Still Falling

18 | stay

Amanda

*

It was like watching a machine shut down. He continued to stare at Mallard like he was still trying to make sense of the news she'd just passed. The glass that had been in his hold now lay shattered on the floor, I realized several seconds after, and my first instinct was to check if he'd cut himself. I took a step closer to him to make sure he hadn't, but he stormed out the door, leaving me with his aunt.

I gave her a helpless look. She returned one back. I had to know.

"Who's Nicholas?"

"Nicholas Young. He's a family friend and business partner."

At the mention of his last name, the gears in my head clicked in place and I understood better. "Young? As in, Elizabeth Young?"

She nodded. "He was her uncle. Practically raised her, I should add."

I tried to recall what I knew about them, like the fact that Elizabeth grew up without knowing her father, and a mother who didn't want her daughter and spent her life skipping countries.

"I should go see if Finn's alright."

"Not right now, he has too much to process. Give him a little time."

I went to sit next to her and offered the glass of water. She took it, but made no move to drink from it. We stayed like that for a moment, silent, in a lavender and bergamot scented haze.

"How did he die?"

"Failing health. His last years were nothing near easy."

"It looks like he meant a lot to Finn."

"Oh, he did. He almost immortalized the man. Nicholas was Elizabeth's last surviving relative. She has no other uncles or aunts, nor siblings. It's one of the reasons Finn's so distraught. He always felt the need to look after her, and now, the only person she can call family is gone."

"Wait, her mother's gone too?"

Genevieve squirmed. "No one has set eyes on her in over two decades. At first her parents managed to keep track of where she went by monitoring her credit card use, but then that ceased when they expired and she never contacted them after that. We aren't even sure what state she's in if alive. Like her daughter, she wasn't mentally sound."

"Who is set to take over now?"

Genevieve sighed and shook her head, and I understood why his death deeply upset Finn. Not only was Nicholas dear to him, but Finn was intended to watch over their legacy through his marriage to Elizabeth.

Genevieve's phone rang and she took one slow look at it. "I'll be leaving now," she got up, ran a hand over her outfit and fixed her jewelry. "I hope we can talk more under better circumstances, Amanda. I was very happy to hear that he found you again."

I held my breath, waiting for the questions I wouldn't be able to answer. To my surprise she didn't ask any, and left. I felt an itch to go check up on Finn again. Instead of giving in, I got a broom and swept away his accident from the floor. I returned to my books, telling myself it would be the right time by the time I was done with a chapter or two.

It was a struggle to get any far. My mind kept drifting to Finn, wondering what state he was in in his apartment across the hall, or if he was there at all. My phone rang. It was Dominic. I sucked in a breath when I recalled that I'd ghosted since he took me on a date weeks ago. He called on two separate days after, both of which went ignored.

It wasn't that I held any resentments towards him. He came across like a very decent person actually, and he'd taken me to a nice restaurant which I'd learnt through an idle search on Google was very exclusive about their reservations. He hadn't acted like he was eager to please me. His effort often came across as easy and ironically effortless.