~ASH When I walked out of the kitchen with a glass of water, I was not entirely surprised. Of course, this was Ruby. She was the most impulsive person I had ever known and probably the most reckless too. I sighed, dropping the glass of water. Ethan had asked me to watch over her, but what was the point of watching over someone who did not want to be watched. “Well, let her go and do something stupid, as usual. I’m sure Ethan would be more than willing to clean up her mess,” I muttered to myself. I settled down on the couch, preparing to watch a football match, but I could not concentrate enough to turn on the TV. What if she went and did something dangerous? What if she went and hurt herself because her friend was nowhere to be found? What if she went and got into an accident? There would be no purpose to using her as a punishment to my brother if she accidentally ended up in a hospital, right? And besides, that was not the type of punishment I wanted for my brothe

~RUBY My heart stopped working. It literally stopped breathing, and I was surviving barely on anger. I wanted to do a lot of things, and on the top of the list was beating the officer up till he was unable to use that foul mouth of his again. The last thing I wanted to do was still bent on beating him up. Probably not to death but maybe to the point of incapacitation. Of course I'd destroy his mouth first. I was pretty sure he saw the murderous intent on my face because he chuckled as he leaned back on his chair. That was what did it for me. That damn chuckle made me fly up and I lost my temper. "You, Detective Cole or whatever you go by— you owe me an apology. I will not—" My voice came out too strong on the last word, and his eyes flared, but I was past caring. "I will not allow you, or anyone else defame my best friend. In fact, if not that it seemed like a waste of my precious time, I'd sue you to court for daring to say those...filthy words!" The

~RUBY The explosion shook the ground, and the impact of it had people scrambling for safety. Etham grabbed my wrist and dragged me down to hide under our table. My heart, which never really settled from its earlier pounding started again. We were under the table for a few minutes, when Ash popped his head to glare at us. "Come out. We need to go and check on the Detective. It was his car that exploded," he said as he strode away without waiting for us. Ethan helped me up and we rushed after him. A crowd had gathered around the exploded car and I held my breathe as we made our way through the them. The Detective...rude as he was, was the only key we had to unravelling Ella's whereabouts and I sure as hell wasn't hoping to see his dead, burnt body. We walked hurriedly towards the remains of the smouldering car, taking care not to get too close to the ruin. What if the Detective had gotten into the car by the time it blew up? I shuddered at the thought of the

~RUBY I froze, my gaze pinned on Ella's sleeping form. As if she sensed me looking at her, she opened her eyes. "Ruby. I–I don't want to stay here. Can we go home, please?" She whispered and I nodded, trying so hard to hide the fear and panic from my face. I nodded, and walked outside the hospital room to find my husband. The Detective had left, Ash was leaning against the wall, and Ethan was pacing nervously. "Ella wants to go home. Can you arrange that?" I smiled shakily and Ethan, who was too agitated to notice how slightly I was shaking, nodded and walked away from the hallway. I turned away from Ash, too exhausted to even think of him. I knew I should tell someone about the call, but I didn't want to bring about another conflict into all this chaos. And I didn't even know where to start from. I walked back into the room, and helped Ella to stand. I knew Ethan would deal with the medical authority so we didn't need to worry about them not letting Ella leave.

~ASH Ethan stepped into the pool house, his eyes on his wife. He looked from me to Ruby, to my hand that was still on Ruby's wrist, then back to Ruby's face. I imagined myself in his shoes, coming home from work and seeing my Chlorine allergic brother leaning over the pool and holding my wife's hand whose jaw was wide with surprise. I came to the conclusion the same time he did. He turned a steely gaze on me and I jumped up, dropping Ruby's wrist which suddenly seemed to burn my hand. "No. This is not what you think it is," I said and he raised both eyebrows, turning an accusatory glance on me. Ruby didn't look at me as she walked away, ignoring her husband as she pushed open the glass doors and went in. Ethan turned around as if to call her back but decided against it at the last moment. As soon as she was out of sight, he stormed towards me. "I think it is exactly what I think it was," he was glaring down at me, his gaze hard and cold. I ran my hands through m