The Truths Behind the Life of Maeve Sun Lively

71

I'M IN MY ROOM ROSALIE has offered to me, and laying in bed, I stared boringly up at the ceiling, letting myself fade into thoughts.

"What the hell went on with Klarise Kong?" I trace my finger invisibly on the wall, where there are posters of Klarise Kong's music albums and anything else you can imagine about a legendary singer. She really was legendary, I've always liked her and her music, but now that I've heard this other side of her life...she's even more legendary.

Though what had happened with Klarise was both terrifying and traumatizing, other than feeling bad and thinking how she got back up and acted everything was alright and continued her career like a true queen, there's nothing else I really feel. I guess she isn't much to me after all, like Mason and Cameron, she and the rest of them is just a part of Maeve's life story. Her true life story.

But now things are really starting to piece together. Why Maeve bought this place, why there's so many Klarise's things here. She really did love her, didn't she?

I sat up, looking blankly at this one poster where Klarise is standing strong and proud on a stage. That was after what had happened to her in that place Maeve described, and after the surgeries. She looked so pretty, but now I wonder what Maeve actually thought about it. It seemed likely she hated the changes on Klarise's face and body, because she let that happen—or so she says, I honestly don't think it was Maeve's fault—then also, did Klarise like the changes? Klarise smiles, all teeth, in this poster, her hand on the mic stand while the crowd below her with waving neon lights seemed to roar with applause. There's not a single trace of what Maeve had described of her after the incidents.

I don't think I'll ever fall in love. It's never exactly been my priority anyway, but I've always loved hearing other people's stories on how they fell into love. And Maeve and Klarise's is just like any others, a love story.

It's been around three to four days since me and Rosalie did another one of those crazy nonstop listening and barely pausing the recordings jam. Today though, I'm getting a break. I suppose I've organized my notes and everything well enough, so now what else is there?

Oh right, my parents.

It's been so fascinating, hearing some two legend's stories, Klarise and Maeve. When I listen to it, I forget about my own actual existence. It's just Maeve's life, and everything else fades away when her voice fills the room. Not just the recordings, but all those movies and shows she's done, her voice just has that magnificent power, adding on to her acting.

I'm not a spoiled brat, I was not raised like that. And right now, I'm finding myself a little like Maeve. Like how she wanted so badly to forgive Mason Wen for leaving her for a whole year because of his grief for his mother and didn't let anyone help him, but she held in that forgiveness and made him fight for it a little. I think that's what I'm doing right now too. I've long already forgiven my parents for keeping Maeve as my mother and keeping me away from her for years. I just...I don't know, it shouldn't feel weird or awkward, but it does now. I don't know how to face them. I guess it is good I am thousands of miles away from them right now. I know I'd break down if I see their faces...their sorry faces. Was it entirely their fault though? More and more into Maeve's story, I wonder, and get furious sometimes, why she would give up her own blood-related child and then after a few years go ahead and adopt some other kid. That isn't exactly logical.

I flop back down onto the bed, staring once again at the ceiling, feeling the boredom swallowing me whole. I think Carlise either went to deal with some company stuff with her father, Jackson, or she's just out wandering. She seems so free, a complete polar opposite of Rosalie. Right, Rosalie. She said she'll come back either tonight or tomorrow morning to continue the recordings with me. And this time, I dared to ask her what she was going to do.