Black Swan's

Engagement (Fourty Five)

            “Dadd... daddy..”.

            Ciara ran around from the backyard while smiling gleefully towards Aciel. Seeing her father who was ready with his office stellan and a suit draped on his shoulders made Ciara want to indulge with his father before his father left.

            “Hai princess, did you sleep well?”

            Ciara nodded enthusiastically inside Aciel's sling and occasionally scratched her still-random hair. The little girl had just woken up, and her mother was nowhere to be.

            “Where is your mother?”

            “Emm... sleep?” answer Ciara plain. He slightly glanced upstairs, where his mother's room was, then looked back at Aciel when he felt his mother's room was still closed.

            “Daddy, let's take a walk. Ciara has never been out for a walk with daddy.” whine the little girl spoiled. Aciel felt unable to ignore his little daughter's wishes just like that, and he simply nodded his head in agreement after Ciara had managed to tear down her extremely high ego wall. Once in a while he did have to take his time for his little family and not just think about the office business that would never be finished.

            “Alright, we go for a walk. Now you have to take a shower, and get ready. Daddy will be waiting for you here.”

Cup

            Ciara gives one kiss on Aciel's cheek until Aciel's cheek is wet because of Ciara's lips. Yet Aciel only laughed in response to her daughter's happiness while lowering her daughter from her sling.

            “Ciara's... Let's take a shower, it's noon, son.”.

            Eden suddenly emerged from the kitchen with a bowl of chicken curry still billowing thin smoke. The woman was seen just cooking with an apron still attached to her slender waist.

            “Let's take a shower.” invite Eden from a distance. He is seen arranging a dining table assisted by Mr. Kim and a servant named Kathy. After that Eden walked calmly towards Ciara without looking at Aciel who had been watching his movements like an eagle. Eden immediately squatted down in front of Ciara and asked the little girl to take a bath. The neglected Aciel walked straight away to the dining table to drink his black coffee.

            “Mommy, today Ciara is going for a walk with daddy.”

            “Really?” eden asked unconvinced while glancing at Aciel. The man looked like he was going to the office with a full suit stellan attached to his body.

            “Daddy said it. Daddy, can mommy come?”

            “Bby.” reply Aciel remembered. Ciara immediately exclaimed in excitement at her mother while hugging Eden's neck tightly.

            “Ayo mommy we take a shower, daddy will take us for a walk.” cried Ciara girang. Eden then carried the body containing Ciara to his room to bathe and immediately prepared. But before he left, he had a glance at Aciel who was frowning seriously at the dining table. The man's expression seemed to be disturbed by something, but in the end Eden chose to ignore it and immediately brought Ciara to bathe in her room. Aciel is none of my business!

-00-

            Thirty minutes later Ciara was ready with a casual long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of trousers matching her shirt. With her long hair the girl ran towards Aciel while carrying her white hat which looked very petite.

            “I'm ready!”

            Ciara deliberately made a startling gesture to her father by patting hard the arm of her father who was reading the newspaper. Aciel immediately folded his newspaper and smiled slightly at Ciara.

            “You're ready, where's your mom?” aciel asked when he did not see Eden in the vicinity of Ciara. The little girl pointed upstairs and said her mother was getting ready.

            “Daddy, I also have a hat.”

            Ciara showed off her hat proudly and asked Aciel to put it on the same dress as her father's this morning.

            “Beautiful, like your mother.”

            Not long ago Aciel saw Eden was walking calmly down the stairs while bowing his face, pretending to observe her increasingly longer footsteps led her downstairs. Wearing jeans, a red jacket, and a sling bag hanging over his shoulders, Eden seemed ready to go for a walk with his little daughter. Eden's appearance this morning was completely different, she looked younger, and did not look like a mother who had a three-year-old. Although a little stiff, Eden tried to be relaxed in front of Aciel while giving a thin smile to the man as he had stood in front of his daughter's tiny body.

            “Let's go mommy..”

            Ciara immediately tugged Eden's hand towards the front door, and she left Aciel just like that who just smiled in a knot in response to Ciara's adorable demeanor. The little girl was like a flame that slowly began to melt the iceberg in her heart. Now he feels sorry why he did not get married and have a small family like this? Why he and Eden had to make their lives complicated until finally Ciara was present to provide completeness for their lives. But this was indeed the destiny he had to live before he actually got his own happiness. And he was so grateful that God still gave him the opportunity to feel how to live in the midst of a warm little family like this.

-00-

            Aciel smiled to himself in his study while recalling how Ciara made him and Eden had a silly fight today. Since they left the house until they arrived at the playground, Eden continued to show a cold attitude that is not friendly. Even Eden seemed to always dodge when he approached him. Then Ciara funny make them quarrel because he allowed Ciara to buy any food in a mini market, while Eden directly forbid Ciara all-out while nagging at him because it has allowed Ciara to put a lot of chocolate into their basket.

Prangg!

        “Argghh..”.

        Aciel throws the origin of his phone with a screen that still shows a portrait of Ciara's happy face when buying chocolate in the mini market while enduring the pain that feels crazy in his stomach. Since three months ago he has felt his health condition is not okay. His unhealthy lifestyle made him have severe stomach pain. Doctors once reminded him that he changed his lifestyle to be healthier if he did not want to die at a young age. But Aciel was still Aciel, he always ignored the advice given by those around him, and only took the medicine when he was really sick.

Braggs

            The items on Aciel's desk began to tumble as Aciel tried to find her medicine bottle in her desk drawer while continuing to hold onto her stomach which felt like it was being squeezed. This was one of the most severe attacks since he checked his condition with Dr. Blemis. And since this morning he had actually felt pain in his upper abdomen, but he continued to ignore it because he did not want to disappoint Ciara who looked happy with her small gift.

            Aciel tried to call Mr. Kim many times when he felt he could no longer bear the pain. With a heavy heart he had to give up and willingly his body collapsed from being defeated by his illness.

            With the remnants of his strength he tried to stand up and reach for the wooden door in front of him. But he immediately fell down as someone suddenly pushed the wooden door in front of him and screamed hysterically at the sight of his condition.

            “Aciel! What the hell happened to you? Ace... Aciel!”

            Eden tried to pat Aciel on the cheek many times while staring frantically at Aciel's chaotic-looking study. He did not know what had happened to Aciel, he just heard a strange-sounding scream from Aciel's room. Then without a second thought he immediately ran into this room to see what was happening. And unexpectedly, it turned out that he had to find Aciel in a very worrying state like this.

            “Ace... Aciel Lutherford..”.

            Eden is still trying to resuscitate Aciel so that at least the man can respond. But after a long time Aciel only groaned in pain in front of him, Eden immediately ran to Mr. Kim's room outside the main building of the mansion so that the man could help him.

            As he dashed around inside the Aciel mansion, there was almost no life left there. All the servants were sleeping in their rooms, while all the security guards were inside their posts in front of the house. But I don't know, is this all a coincidence or what, when he was down for

looking at Ciara in her room, she accidentally heard the sound of Aciel's cry that looked weak. And for more than ten years he lived in this mansion, Aciel rarely cried out in the middle of the night like this. Aciel prefers to sigh loudly with his friends in his study room which is sometimes used to make out with each other.

            “Mr Kim.”

            Eden seemed to be panting in front of master Kim while trying to regulate his still-crazed roar of breath.

            “Nona, what's up?”

            Eden was actually not nice to Mr. Kim for having made the old man become shocked in the middle of this silent night. But he had to do it if he wanted Aciel to survive.

            “Aciel. Her body temperature was also cold, I don't know what happened to her. He suddenly groaned in pain with a very alarming condition.”

            “Master Aciel does have problems with his digestive system. We should get him to the hospital immediately.”

            The two of them then ran furiously towards Aciel's study and made some servants wake up because of the noise of the pounding of their feet. But Eden didn't care, right now all he thought about was Aciel's condition, and how the haughty man could have such a terrible disease. If

seeing how Aciel's lifestyle was unhealthy, Eden felt that Aciel should know enough to not consume alcohol continuously or play with women is unclear at the club. Unfortunately Aciel is a stubborn arrogant man who is too haughty to realize all his flaws. In his mind he just wanted to be seen as perfect by others, and he did not want to look weak in the eyes of everyone who knew him.

            “Master!”

            Mr. Kim immediately placed Aciel's helpless body on the floor and tried to check Aciel's stomach by pressing him several times. And when Aciel began to whimper again in a loud enough voice, then master Kim stopped and immediately called one of the drivers of Aciel to take their master to the hospital.

            “It looks like this time is quite severe, we have to take him to the hospital and ask doctor Blemis to take action immediately.”

            With a quick nod Eden immediately swept Aciel's defenseless body towards the car, assisted by Mr. Kim and a security officer who had just come after hearing the sound of a commotion.

            “Eden... arghh.”.

            Aciel again whimpered while holding his upper abdomen. He was still trying to maintain his consciousness by gripping Eden's shoulder hard enough that Eden grimaced in pain from enduring the pain.

            “I know it hurts a lot, hang on.”

            “This is very sick.” Erang Aciel restrained. Eden's fingers trembled violently as he tried to wipe Aciel's face which had been filled with cold sweat. This was the first time Eden had seen Aciel look this weak, even so pitiful with a face as pale as a corpse.

            “I know, soon you will get treatment in the hospital.” Eden said trying to calm down while guiding Aciel to get in the car. Right now his feelings are really mixed, between sad and also scared. He was afraid that Aciel would die and leave him the same as Zyan. He feels that people who have feelings for him actually get a bad luck curse from him. Aciel, that man has never experienced this before. His life was always fine when the man did not love him. And now all of a sudden the man had already rolled helplessly with such excruciating pain in his stomach. Aciel wouldn't have ended up like this if it wasn't for the misfortune he brought.

            “Arghh... Can you guys go faster? It's very sick arrghhh..”.

            Eden clasped Aciel's icy-cold palm, then tried to calm the man down by whispering encouraging words in his ear. Although he did not know it would be useful or not, but he felt he had to give support to Aciel through the words he whispered in the man's ear.

            “You shouldn't come, Ciara needs you at home.”

            “There are many maids at home, they can take good care of Ciara. Have you never eaten regularly?”

            “Arggh..”.

           Again Aciel groaned as he felt his stomach being pierced by thousands of invisible needles. And as Aciel continued to whimper in such pain, Eden's right hand slipped into Aciel's shirt, and he tried to rub Aciel's stomach to make him feel better.

            “In a moment we will arrive, you just need to be patient for a while longer.” said Eden calming.

            Before long they arrived at the spacious courtyard of St.Apollo hospital, and several nurses immediately came scattering while carrying a cage. Ten minutes ago Mr. Kim had apparently contacted Dr. Blemis to immediately prepare a best room for Aciel.

            “Please wait outside the mistress, we will do an inspection on mr Lutherford.”

            Eden immediately stopped in front of the IGD room while wishing to worry about Aciel who had been brought into the sterile room. He does not know how Aciel will survive in there, but he hopes that Aciel can survive his illness with all the arrogance he has.