His words take Neriah by surprise because she’s never heard or even known he had a sister before. She notices how he referred to her as used to, which means she’s in the past, but before she can wander too much into her thought, he continues. “When she was eight, and I was seven, which didn’t stop her from thinking and calling me her hero, perhaps even her Angel. She looked up to me for everything, which if you ask me should have been the other way around, and she saw me as one who could do no wrong, even more, esteemed than her mother, you see. I was going to save the world, make it a better place, be a better man than my runaway father ever was.”
“What happened?” Neriah asks, pausing and glancing up at him.
“She died on her ninth birthday.” He pauses a little and, as if not sure he wants to continue, “Leukemia, they said.” Pain dawns in his voice even as he speaks and Neriah can almost feel the pain too, having lost his sister, who he’d loved to cancer as a child and being in the same situation. “I prayed to almost everything I believed in keeping her for me, but nothing worked. I still lost her. In the end, even her father didn’t come to her funeral, but I made a promise before she died to never let go, to take her name with me.” He spots a tree with huge branches and shades and he points to it so they can head there.
“I broke one of those promises which were to never let go because I had to so that mother wouldn’t end up losing me too. But the second promise I kept.”
Neriah’s eyes are wet with tears at his sad story, but she blinks them back, clears her throat and asks, “What was her name then?”
“Gracie, but I always called her Inferno. She was the fire in my cold world as a young boy and I didn’t want it put out.”
Neriah's eyes close for a while, even as she stops walking. “You’re repeating history with me, and you’re promising to never let go. I can’t let you make such a promise Cainan, it won’t be fair if you do.”
He smiles warmly at her. “I already did. Someone once said, ‘I have a thing for loving what I can’t have and fighting for what I can’t keep,’ but I’d like to think of myself more than a hopeless warrior.”
The air in her lungs grows thin at his words and she struggles to keep herself from crying. She should have known, read the visible writings on the wall. There was a reason for his generosity, a minor price attached, and it wasn’t completely from the goodness of his heart. She can see that he’s falling for her, that’s if he hasn’t already fallen for her and he will not let go even if he loses her to this fight. That’s what a hopeless warrior does.
“Take me back to the hospital, Cainan,” she says suddenly, making him look down at her.
“Did I do something wrong?” He asks, with a weary voice.
She shakes her head and manages a brief shake of her head. “I don’t feel too well, that’s all.” It is the truth, but the reason behind that was his revelation a moment ago.
“Sure then,” he replies and slowly turns around to go back to the car.
Neriah knows he’ll never tell her the other reason he’ll never let go, but she also knows the reason isn’t far from the fact that he might love her.
She stares up at him quietly as they walk. He is indeed good-looking, a fine specimen to behold, flawless in every aspect you can think of. It is, however, a little too cliché to say the mighty Cainan Inferno is in love with a dying girl, especially when he brought down his high walls, shattered his arrogant and proud self and does everything to please her, but it is true. And thinking about it now, she feels dumb for not picking the signs all those weeks. How could she have missed it?
“You’re staring too deep that I’m afraid you’re going to light me on fire, Neriah,” the way he says her name makes it even more unbearable to ignore the hint that was there all along because there is so much adoration in his voice.
“Just curious,” she shrugs and looks away, turning to ease the tensed feeling surrounding them.
One of his brows rises. “About?”
“The second reason.”
He opens his mouth to speak, but he sees about a dozen reporters and paparazzi with cameras and microphones running over towards them.
He hadn’t thought about taking his guards and security because he wanted the outing to be just for the two of them, something private, but now he realises his mistake and regrets his earlier decisions.
Fear grips his heart, not for himself, but Neriah. He does not know why they are here or how they knew he would be here, but he knew he had to keep Neriah safe and away from them.
His grip around Neriah’s waist tightens as he feels her tense upon seeing them close in on them.
“Let’s get you out of here Neriah,” he says, and picks up his pace, but the young men and women with cameras and microphones asking questions in a matter of seconds swamp them.
“Are the two of you dating?”
“Can you confirm your relationship with Mr Inferno?”
“Samantha Ona accused Cainan of cheating while they were together and she points her finger at her. What is your response?”
“What do you say to the fact that you’ve been having an affair with this lady while you were with Samantha?”
“Me Inferno, is it true she only has one month to live?”
The random and nonstop photographs continue and Cainan does his best to shield Neriah from the cameras, but not from the many questions they had to ask. Everything was going the opposite of how he had planned it and it was just happening too fast.
“Take those fucking cameras out of my face and get out of my way!!” He sneers in pure anger as he shoves the man with the video camera in the chest and his grip around Neriah loosens and her legs which are not properly set in the ground give out and slump, falling hard on the ground.
The fall did hurt, but she wonders which hurts more, the fall or the many truths she’s learnt. She knows the answer and the fall can’t compare to the pain of the things she’s heard from the reporters. Cainan had hidden so much from her, even the news of her death and as she hit the ground, she feels her heart breaking into a million pieces.