two will be a family. I'm happy that they both have each other. And you're supportive as well. I saw you cheering for Isabella while she was playing in the field. I bet Isabella's the one who's the happiest person in the world right now."

"I don't understand, Ms Devlin. What are you talking about?"

"Isabella never had a person to cheer for her. I don't know why but she looks at the audience stand everytime she plays even though she knew no one would show up for her. But today, you were there. Yuyang was there. Her family was cheering for her. Isabella doesn't show that she's upset about no one's here for her to anyone. That's why I asked you in person to come to see Yuyang's performance because I didn't want Yuyang to end up like Isabella."

"I'll be there for both of them from now." Said while he was looking at Yuyang and Isabella.

At the end of the day, I went home after the hustling and bustling atmosphere.

I came home and dropped on the couch, it was really a tiring day. I looked on my left side and said, "How was your day, today? Mine's pretty tired. Since there were so many events, I ran here and there to organise. Should I give up my event organiser work? I feel so tired whenever there's an event or competition. Well, I got to get a shower…" and stood from the couch and walked inside the bedroom.

After the shower, I dropped on the bed.

'Don't lie on the bed before getting your hair dry.'

I got out of the bed and walked to the dresser and picked up the dryer and started drying my hair. I got a call. I looked at the display of my phone and continued drying up my hair. After drying the hair, I took the phone and sat on the bed.

My phone rang again.

I let out a sigh and answered the call.

"What mom?"

"Why do you sound like your soul is out of your body?"

"I just got back from school and I'm tired. Why did you call me?"

"I'm your mother. Don't I have the right to make a call to my daughter?"

"Mom! Why did you call?"

"Don't get mad at me. My friend has a son who's working in a…"

I ended the call.

She called me again. I answered, "Why did you cut my call? What are you planning to do with your life? Are you going to be single all your life?"

"Mom! I'm married!" I shouted at her.

"He's dead! Idiot!" She shouted back at me.

I cut the call and threw the phone away.

I laid on the bed and saw him beside me, "Why did you leave me?"

'I'm here.'

"You're not!"

'I'm still here.' He caressed my hair and tucked some of my hair behind my ear.

"I don't want to get married."

'Then don't. Sleep now.'

I gave a nod and closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

Three years ago,

I got engaged to the love of my life, Frank. We studied at the same high school and college together. We got engaged after graduation like we promised in high school.

"Don't you want to tell your mom?" Frank asked me while I was arranging things in his apartment.

"Even if I tell her, she wouldn't care since she's busy with her club."

"Since we got engaged now, you have to tell your mom. She should know about this."

"About what? About being engaged or about moving into your place?"

"Both!"

I let out a sigh and sat on the couch, "Will you come with me then? I don't want to go there alone. I hate places where there are more people."

"Okay. I'll tag you… since I'm going to be her son-in-law soon."

"What? Don't get ideas like that! I'm not going to get married at this age."

Frank sat along with me and put his hand over my shoulder and said, "Don't you want to marry this guy here?"

I pushed him away and said, "ofcourse, I want to get married to you someday but now. We're still too young to get married. We just graduated and we still have to find jobs for each other. We have to earn and get to buy a place for both of us. There's a lot to do before getting married so don't convince me to get married again because I'll lose to you if you ask me again."

He gave a smile and said, "Okay. I'll save it for later. Then, did you get all the things?"

"Yeah, but only after organising my things, I could see if I left anything behind."

"Okay, do you want my help to organise your things?"

"If you want to go somewhere, just go. Don't pretend like you're offering me help."

He pinched my face and said, "You know me well."

"After being with you for seven years, I think I can even win a quiz about you."

He let out a chuckle and said, "I'll be back in ten minutes. See ya." Kissed on my cheek and left.

After finishing organising my things in his apartment, I dropped on the couch and took a nap.

I woke up to the empty apartment and found him nowhere. I took my phone and checked the time. He said he'll be back in ten minutes but it's past one hour. Where is he? I called him but couldn't reach him. Where did he go?

I placed the phone on the table and started making food for lunch.

While I was in the kitchen, my phone rang. I bet it's him.

I walked out of the kitchen and took my phone from the table and saw the name on the display on my phone. It's Frank.

I answered, "Where are you now, Frank?"

On the other hand, "Hello?"

I heard someone else's voice on Frank's phone.

"Who's this?"

"The person you called is in HU hospital."

"I-I don't get it."

"He's got involved in an accident and…"

I dropped my phone and my mind went blank.

I don't know how but I got to the hospital somehow as soon as I heard that Frank met with an accident.

After asking the receptionist, I rushed to where Frank was getting treatment. I saw him through the door, he was inside the ICU getting treated. I hope everything will get well.

While I was sitting outside the ICU, a doctor came out and asked for the person who's related to him. I stood up to him and asked about Frank.

The doctor started talking, "He got hit on the head so we took a CT scan to see how bad the damage was and found that his skull is fractured so we tried to insert a catheter into the ventricles to monitor the fluids but the vessels are highly damaged and blood is overflowing throughout his brain causing haematoma. Can you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

"Haematoma expands within the skull and presses on the brain… causing death." I said with teary eyes and asked, "How much time does he have, doctor?"

"Two to three hours. It depends on his will." And left.

I entered the room and closed the door behind me and walked towards him. He was lying on the bed with many layers of bandages around his head.

I sat beside him and held his hand.

Frank woke up to my touch and looked at me. The way he looked at me brought a stake directly to my heart.

He held my hand back and said, "You will do whatever I ask you right now, am I right?"

Tears started rolling down my cheeks when I heard his words.

"Hey, Ava! Please don't cry. I don't want to see you crying while I'm…"

"Did you hear us?"

He gave a nod and said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For ruining your plans."

"Please, please don't."

"Ava, don't cry after I'm gone."

"Please, don't talk like that. I couldn't stand it anymore."

"I'm here. I'm still here." And caressed my hair.

"Frank, marry me."

"What?"

"I want to get married to you right now."

"Don't speak nonsense. Did you forget that I'll be no more in hours? Are you stupid to marry a dying person?"

I looked around the hospital table and found an incision knife on my wrist and said, "If you do not marry me now, I'll die with you too."

"What are you doing?"

I dropped the knife on the floor and hugged him saying, "I love you… Don't leave. Please don't leave me."

He hugged me back and said, "Please, don't make this hard for me. You're making me weak. Don't make me wish to live with you. Don't give me hope, Ava."

"Please don't leave me…"

"Let's get married. Then I'll be with you."

I broke from the embrace and asked, "Are you serious?"

He gave a nod and made a smile at me while a single tear dropped from his eye.

I removed my ring from my finger and put it on his ring finger and he did the same back.

When each of our foreheads touched each other, the feelings inside me rolled on my cheeks as tears. He wiped the tears off my face.

I said, "You may kiss the bride now."

He let out a chuckle and brushed his lips against mine and started kissing my lips and I kissed him back. The passionate kiss we're having right now is filled with pain more than love. I don't want you to leave, please don't leave.

Back to reality,

I woke from the sleep and headed to the bathroom to get a shower. I saw dried tears on the side of my eyes. It's been years since I had that dream. I washed my face and came out after a hot shower.

I looked at my hand, Frank's ring on my hand.

"Good morning, Frank."

'Good morning, Ava.'