Lydia

The warm sunlight shines on my face waking me up. I don't want to get up so I just lay on my bed with my eyes closed.

What a mess I've made. Bringing the kid with me. What if he ran away while I slept.

I open my eyes slightly. He's not on the bed. He's sitting on a chair nearby with a paper in hand and Dialing numbers on the telephone.

Feeling relieved that he's still here, I try to go back to sleep.

WAIT...

My eyes shoot open and I quickly jump off the bed, falling down and hurting my arm in the process. Ow...

"You ok?" Liam asks looking at me while I try to stand up.

Walking over to him, I snatch away the receiver and put it back on the phone.

"What do you think you were doing!?" I snarl at him.

He seems a bit shaken by my outburst and hands the paper he was holding to me.

"I...got hungry so I wanted to order room service." He says looking away.

I sigh and look at the time as I calm myself down.

"When did you wake up?" I ask him, Looking at the menu on the paper.

"An hour ago I think" he gets off the chair and goes into the living room. It's big with violet and black furniture, white marble floor with a large purple rug and lavender coloured walls. It seems he was busy playing with his new toys.

"Liam, if you're ever hungry or want to call room service then you tell me ok? Don't do it yourself." I say to him as I walk over to the vanity table and take off my wig and wig cap, Letting go of my long hair. My head feels so free now that it's untied.

"Ok," he replies.

"So, what do you wanna eat?" I walk over to the telephone and look at the menu.

"Pancakes!" he yells excitedly.

I order pancakes and mango juice for him and scrambled eggs with toast and black coffee for me.

It was really hectic last night when we came home. After reaching the hotel it had already started to drizzle. Since I had lied to Liam that I had toys in my room, I had to actually run to a nearby store with him and buy a few toys along with some clothes from a retail store. Upon entering the hotel Liam was mesmerised by the luxurious and beautiful lobby of the hotel. He was running everywhere and wanted to touch everything from the flowers, Status, lights to the small fountain at the corner. After much effort of dragging him into the elevator, we went up to my room. I guess we were both very tired since as soon as I opened the door, he rushed to my bed and laid down. I too just fell on the bed and slept without changing or taking off the wig.

"When is the food gonna come?" He comes back into the bedroom with a superhero action figure in hand. I see he had already changed his clothes when he woke up.

"Soon. Just gotta wait." I tell him as go sit on the sofa. I pick up my phone and check for any messages. 6 miss calls from Zane. What's this about?

"What happened to your hair? It was a different colour" I hear Liam talking as he stares at my blonde hair. Oh right, totally forgot about that.

"That was a wig." I say.  Zane has messaged me too.

"What's a wig?" He asks curiously.

"Fake hair. People wear it sometimes when they don't have time to take care of their hair but wanna look nice when going out." I joke with a grin and point towards the wig on top of my vanity table.

He walks over there and as expected, tries it on. He looks towards the mirror and pushes away the strands from his face.

Checking Zane's message, it's a picture of a phone. And below it, he's asking if I recognise this.

Wait...that's Richard's phone.

Why does he have Richard's phone?

I quickly call his number.

"Hey! How do I look!?" Liam asks while jumping up and down.

"Just give me a minute ok?" I get up and walk out to the living room. I really hope Richard is alright. Why does Zane have his phone!?

"Hello?" He answers. Judging by the sound in the background, he's driving right now.

"That picture you sent me. It's Richard's phone. Where'd you get it?" I ask him.

"Ahhh, so it WAS Richard. Ethan's hunch was correct after all." He says annoyingly.

As soon as I hear him say Ethan, I start to understand and get a full picture of what might have happened.

He failed his task. And now Zane knows that we were after his brother.

"Tell me what happened," I ask him as I sit down on the black leather couch with small purple cushions in the living room.

"Don't play dumb! You know everything. Sending Richard after Ethan. But he turned the tables on him and came home with his phone. Luckily, he gave the phone to me to check it out. Do you have any idea what would have happened if the police had gotten hold of Richard and his phone!?" He starts to raise his voice.

Liam comes into the living room, still wearing the wig over his messy brown hair and continues playing with his toys.

"Look, Zane-" I began but he cuts me off.

"No! You look here, kid! With this whole deal that's going on between us, I never thought you'd try to kill my brother. With the little stunt you both pulled, Ethan knows that the culprit has sended him." He says angrily.

"He's getting in the way. I wasn't going to kill him. Just sending him to a hospital. He's a threat. Don't you know if he ever finds me out, everything about you will be revealed too?"

Liam looks and opens his mouth to say something but I quickly usher him to keep quiet.

"I told him to stay out of it, ok. I can handle him." He replies.

I laugh "You say that as if he always listens to you."

"Lydia. Just stay away from him. Don't you dare come near my family and try to harm them again or I'll make you regret it!" Zane says in a threatening tone. He's serious.

"Hmm, ok but I'm surprised. Since when did you start caring about your family, sir?" I mock him I can already hear him gritting his teeth.

"That's none of your business." He answers.

"By the way, do you know where Richard is?" He would have called me from a phone booth if there was a problem. But he hasn't even contacted me.

Zane sighs "No idea. Ethan left him unconscious and called the police. But he wasn't there when they arrived. If you get in touch with him, tell him his phone is at the lost and found section of the police department. That's all. Talk to you later. And remember, Stay away from my family or I'll make you wish you were never born." He says and hangs up.

I look at the phone and smile.

Zane...I already wish that I'd never been born. I've wished that for a long time...

I feel a slight headache coming up. With my two index fingers, I massage my temples.

"Lydia! Are you done? Come play with me!" Liam comes over to me and pulls my arm.

"Not now, Liam," I say to him. He can be really annoying. I was suspecting Richard to call me asking about all this but...

Should I look for him? Nah...he'll contact me. I know it. Wherever he is, he'll get in touch with me.

"Come ooon~ let's play!" He keeps insisting.

"I SAID NOT NOW!" I yell at him and shrug him off as I walk to the bedroom and close the door.

Ugh! This is getting ridiculous.

I go and make up my bed. I'm really regretting bringing him home with me. If I had just killed him right there, I wouldn't be having any problems. Then I think to myself, why was I even doing it? Oh, right. It was to speed things up. It's like my Patience is slipping away like a handful of sand.

I go to my wardrobe and take out a dark brown dress. Need to change out of these. I hope Richard gets in touch with me soon. We need to discuss our next step. It won't be long until Jessica spills the beans.

I go over to my bedside table and open the drawer. Almost time for my medicine. Taking it out, I uncap it and spill out 2 to 3 pills. Putting it in my mouth, I take a sip of water from the glass.

Suddenly, the bell rings. That must be the room service.

Getting up, I walk towards the bedroom door and open it.

Liam sits, with tears in his eyes and pouting in the corner of the room playing quietly with his toys. He has his back to me but I can already tell what he's trying to hide.

"Who is it?" I call out as I walk towards the door.

"Room service! You ordered pancakes and scrambled eggs?" The man calls out. Good thing Liam isn't anywhere near the door. Hope he doesn't show himself now. Note to self set rules for him.

I open the door. A man in a red uniform holding a silver tray with a dome-shaped tray cover on top smiles at me.

"Here's your food." he says and hands me the tray. I smile back and take it from him.

"Thank you, sir," I say and close the door.

I place the tray on the living room table. Lifting up the cover, the mouth-watering smell of the meal makes me realise how hungry I was. I look over to Liam who remains sulking in the corner.

An image suddenly comes across my mind. Of a little girl eating alone in her classroom as other students eat with their friends. Eating alone at home as her family stays busy. But she was always smiling. That is...until she found herself eating alone in a dark room.

"Food's here. Come and eat before it gets cold." I say to him and set the meal on the table.

I thought he won't come and keep pouting like most children but he silently gets up and walks towards the table. He must have been really hungry, huh?

As we sit down and eat, I watch him quietly sniff and wipe away his tears. Trying to hide the fact that he was crying.

"This isn't the age for you to be hiding your emotions. You're a kid. If something is bothering you or you felt bad that I yelled at you then you should cry your heart out. Even scream if you want to. Break things if you want to, which I'm glad you didn't. At this age, you should always express how you feel. People will be there for you. They will care. Because...when you grow up you'll realise that whether you hide or be open about your feelings, no one's there to listen or make you feel better. No one will care. It'll just be you. You'll have to fend for yourself." I say as I take a sip of my coffee.

Liam stares at me blankly, holding on to his knife and fork. Don't know if he understood what I said or not. He IS 5 years old.

I sigh "Let's just say I'm sorry I yelled at you, ok"

He stuffs his face with a big bite of pancake. "I'm sorry for bothering you too." He says after chewing and gulping it down.

I smile at him. I wonder what if, the little girl I remembered before, had complained? If she had been more open about her feelings from the start would things have turned out differently?

"I think I have a little time to spare so I guess I'll play with you after eating." I say even though I'll be free until Richard calls me so we can get to the next step.

Liam looks at me and smiles brightly
"Really!? Yay!" He says and starts eating quickly.

"Hey, slow down. You'll choke." I say as I continue with my meal.