“Cassie, I didn’t want him to know.”
“That’s not healthy.”
“I don’t want him to pity me.”
“Do you pity him when he confides in you?”
“No…”
“Give the guy a chance.”
“That’s odd coming from you.”
Cassie shrugged. “I suppose you could say that we’re friends.”
“Is he angry at you?”
She laughed. “Oddly enough, no. He said that he would have done the same thing if he were in my position.”
“So, he’s just mad at me.”
“El, I don’t know if I’d say he’s mad at you. But he’s hurt. That’s all. You just need to talk to him.”
“But I’m nervous…”
“You’ll be okay. I love you, Ellie.”
“I love you too, Cassie. Thanks for being there for me.”
“Anytime. Now let me get the doctors. They’re going to want to run some tests.”
Ellie smiled at her sister as she watched her leave the room. Surprisingly, she was no longer angry with the private detective. Fond childhood memories filled her head. When Ellie reminisced, she realized something: her happiest memories all involved either Cassie or Edric. Cassie was always there for her. Sure, she may have messed up sometimes, but, she also took care of business if need be. She then turned her head, looked at the balloons, closed her eyes, and fell back asleep.
***
Edric felt relieved to return from the gym to a voicemail from Cassie, declaring that Ellie had finally woken up. Granted, he would have been happier to have been there by her side in person when she woke. That was his plan, until the detective creatively locked him out of the hospital. But, that was water under the bridge: Ellie was awake and was moved out of the intensive care unit.. That’s all that mattered.
Unfortunately for Edric, word of Ellie’s admission to the hospital had somehow been leaked to the press. There was a giant horde of reporters standing in front of the hospital doors.
“What happened to your eye?”
“No comment.”
“Who scratched you?”
“No comment.”
“Do you have any word about Eleonore Kent’s hospital admission?”
“No comment.”
“Did you hit Eleonore Kent?”
Edric turned his head and looked at the young, earnest reporter. “No.”
With that, he walked through the doors into the hospital. Edric made a mental note to get some members from his security team stationed outside Ellie’s hospital room door. The last thing she needed was to be harassed by reporters.
Edric was nervous about his upcoming conversation with Ellie. He didn’t know how he felt about her. He knew that he loved her but he didn’t know if that was enough.
***
When Ellie saw Edric step through the doorway, she gasped lightly. She had a whole mental dialogue planned out and a speech written out on the back of a crossword puzzle but when she saw her ex-boyfriend beaten to a bloody pulp, she forgot her mental dialogue and crossword-puzzle speech.
“Edric, what happened to you? You have a black eye and scratches.”
“It’s nothing. It doesn’t even hurt.” He lied. He looked over at Cassie and smirked. She rolled her eyes in response.
“Scrooge is fine. I have some errands to run. I’ll be back.” The private detective stood up from her chair and walked out the room. They were alone.
As soon as the door closed, Edric walked over to the seat that Cassie was sitting in earlier, the one next to Ellie’s bed, and sat down. The two sat in silence. The young woman’s face was bright-red and she looked at the ground. She tried to hide her embarrassment and anxiety but the her ever-climbing displayed pulse showed her feelings.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded her head. The two sat in silence until Ellie began to cry, something that she thought that she had been doing too much of lately.
“I’m sorry. I feel awful that I hurt you. I wish there was some way I could make it up to you…”
Edric folded his arms and leaned back in the chair. “We should talk about this later. You just got out of the ICU.”
“Edric, please, I want to talk about it now. It’s all I’ve been able to think about this morning. I wish you didn’t hate me.”
“Eleonore, I don’t hate you.”
“But you’re mad at me.”
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t want you to get better.”
“But…” Ellie looked over at the balloons at the other side of the room. She didn’t have the heart to look her ex-boyfriend in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Eleonore, don’t cry.”
Her voice cracked. “I wish that you’d love me again. I’m so, so, sorry. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me and I screwed it up.”
He sighed. “Ellie, I do love you. It’s just…”
“It’s just what?”
“I wish that you were honest with me and told me about Cassie and Logan. I was upset because I felt a little betrayed and I felt like our relationship was built on a lie. I guess I thought that all those things that you did to get close to me was to just get close to the blueprints.”
“Edric, I love you. I really do.”
“I wish you were honest with me.”
“I am being honest with you. The reason why I told you that I was the mole was because I couldn’t just lie to you.”
“Ellie.” He sighed and stared at the closed door. “It’s not just that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve told you a lot of things about myself. Personal things. Things I’ve never told anyone. And whenever I tried to ask you about your childhood or anything too personal, you shrug it off.”
“But it’s not important.”
“Eleonore, it is important. I wish you trusted me enough to confide in me like I do to you. There are just so many things I don’t know about you that I wish I did. If I knew these things, maybe it would help me understand why you did what you did.”
Ellie bit her lip and continued to stare at the balloons. She counted them one-by-one in silence.
“Ellie?”
“I don’t know where to start. It’s just…”
“You don’t have to tell me. I just wish you wanted to tell me.”
“I don’t see why it’s so important for you to know.”
“I want you to trust me.”
“But what if you, um…”
“What if I what?”
She shrugged.
“Hurt you?” Edric guessed.
Ellie nodded
“That’s a chance you’re going to have to take, Eleonore.”
She wiped away a stray tear and then exhaled slowly. “Have you ever heard of Munchausen by Proxy?”
Edric shook his head. Ellie didn’t even notice. She just stared out and looked at the balloons. Finally, he decided to speak up orally. “No.”
“The illness is named after Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Munchausen, who liked to tell tall tales of his adventures at dinner parties. A popular book series was named after him and the illness name is based on the novels. Munchausen’s Syndrome is when a person makes themselves sick to get the attention and sympathy of others. Munchausen By Proxy is when a caretaker makes their ward sick to get attention.”
“Okay…”
“Well, my parents um…had that.”
“They would make you sick to get attention?”
Ellie nodded.
“That must have been hard for you.”
“It was.”
“What happened?”
“Um…” Ellie’s pulse skyrocketed. Her whole face was red, her hands were shaking, and she hunched over sick to her stomach.
“You know what? I changed my mind: if it’s too much, you don’t have to tell me, Ellie. I won’t love you any less if you don’t tell me.”
She breathed out a shaky sigh. “My parents wanted to be
parents for a long time. They tried but couldn’t conceive. So, they adopted Cassie. Then right after that, they got pregnant with me. I was the miracle baby but I was sick as a kid. Born premature. Between my albinism and being born prematurely, I had a lot of vision problems and other things. I guess they liked the attention or something that they got from my sickness. I don’t know why.
“I was sick all my life. In and out of the hospital for various things. Having surgeries. I had about seven major surgeries. I thought I was just sick but…
“When I was fourteen.” Ellie’s voice cracked and eyes welled. “Cassie found out that they were poisoning me. I didn’t believe her. Well, I didn’t want to believe her. I thought they loved me but um…they were…um…hurting me. And all the surgeries and all that pain…that was fake too.”
Edric sat in silence, staring at Ellie. “Ellie, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pried.”
Ellie shook her head. “When Cassie found out that my parents were making me sick, I didn’t believe her. But she took a video of them putting rat poison in my food. So, she took me and ran away. I was fourteen and she was just sixteen.
“I don’t know how Cassie did it. She had to drop out of high school and get her GED. But, she raised me. After I left the house, suddenly, I was no longer sick. I could go to school for the first time instead of lying in hospital beds reading books. I mean, I would be dead without Cassie. I owe everything to her.
“I thought the money would make her happy and that if I just turned a blind eye to her spying on you, everything would be okay. I didn’t want to have to choose between you and her so I didn’t do anything, even though I thought that she was in the wrong. But I didn’t want to say anything to you because I owe her my life. It doesn’t mean that I don’t love you. I just wanted my sister to be happy. I wanted to make her happy because she ruined her life for me, so I wouldn’t die.”
At this point, Edric broke down in tears. He reached out and kissed Ellie on the forehead and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her in a tight embrace. As soon as he moved her, she let out a sharp yelp.
“I’m sorry. Your ribs, I forgot.”
“Why are you crying, Edric?”
“Because I don’t want to see you be in any pain, Ellie. I wish you were never hurt like that. And it bothers me that you think that you ruined Cassie’s life by living.”
“I mean, I ruined your life.”
“Ellie, no, don’t talk like that.”
“It’s true. If it weren’t for me, Cassie would have never been in your office and now, because of me, you’re losing millions of dollars.”
“Ellie.” Edric stroked her hair and tilted her head up to face him. “It’s only money. I can make it back. Lord knows I have enough of it. But I only have one Ellie Kent, and she is irreplaceable.”
“I really do love you, Edric.”
“And I love you too, Ellie.”
“I don’t want you to pity me.”
“I don’t. Sure, I feel bad for you: you’ve gone through stuff that no one should go through. But I don’t pity you. Can you move over?”
Ellie used all of her strength to move over to the edge of the hospital bed. It was hard since her arm was broken. When Edric saw Ellie struggling so much, he shook his head.
“Never mind, Ellie. You don’t have to—”
“No, no, it’s okay, I got it.” Ellie finally got to the edge of the bed. Edric sat down in the bed next to Ellie and gently wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close.
“Do you forgive me?”
“Of course, Ellie. I’m sorry that I snapped at you last night. If I heard you out patiently, you would never be in this mess.”
“It’s fine, Edric.”
“No, it’s not, Ellie.” He used his spare hand to hold hers. “Sometimes I worry about you.”
“Why?”
“You don’t stand up for yourself enough. I wish you’d advocate for yourself as strongly as you advocate for your sister or the homeless.”
“I think I’ve gotten better.”
“I’d like to help you, Ellie. Help you help yourself.”
“The thing I want most is to leave this hospital. Too many bad memories. I hate hospitals.”
“Then I’ll hire a private nurse to stay at the mansion and you can stay with me until you get better. How does that sound?”
“You would do that for me?”
“Of course.”
“I want to press charges against the man who hit me, Summers too.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that, Ellie. Is there anything else you want?”
“I…” She blushed. “I want to be with you. I want to be your girlfriend again.”
Edric gently kissed Ellie on the lips. “I want that too.”
***
“Aww, you two love birds made up.”
Edric opened his eyes and placed his fingers to his lips, a signal to silence Cassie. But it was too late. Ellie’s eyes flickered open. She pushed herself into a sitting position and Edric moved over to the edge of the bed out of the cuddling position.
“Oh, um…” Ellie stammered. Cassie laughed.
“I’m happy for you two. Although I gotta say this though: your boyfriend is a complete wimp.”
“Cassie!” Ellie covered her mouth. “He’s not a wimp. It’s good that he’s in touch with his emotions.”
“Ah, Christ.” Edric mumbled under his breath. He was turning as red as Ellie.
“Nah, I’m not talking about that. I kicked the shit outta him.”
“You gave him the scratch and the black eye?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Cassie!”
“It’s a long story. When I saw you lying there in the hospital in a coma, I thought that Edric put you there: I mean, statistically, it’s much, much, more likely for a woman to get beaten by her boyfriend than just some complete stranger. Plus, I knew that you were planning on dropping that bombshell on him. So, one thing lead to another and here we are.”
“I’m sorry, Edric.” Ellie reached out and touched her boyfriend’s hair.
“It doesn’t even hurt. Besides, I would have done the same if I were in her shoes.”
“But he was a wimp about it.”
“Just because I don’t hit women doesn’t mean that I’m a wimp.”
“You couldn’t even restrain me! You were all lying on the ground crying for your security guards to come and defend you.”
“I wasn’t crying.”
Ellie giggled.
“You’re vain.”
“How am I?”
“You spend all your time at the gym but you just work on your vanity muscles to look pretty. You can’t hold your own in a fight.”
“If I tried to fight you, I would have won.”
“Ah, bullshit.”
“Well, Edric, Cassie has been in more bar fights than you…”
“See? Even Ellie thinks that I could beat you up.”
“W-Well, I didn’t say that.”
“Cassandra. I beat you at basketball and hockey. The sports that are supposedly your forte, so I’m in better shape than you.”
“Don’t be a sore sport, Edric. Those things aren’t correlated, first of all, and, second of all, you’re being a sore sport.”
“I’m not being a sore sport.”
Ellie laughed. “I’m just glad things are back to normal.”
“So, no harm, no foul, right?”
Edric pursed his lips together. “I don’t know if I’d go that far. I’m still going to lose a shit-ton of money because Charlie Logan stole my invention and is releasing it a few weeks before mine at a cheaper product to steal my profits. All kidding aside, I do expect a solution to this.”
“Are you going to sue?” Ellie asked.
He shook his head. “Since our products were designed at around the same time and are being released just a few weeks apart, it’s going to be very hard to prove that he stole my idea. The only way I could do that is by
dragging you and Cassie into a long, tough, drawn-out, paparazzi-laden, legal battle. And, Ellie, I’m not doing that to you or your bar-room-brawling sister.”
“You don’t have to drag Cassie into this. You could blame me and just say that I—”
Edric shook his head. “Absolutely not.”
“But I deserve it.”
“Ellie, no, you don’t.”
“Come, on, El.” Cassie rolled her eyes. “Two people are vetoing that. Like it or not, the three of us are in this together so we should all agree on the solution.”
“Do you have an idea, Cassie?”
“Well, Scrooge, as a matter of fact I do. I think that we should have Violet tinker with a new blueprint to make it defective, give it to Charlie Logan, and then make him release a defective product.”
“Oh, I like that idea, Cassie.”
Cassie flashed Edric a smile and a thumbs-up.
“I’ll meet with my sister this afternoon and hopefully we’ll have a blueprint ready for you to bring over to Logan by tomorrow.”
“We want to get on this soon before his product goes into production.”
“We want to get it so the first batch of products is—”
“No, that’s a terrible idea!” Ellie interjected. She spoke a little too loudly for her punctured lung to handle and then coughed slightly. “Think of all the disappointed children opening up their virtual reality headsets on Christmas Day. And think of their parents who saved up to give their kids a good Christmas. All those ruined Christmases. You can’t do that to the poor kids.”
Edric sighed. “But Ellie, it’s just one small sacrifice to take this asshole—”
“No. I’ve learned my lesson on standing up for what’s right. You two can’t do that.”
“Do you have any better ideas?” Her sister asked.
“Cass, give her a break, she’s standing up for herself.” Edric turned to his girlfriend and took her hand. “But Ellie, you do have to admit it’s a good idea. Besides, he’ll probably refund most of the money.”
“I-It’s still wrong. We all need to be in agreement on the solution that we pick and I’m vetoing this.”
“Look, I really, really, want to put the screws to Logan. That bastard toyed with my feelings to get what he wanted. Nobody, and I mean nobody, fucks with Cassie Kent.”
“I have a better idea.” Ellie mumbled.
“What is it, Ellie?”
A Sibling's Dilemma Page 26
