As the hours advanced as quickly as an arrow, severe exhaustion invaded the both tremendously talented singers though they had short breaks, in order to whether to fix their makeup in the dressing room, smoke a cigarette or drink something before they reunite altogether on the stage.

When they finished with tonight's show, mettlesome and gleeful applauds flooded the nightclub, jinging in Elsa and Odette's ears jubilant anthems as they interweave with jubilant screams, hankering for more, although the show was over.

"Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen!" The both women bowed in front of the audience as ivory, content smiles blossomed on their lips. They expressed their ginormous gratitude as one. "For tonight's show!" Then they rose up as they contemplated smugly each keen fan of their,  who clapped incessantly his hands. Admiring its sea of admirers who smiled and observed eaxh fragment of the women's show.

"Thank you for bringing us smiles!" One of the fans cried out loud in the audience, earning promptly the both ladies' enthusiastic facial expressions, imprinted on their still youthful, fresh faces.

"We wouldn't be more thankful to hear that! We are so delighted for bringing you a smile on your shining face." The German emigrant echoed on the microphone as the both singers couldn't contain guttural giggles, escaping their dry lips.

"Indeed! Is there going to be more tonight?"

"Unfortunately, the show is over. It's already 1 o'clock in the morning. You deserve some rest, my darlings!" The blonde replied wrily while the brunette was flopping her strand of fringe on the other side with the back of her creamy, milky hand. "We will have another show again there." This time the younger woman spoke by proceeding with Elsa's utterance, winking at the audience in cocky manner.

Afterwards Elsa and Odette retired from the cabaret as they went back in the dressing room until they saw one of the security guards of the nightclub as the young woman ordered to him:

"Sir, could you please bring me a martini?"

"Of course, ma'am!" The security guard accepted affably her offer as he paced up in the long glowing hallway of the club. 

"Thank you!" The brunette mischievous grinned by entering with the elder blonde in the dressing room and seating beside the dressing table by taking off their extraordinary jewelries, besides removing their make-up. 

"How do you think tonight's show passed?" Elsa questioned with her firm German accent, emphasizing tonight's show. 

"It was just excellent." Odette cleared her throat as she yearned for some alcoholic beverage before leaving the nightclub with her best friend as she clumsily removed her sapphire earrings, without taking her glistening hazel eyes off the mirror's reflection, reflexing her double herself and having a better view of her motions and actions. "When we sang the first song, I was somewhat nervous but the next ones were easier for remembering its lyrics."

"Aww, my dear! You did an extraordinary job. I assure ya!" The German emigrant replied ironically through an encouraging smirk, honed up in the corner of her lips. "I have never expected such a young woman like you to grab the audience's attention in no time."

"I always pressume the worst, Elsa! I have never always wanted somebody to like me but I like to see the people's smiles on their faces. It's better than to being liked and accepted as much as the bunch of this society."

"Odette, you deserve the world. I already know almost everything about you," All of a sudden the both women averted their stares from the mirrors as they turned to one another, gazing at one another's eyes with smiles. "I know your parents didn't want to be seperated with you when you were a baby. I know you craved to see them. I know you are careless and you prefer to see smiling people rather than somebody who likes you. Just relax, darling! I have never loved my parents for hiding a secret from me, besides they didn't allow me to pursue my dreams."

"I know your past and your youth. I don't know in which case is worse. To be a love child or otherwise never being loved by your parents."

"I have always fought against my parents so that to get what I want. They thought I was crazy then."

Flashback

1932

"Mom and Dad, little do you know how I long to become a star! I'm going to sing on a stage tonight." Fifteen-year-old Elsa said sternly as she seated on the same dining table with her both parents, who not only told her her older sister passed away when she was baby, but also yield her to nauseate when she just looks at their faces. The teenager sipped of her glass of water, gritting her teeth though she was mightless to persuade her parents since they were unarguably pigheaded and exceedingly selfish.

"Nein! You are going nowhere, Miss Elsa!" Gisela, Elsa's mother yelled in stringent manner as her blood vigorously boiled in her veins, slamming a fist on the kitchen table while Roland was glaring at his own sole daughter, who persisted, inhibiting their parents' will to prevail her divine dreams. In the meanwhile, the middle-aged woman furrowed her eyebrows, casting a ferocious glare on the adolescent without averting her glare. "Bin ich klar?" The older blonde raised her voice without causing any side effects, oozing from her daughter. 

"Nein, Mutter! Ich werde bekommen, was ich will!" Elsa retorted by getting from the dining table, walking away from the kitchen by heading up to her compact bedroom, getting dressed up and leaving by herself for one of the theaters where she shall sing tonight. 

"Elsa, come back here! You are destined to be home tonight. Neither in the theater, nor somewhere outdoors." The both livid parents hollered, despite their gradual downfall was obviously evident for unable halting their strong-willed daughter of pursuing her dreams, thereafter render them by coming true. 

"Ich kann dich nicht hören!"  When the young girl fled the kitchen as soon as possible, she opened her bedroom's door, stepping inside the room by shutting the door.

***

"They have no right to forbid you pursuing your dreams, Elsa!" The girl responded, returning her stare to the mirror by focusing her attention on removing her jewelries. In this moment, one of the security guards to whom Odette has ordered her own alcoholic beverage, knocked on the dressing room's lacquered wooden door until the both women realized somebody was outside, interrupting their conversation as well. "Yes? Who is it?"

"It's me, ladies. I would like to excuse myself if I have interrupted your conversation." The man held a glass of martini for the brunette as Elsa didn't take her hazelish-brown eyes off the crystal mirror's image. "Here you are, ma'am!" The security guard handed the younger lady's martini as his face flushed, offering her a sympathetic smile, formed on his lips. 

"How to not thank you, sir! Don't be too embarrassed! You haven't seen paradise of Goddesses from the Greek mythology." She sipped martini, jeering at the security guard who was just leaving the dressing room without turning his back and getting back to work. 

"Odette, that was pretty rude, you know!"

"I haven't said anything against his will, dear. I was just mocking him."

"It's rude again. I dislike to repeat myself."

"So we were discussing about our parents, right?" The love child enquired, attempting to change the topic without exasperating and tasting her friend's patience. Meantime she gulped in a single sip the rest of her alcoholic beverage without feeling something odd, affecting her body and organs. 

"Indeed! I'm so sorry for yelling at you from time to time but sometimes you are prone to be coarse than the borderlines allow you."

"I know, I know. I'm not dumb at all." The younger woman snapped until her vision was gingerly muddling, incapable of beholding everything as lucid as she used to be when she was sober. She emitted a wicked snigger, tossing bluntly, carelessly the already emptied glass of martini as its glass creaked on the carpeted floor, scattering.  "It's alright, Elsa. I think it's coming a bit too much for me this martini."

"Odette, that's not even funny!" Suddenly Elsa glared slyly her protege, pursing her lips as she removed her earrings. 

"I'm going to be fine, Elsa. If you need to use the restroom, use it and we leave as soon as possible."

"Okay! I believe you. I will be back." Elsa got from the dressing table by walking up to the restroom, using it by closing the door, while the young singer collapsed on the floor as its strong alcoholic beverage commanded her body, betraying her hardwearing physical and mental stamina especially her physical one, shutting her eyelids reluctantly until another security guard, snuck up inside the dressing room without rapping on the door by keeping the ladies' wits about his presence. 

"Well, well, well, look at you vulnerable angel!" The other security guard who was all alone with the impending victim of boozing was actually slightly younger than the German emigrant as he was particularly burly and tiptoed in the small room, acknowledging if somebody walks in occasionally without warning. When he gripped the young woman by her ankles, he commenced dragging her unconscious corpse from the room, whilst Elsa heard bizarre, leery sounds as she was all ears and leaving the restroom as quickly as possible until she realized her friend wasn't in the same room.

"Odette! Mein Liebchen! Nein!" The former freak show owner didn't give up that easily as she looked around the entire dressing room, looking for her protege until she came to the conclusion she isn't lastly here, storming off the room and searching for her.

"We will have so much fun! I promise you." The security guard whispered in vile way, licking greedily his lips by dragging her in the profound corridor without being noticed. "You won't regret at all, sweetie!"

"What the," When the blonde sped up with her frequently clicking stilettos, she discovered by herself one of the security guards was lugging Odette by her ankles. Mortified, palish facial expression was airbrushed on her yet youthful complexion when she witnessed the horror she might expect the least. She charged until the security guard turned to the elder singer, earning her glare as he released the younger lady's ankles, running in the hall as swiftly as an arrow. 

"Odette, are you okay?" Elsa felt remorses for leaving her friend all alone when she was in the restroom as the martini controlled her consciousless body, without moving a single muscle, in spite of she still breathed very softly. "Let's get back at home."

***

A couple of hours have passed after the untentional accident in the nightclub when the singers were about to leave until the security guard's goose was cooked as he knew it for himself. Despite the German woman's difficult in heaving her secondary daughter's body to the vehicle, she asked one of the diligent security guards to help her with lifting her body until it's laid on the back passenger seats. It took them a while and Elsa came to the conclusion, something was out of control. When the martini was served for Odette, subsequently something like a drug was put in her beverage and little did she know what it was inside the beverage until she was knocked out, losing control over her body muscles in the least predictable moment. Scorching, relentless headache invaded the young woman's head even when she was senseless yet. 

Elsa drove Odette in her humble apartment, consequently helping her to being lifted up to her bed in her bedroom with the help of one of the widely awake neighbours, who lived  the next door. The middle-aged mother stayed with the love child a handful of hours, making sure if she was alright, although Massimo and Evelyn's anxiety over Elsa's absence which tormented them for hours since the show's ending. 

Then she drove back to her mansion, while the brunette was resting peacefully on her miniature bed, swaddled in a rosewood silk blanket, shielding her motionless, lukewarm body. 

***

"I'm so sorry for being so late, mein Liebchen!" The middle-aged woman was cuddling in her savior's arms as a velvet scarlet blanket blanketed their partly clothed bodies, burying her face in the crook of her husband's neck, inhaling inwardly his alluring cologne. "I didn't want Odette be hurt and raped by this security guard who lugged her by her ankles."

"It's alright, my angel! At least, she was safe and sound and brought back at her flat." The middle-aged man lowered his voice as he had his strong, muscular arms around his wife's stark, silken waist. 

"Yeah! It's thanks to me. Otherwise I don't want to imagine what would happen if I wasn't in the restroom. You know what do I mean, sweetheart!" 

"Neither I do, my angel! I completely comprehend why you were back late after tonight's show you held both together." The Italian man evoked in velvety voice, peppering Elsa's cheek with feather, ardent kiss as she couldn't repress a blooming radiant smile, distorted across her lips. 

"I love this girl. All I want is her welfare to be not as poor as the other orphans." 

"Nevertheless, I think who served her a glass of martini, it's his fault for doping her with the drink and that's why she was unconscious and verged to being raped."

"Indeed, Massimo!" All of a sudden, the blonde set free a mere, low yawn as her body fought with its insomnia until it was almost 5 o'clock in the morning and the married couple hasn't fallen asleep yet, drowning themselves in discussings about the incident and Odette. "I doubt I can be longer awake." Then they finally the hug as they took their time to admire one another's faces as she cupped his rotund cheeks in the palms of her smooth, elvish hands, manicured in violet. 

"It's okay, Elsa! You should rest since it has been a long, sleepless night for you, my angel!" In the interval, he captured her luscious, naturally berry-coloured lips in a light, good night kiss as they shut their eyes for a while, relishing its romantic moment. "Good night and sweet dreams, my lovely angel!"

"Good night, my darling!" 

Shortly after breaking off the kiss and wishing each other good night, they turned from both sides the night lamps that sat motionlessly on the night stands, huddling together as the German emigrant's eyelids with its severe ounce that built with the gradual insomnia which tormented her, have already found peace at last once she closed them. 

***

The next morning

21st of March, 1962

The scintillating sunrays in the wee hours of the morning dispersed through the young woman's blinds even when her eyes were shut, protecting them from the bright sun. 

Odette was still slumbering as her vague snores sailed in her sufficiently expansive bedroom as the alcohol in her blood left her body and blood like an unseen, cryptical ghost of the past. 

Suddenly the police rang on her apartment's front door, awaiting patiently for her response although she vaguely heard them by getting sluggishly, gawkily from the bed by unwrapping its silky blanket as she still wore her garments from the last night. 

When the young singer ultimately came to her senses, no longer the headache anguished her, despite little did she know what a surprise was awaiting her on the front door. 

"What the fuck? Who the fuck interrupts my beauty sleep?" The brunette asked as she struggled to utter each syllable, motioning her dazzling, rosy-coloured lips by ambling up to the front door.

Once she walked away from her bedroom and headed towards the front door, she unlocked it by discovering for her own horror the authorities disturbing her. 

"Good morning, Miss Martin Howard!" One of the cops didn't greet her as kind as she has always expected, scowling, due to the fact, the authorities received a report earlier which has to do with Odette's violent demeanor towards one of her fans as she was under the influence of drugs. 

"Good morning! Could you please wait 5 more minutes?"

"Of course, ma'am!"

Then she closed the front door by cleaning herself, brushing her teeth and swilling her face until she stepped before the front door, opening it and directly speaking in person with the policemen.

"I'm back. And what brings you here?"

"We're so sorry for telling you this, ma'am. But you are under arrest!" One of the policemen answered dryly, showing the steel handcuffs he held in one of his mammoth hands, menacing the young woman who was beyond dumbfound and bewildered. Little did she know why she was under arrest, in fact, she even knew she hasn't committed anything against the law. Her hazelish-brown eyes widened in panic, gawking blankly and shockingly the intruders.

To be continued...