When There Is Nothing Left But Love

“No, Scarlett, you don’t get it. You don’t know how much Ashton can drink. If he’s not drunk, he can drink all the way until the sun rises. He’s causing harm to himself, but nothing Jared and I say can deter him. If anything happens to him because of this, we can’t bear the responsibility!”

Joe described Ashton’s situation so vividly. I could feel the anxiety manifested in his tone.

I stood on the balcony, allowing the wind to blow softly against my face. Irritated, I spoke on the phone, “If he can’t bother to take care of himself, then let him drink to death!”

“Scarlett…”

“Scarlett, are you a woman at all?” Apparently, Joe’s phone was snatched away by none other than Ashton. He spoke to me in a strong nasal voice, obviously drunk.

“What’s that got to do with anything? Ashton, you go drinking at this hour and now you’re throwing tantrums at me? How old do you think you are? Three?” The other side of the line might have been put on speaker because Joe seemed to fly off the handle once I finished my rant.

He called out Ashton in a drawl, obviously in a teasing tone.

But Ashton probably shot him back an eerie look, thus the other end of the phone went quiet again.

I was really not in the mood to be dragged into this sort of nonsense, so I said, as casually as I could, “Ashton if you’re doing fine, don’t call me! I’m hanging up!”

Before he could think of a comeback, I hung up right away and turned off the phone for good measure.

That night, I could not sleep well, as per usual. I kept having nightmares. I finally managed to get some sleep when dawn broke, and then Stacey called.

She could hear the exhaustion in my raspy voice. She asked, “Ms. Stovall, you didn’t sleep well, did you?”

her query, and then said, “Give

me. I got up and sat on the side of the bed for several moments before

it this way! I’ll come to pick you up in a while, so you can catch a little bit more sleep. I’ll even bring you breakfast along the

“Open the door for me later, okay? I’m hanging up.

that was what

a daze, I checked my phone. Other than the bunch of missed calls from Ashton last night, there were no other messages or phone calls from anyone

arrived, I was not in bed anymore but my head still hurt.

seeing the dark circles under my eyes, said, “How about you

“The Stovall family is throwing a banquet on Monday. John’s arranged a fitting session for me but I kept ditching him.

eyes darkened as she muttered a confusing choice of words, “I’m just afraid that… things won’t go

she turned to me. “Come

head

a daunting aura, trapping me in an anxious state, on top of that pulsating headache. My mood was

That raised some questions. “Why are we going

lips before replying, “I’m taking you to someone

I’d want

my head but nothing came up. I could not think of anyone I would want

her, I prompted, “Who,

It was another half-hour drive before we came to a stop in the parking lot of a