140 But The Truth Was...

It was an hour later before Timothy looked beside him, she was already sleeping soundly.

Just as they entered the departure gate, he received a message from Ashton.

~That girl has a sickness, currently it was twice a year. It may suddenly come while she is out there. She would suddenly fall completely weak and vulnerable for 24 hours, unable to eat or drink on her own. You can still talk to her but mostly she just need to sleep. I leave her to you.~

'She's completely different than how I thought of her.'

He thought as he placed a blanket on her.

'Why do I always have the same question running on my mind? Who are you?'

He knew, of course, all of them knew. She was not the humble birth woman she portrayed herself to be.

Her presence alone speaks of her background.

Suddenly she frowned.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry..."

Timothy furrowed his brows.

"Don't… leave them… please..."

'Is she having a bad dream right now?'

"Amber… Amber..." he called out as he tried to shake her awake.

Amber gasped the moment she opened her eyes.

Fear was visible in her eyes as she looked around only to see a frowning Timothy beside her.

"I..."

Her breathing was still deep and uneven as if she was gasping for air.

"What is it? A nightmare?" he asked as he handed her a bottled water.

He then started patted her on the back, without saying more.

Slowly Amber started calming down from his pat as she accepted the bottle and drank half of it in one go.

"A recollection," she sighed.

Seeing as she had calmed down a lot from this simple gestures, Timothy couldn't help but to remember that one time that Ashton told them through video conference about this side of her.

"He really do understands you, don't he?"

(Flashback)

"I don't know if you're lucky or not, she was of many talent but her stubbornness is quite something as well," Harvey commented.

This was a talk days after the year end gala.

The others nodded in agreement.

"That girl…" Ashton started.

Everyone turned silent and looked at him through the screen, they didn't know if it was just because of the screen but somehow, he looks worried.

"She may seem to always be smiling and jolly, but her regrets and guilt had been eating her up all these time. Don't think of her as plainly what you can see from the outside. She always have her own nightmares..." he paused.

The others turned serious as they looked at him, they can see clearly now that he was really worried about her. And cares deeply for her, deeper than when he fell for Madison.

Ashton looked straight to the camera as if looking at each of their eyes.

"For whether she succeeds or not, her parents will never return and it will never ease the pain of losing them in such a way..."

For the first time in their friendship even Blake, Devon and Aldger, saw his eyes turn red. Not out of anger but out of feeling pain towards the person he loves the most.

"Just, pat her back and stay silent. Just make her know that she currently is not alone and that there is someone beside her whom she can rely on. I'm begging you... when a time where I can't be with her comes... do this much for her..."

Blake and the other two somehow have their eyes turn red as well.

For it was them who saw her struggle on the first months after her parents death.

They saw her acting all jolly in front of everyone but once the day was over, what they can see was her lonely back.

Her family didn't want anything other than a normal life yet in the end, because of this, everything was taken away from her.

"Don't beg us, we are already your brothers. When that time comes we will surely watch over her," Mathew clicked his tongue as he said this.

Among them, the one who was the most warm was Ashton.

That is the hidden truth, something he hid behind his cold demeanour. The coldness that came to be because of everything that he experienced all through out his life.

(End Of Flashback)

Upon hearing his words of Ashton's understanding of her, Amber laughed but a tinge of sadness was there.

"We are humans feeling pity over someone who lost so many things in one go was but normal. Yet I lashed out at him for feeling such way, I didn't want to be pitied but I also have no right to dictate how others should feel about me."

She played with the bottle in her hands.

"After that, all he does whenever I have this kind of times, was just to stay by my side silently patting me in the head or at the back. As if saying, you're not alone, you're not alone."

She looked up at him, "Is it weird that I find that the most comforting instead of words?"

Timothy looked straight in her eyes before he shook his head, "No, we all have our own way of coping up with everything that life throws at us. No one can judge in the way you do, no one."

Amber finally smiled upon hearing his words, she really misses her eldest brother who was so much more mature despite his age back then.

As he pulled his hand away from her, she took notice of the scar on his palm. The same place where she wounded him with the knife back then, when it almost cut her own hand but he stopped it with his own.

"That scar..."

Timothy had his movement stop before he slowly looked at it. The scar on his left hand.

Seeing his complicated look, "If it's too much, you don't have to tell me."

"Well something like that I suppose but one thing is for sure, this is a reminder that the memories I have were actually real. That everything that we experienced in our childhood was true and it was not just a figment of our imagination."

He slowly clenched his hand into a fist as he spoke of this.

Amber nodded no longer commenting, her guilt flaring up.

Xander was eight and he was ten when they left and since it was so sudden they started thinking that it might not be true.

'It's all real though. Everything happened for real. I am here, I was born to be your younger sister. Why hang on while using the scar as your reminder? Have you thrown our necklace? Have you thrown all the pictures?'

"I need to go to the restroom," she said.

Upon entry her tears started falling freely.

Just as Timothy received a message from Ashton a while ago, she too received one.

~Use this as a chance to come to terms with your shadows regarding them as well. Don't let your guilt eat you up and if you want to cry, just cry. Don't stop them for you need them as well if you want to keep getting stronger.~

This time she didn't hold back as she cried, she really misses her brothers and being with them was truly painful for her.

But Ashton was right, she can't keep running away from reality, she can't use the fact that she needs to take revenge to those who raised them, as excuses to deprive herself from being sad that she couldn't be with them.

'What should I do?I really want to tell them already but if I do then they will be placed in danger as well. For when my identity gets revealed, they will come after me looking for that,' she thought as she stared at her reflection.

Subconsciously her hands went to her thigh as she started calming herself form crying, she can't stay here for so long.

"Just a bit more, just a little bit more, I will be prepared that if you were to know who I am I would be able to protect you as well," she declared.

Meanwhile, Timothy was staring at his scar.

'That girl loves feeling guilty for the smallest thing. For this to happen before they disappeared, I wonder how she coped up with it?' he thought as he stared outside the window.

There is one thing he and Xander didn't tell anyone, all they know was that they hated their family.

But the truth was, they never hated her.

Not before not after.

For in reality, they heard her shouts the night of their departure. But they were stopped to check on her saying that she was only having a nightmare and their parents were there already, so they returned to sleep not knowing that those shouts were for them.

Only finding out after realising that they were left behind.

~"NO!! WE CAN'T!! WE CANNOT!!"~

What they didn't get to hear were the next words after that.

~"DON'T LEAVE THEM!! PLEASE!! PLEASE!!"~

The same words she just uttered in her sleep.