Royal Thief (Editing)

Chapter 34

Annabelle

We past through different flower vase's lined up around the white-painted room. It was obvious Gloria was a sucker for flowers, but sadly even these beauties couldn't cheer her up.

Logan acceptance to my tagging along without an argument caused an unusual trend of quietness in our trip. I couldn't help but be curious about what made him leave the comfort of the castle.

The moment he stepped down and rushed to the elderly lady, leaving me behind, I knew it meant more to him than ever.

You need to apologize.

I frowned at my thoughts as we stopped before the door I supposed to be Emily's. Gloria watched me knocked, hope visible in her face.

"Leave me alone!" Came the sharp reply of a tiny girly voice.

I turned to Gloria and pleaded to be excused which she did but with uncertainty.

"Hey Emily," I said, in a cool voice.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, and got a loud crash on the door as a response.

"I will take that as a yes," I said and sat on the floor with my back to the wall.

"You know she is worried about you, don't you?"

"Who are you?" She asked, her shaky voice closer to the door than I expected.

"I'm Annabelle, Logan's friend," I introduced, not scared of hiding my identity. It was clear the girl needed to trust someone.

"Logan's friend?"

"Yes." I accompanied my reply with a nodded.

"That's great, but I'm not letting you," she said.

"That's not a problem, I can sit here all night and talk to you if you want?" I folded my hands on my knees waiting for her response which would serve as my cue to either leave or stay.

"I won't say I understand how you feel," I said, after minutes of silence from her part.

"Do you have dead parents?"

"No, but-"

"I thought as much."

"But I have a dead dad and a critically ill mum," I whispered, to myself.

I heard the door cracked and watched her peeped from the little space she provided. Her eyes were swollen and red, her lips quivered as she stared at me with curly hair resting on her ebony cheeks.

"That's sad, what's wrong with her?"

I was surprised she heard me, but quickly answered when she tried slamming the door. "Cancer."

I had her inhaled sharply with wide eyes as she looked at me in my odd position on the tiled floor.

"Is she here? I want to see her," she said, curiosity flashing through her face. 

I felt my eyes watered by her request but held back my feelings.  "She's here in London but presently in a hospital getting treatment."

She pressed her lips together in thoughts. "I would've requested you stepped in but my room is quite a mess," she said, staring back at the room I assumed to be really messy.

Seeing it as an opportunity to get in, I said, "I don't mind, my room is sometimes a mess and that gets my mum mad."

She chuckled and pulled the door wide open. "That's exactly my grandma."

I stared in disbelief, no one told me she was disabled but it was a shock I got over the moment I looked into her eyes. Her body gave a different message from the fire burning in does brown eyes that monitored my every move as I stood and stepped in.