Harnston poured some water in a tumbler from a jug and turned towards Maple. He took a sip of the water "I'll give you five minutes,"
Maple looked at him "Dad, tell me do you like me?" He asked in Danish.
"Of course I do. You are my son, after all," His father replied in Danish.
"Do you like Loraine?"
"Yes, I do,"
"Do you like Ember?"

"...I can't,"
"Why can't you?"
"You don't get the situation, do you? He isn't a person, he's like a flickering flame. You never know when it's gone, why waste your emotions on such a thing?"
"HE IS A PERSON, DAD! If tomorrow, I fall sick, will you stop loving me? What if I catch an illness that has no cure?"
"Maple, never say that again,"

"It hurts, dad. It hurts to see him like this. No matter how small his life may be, in some way he has changed all of us. We are a family,"
"I consider only you and Loraine as my sons. He can die today and I would not spare of a drop of tear for him,"
"You are so stone-hearted,"
"I'm just not an idiot,"

"Fine," Maple reached the door, "Then, I'm taking him to the hospital and you won't stop me," 
He slammed the door.

The next morning, Maple and Loraine took Ember to the doctor and decided to run a few tests on him. Meanwhile, Rhea decided to visit him. She wanted to talk about her paintings. But she was told to wait till Ember was back. He had gone to the hospital. This seemed serious, so he wasn't joking about breaking his leg? What if he was really sick? Rhea decided to wait in his room. She entered the lift and pressed the button for the 63rd floor. She walked to his room and opened that three-metre tall, magnificent metal door. It was unlocked-He must have left in a hurry.

The room seemed different. With a piano at the centre and the bed occupying a corner of the room, she seemed confused to see such an arrangement. It looked like Loraine's room unless it was his room and she was lost. She decided to wait till Loraine would come back. He wouldn't mind since they were friends now.

She sat at the piano chair and opened the case of the keys. She pressed the switch beneath it and the small red light on its corner started glowing. The piano was alive. She pressed one of the keys and it made a loud sound. Then pressed three keys each from both her hands and tried to mimic Loraine. It looked visually appealing, not musically, because all she played was trash.

She switched off the piano and walked towards the huge glass wall beside it. It had a balcony at the centre which grasped the view of the entire city and there was a small white wooden chest with glass knobs at the drawers kept at one corner of the wall. Rhea walked towards the table and observed it.

"This stuff seems so antique..." Rhea touched the drawer knobs "I'm sure they're very expensive. Rich people spend so much on decorating their house, don't they?"
She pressed one of the knobs too hard and suddenly, the drawer opened by itself. She looked inside the drawer.

The huge drawer had nothing else but a small notebook. The notebook wasn't very attractive, it was shabby and had an old brown cover over it. It was thick and seemed old. Among all the novel and antique stuff, the notebook seemed out of place. Rhea picked it up and looked at it while closing the drawer. She opened it and looked inside. It read 'Dedicated to my sweethearts, Loraine, Maple and Ember.'

'This seems like a diary'

The pages were old, so old that now a tint of yellow covered the blue ink. She turned the page and started reading.

'Dear Diary

When I was very young, around sixteen, my body gave me some indications that something was wrong with me. I was going to celebrate my seventeenth birthday, but I hadn't hit puberty yet. My parents grew concerned and consulted the doctors.

After visiting a lot of doctors, it was found that I had developed a cyst in my left ovary, which could later develop into cancer. And so they decided to remove it. They had told me, that there was only one per cent chance after this, that I could become a mother.

I had never really given it much thought, but now, I was sad. I wanted to be a mother. Money couldn't get me a baby. But, eight years after my marriage, I unexpectedly became pregnant. I was delighted. I could have my own child into my arms! I could give birth to another life, and that thought alone was so magical. To have a part of me, into my arms and watch it grow into a nice and kind human.

They said that I was going to have triplets!

I can't tell how happy I was when I heard that news. Triplets! That's quite rare, so I'll have three kids at once? Awesome! I dreamed of all the things we could do together, like how I'd nurture them, which kinds of clothes I'll make them wear, I'd play with their hair, I'd sing to them, give them their names. I'd be the coolest mom they'd love to "hang out" with.

Just planning everything seems so fun. It was nothing but sheer joy. And finally, on June 27th, I was blessed with three gorgeous, blonde sons. They looked exactly the same, from head to toe, except their eyes.

One had the emerald borrowed from the sleek action,
Others had an eager hazel that could fire any passion
While one had a Prussian blue, that could make hearts wretch heaven.

It was the day I was waiting for. I had all my kids in my arms. Until bad news hit the door. The doctors told me, that though they shared the same placenta, it seemed that the nutrition from the mother wasn't evenly distributed among them.

The result was that one was extremely resistant to diseases, and would rarely fall sick, the other had normal resistance and immunity but was healthy. The third one though, even after nine months, his stomach weren't developed completely and had to go through a major surgery a few days after he was born.

I cursed myself for creating such a child.'

Rhea stared at the end of the page.
"It is Ember's mom's diary,' Suddenly, she heard footsteps and quickly hid the diary beneath her shirt. Loraine opened the door and stared at her.
"What are you doing in my room?"
"Oh! I was looking at these beautiful, glass drawer knobs,"

Loraine chuckled "You think that's glass?"
"It isn't?"
"They are diamonds,"
"What?" Rhea was shocked by the fact that that chest might cost more than her. Loraine walked into the bathroom "I will freshen up now,"
"Oh, I'll go," Rhea quickly ran outside. Loraine turned towards the door and removed his shirt.

'Let's hope it helps you,' Loraine looked at the slightly opened drawer 'How clumsy,'

Rhea rushed towards the end of the hallways and stopped to catch her breath. She took out the diary from her shirt and looked at it. She pressed the lift which was on the ground floor.

"Looks like it'll take some time," She said to herself and opened the diary. It was the second entry in the diary.

'Ember is about to have his second birthday, he has finally learned to walk! I'm so happy for my baby. He runs around all day, they say it might be ADHD. Since he was doing all this running, I thought why not teach him something that'd keep him static? So, recently I've started teaching him how to paint. He's a fast learner as always. And he seems to love painting,'

'So that's why he gifted me that paintbrush?' She thought and continued reading.

'I'm occasionally struck with this fear-What will happen once he starts going to school? He will watch other children of his age do much more than he can ever do. He would recognise his incapabilities. I guess we should home school him after all.'

Rhea couldn't understand what was wrong. Ember was sick in his childhood? Why didn't he ever tell those to her? Maybe because he didn't want her to feel pity for him. She decided she shouldn't ask. This was supposed to be a family secret. She felt guilty as she held the diary. She knew what she was doing was wrong.

Ember had privacy which shouldn't be disturbed-After all, they were just friends not family.

'Did I get too close? Because this doesn't feel right...' She thought. The door to the lift opened and she looked back at the door of Loraine's room. She was in a dilemma. Should she read the diary and dig the untold or just keep the diary back from where she picked it up, and wait for Ember to tell her whenever he feels comfortable. 

'He must have kept his secrets as a secret for a reason. Are you going to ignore that?'

Loraine came out of the bathroom and stood at the body dryer machine platform. Then, he got down from it and walked towards his bed. He saw the diary kept on the bed. He chuckled,

"Bitch, you stress me out,"

-To be continued

Arorhea Laghari 
Can't I Touch Your Heart?