Of Faux and Friends
Chapter 11
Darien pressed the doors closed before tossing the keys on the couch and removing his button up shirt and tie. He'd had the longest day in the history of the world; two emergency surgeries on top of pre-assigned appointments and two hours spent training the new interns had left him with a pounding headache. All he could think of was taking off his clothes, taking a shower and calling his girlfriend. It had been three days since she had decided to give up London for him and things had never been better. Sure, he was forced to spend a majority of his time with Lily and Serena was spending hours on the phone trying to sell her loft in London, have her things shipped back to Tokyo, resigning her lease agreement and groveling to her former boss Madison Blake for a job. Despite the ups and downs of the last few days, neither of them would have any other way. They finally had each other, and that was all that mattered.
"Lily?" called Darien, peering down the hall into the furthest bedroom. She was usually asleep when he first got home. The vicodin kept her unconscious most of the day. But tonight the light was on and he could vaguely hear sounds from the television. Slowly he padded toward the room, kicking his shoes off as he edged closer to her bedroom door. Slowly he pressed open the door and was taken aback by what he saw. Sitting on the bed, was Lily, her eyes bloodshot, her lips swollen, a shallow cut on her left wrist. "What the fuck?"
Quickly he ran into the linen closet opposite the second bath room and grabbed two hand towels and a first aid kit. He kneeled beside and pressed a towel over the wound, putting pressure on it to keep the blood from flowing. There wasn't enough blood to kill her; the cut had barely broken the skin.
"What were you thinking?" he whispered, looking up into her blank face as he reached into the kit and pulled out a spray bottle. The stinging of the disinfectant hitting her skin knocked her back into reality and she flinched. "Why did you do this?"
She sniffled. "Our baby is dead and it's all my fault…I did this."
"Lily, you were in a car accident," he said soothingly. "This is absolutely not your fault."
She sobbed loudly, wiping her face with her uninjured arm. Poor, Darien. He had no idea. "I just…I want this all to be over…I'm so sad and so tired…I loved my son and he's gone and it's all my fault. I just want it to be over."
Darien felt for her. She had so much guilt, so much pain. He didn't know what he could say to help. "I'm not going to pretend that I know what you're going through but this," he said, gesturing to her wrist, "is not the answer, Lily. Bad things happen, innocent people get hurt, but every day it will get a little bit easier. Don't give up yet."
She cried softly into her free hand, mumbling phrases that Darien couldn't understand. "Look, I'm going to prescribe you some Setraline Hydrochloride, it's a mild anti-depressant. I'm also going to refer you to a therapist. I'll call the pharmacy tonight and pick up your prescription tomorrow. I'll call in sick and spend the day with you. We can get through this Lily. You're not alone, okay?"
She nodded quickly and placed her hand over Darien's. "Thanks…I don't deserve this…I don't deserve you."
He frowned. "Don't talk like that. Now hold this and press hard okay," he said, moving his hand away from the wound and pressing her palm into the towel. "I'll clean it again and bandage it in a minute."
He walked away slowly before digging into the pocket of his pants for his cell phone. He pressed a number on the speed dial and waited.
"Azabu General Pharmacy, this is Clarissa, how can I help you?"
"Claire it's Darien."
"Oh, hi Dr. Chiba. Didn't you already leave today?"
"Yes, I did, listen I need to you to put in a prescription for me: Setraline Hydrocholride. A thirty day supply."
"You got it Dr. C. What's the patient's name?"
"Lillian Mardot."
Clarissa paused. "Of course, Dr. Chiba. Dr. Forrester is treating her so I'll have to clear it with him first, but I'm sure he'll approve. I'll have it ready by eight tomorrow morning."
"Thanks, Claire."
"You're welcome, Doctor. Good night," she said, placing the phone onto the receiver and holding prescription request form in her hand. Slowly she placed the slip of paper in her pocket and walked past the pharmacy down towards internal medicine, her white, rubbery shoes silent against the spotless hospital floors. She knocked quietly once she reached her destination. "Dr. Forrester, may I come in?"
"Come in," he said, swiveling around in his chair to meet the gaze of the young pretty red head. "How are you Claire?"
"Doing well, Doctor."
"How's the baby?"
"Oh, you know, up all night, up all day, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
He chuckled. "Of course not. What can I do for you?"
"Dr. Chiba called, he wants me to put in a prescription for anti-depressants for Lillian Mardot. I need you to sign off on it."
Dr. Forrester's lip twitched. "Of course. He wants it soon I expect?" asked Dr. Richard Forrester. Claire nodded. "Well I'll go and take care it for you. You get home to that darling daughter of yours."
Claire beamed. "Are you sure?"
"Yep, have a good night Claire."
"Thanks Dr. F," she said, prancing from the room and closing the door behind her.
Richard smirked before reaching for the phone and dialing a familiar number.
"I thought I told you never to call me here. It's late," said Seiya's irritated voice.
"I know that, but you told me that Ms. Mardot is becoming quite the headache. I think I may have a way for us to get rid of her and Darien Chiba."
Seiya smirked. "I'm intrigued. Go on."
"Nothing fancy, just a game of switch-a-roo."
Seiya laughed. "Do whatever you have to do."
"I trust I'll be compensated for the cyanide I'm going to put with those pills…and the labor."
"Cyanide. That's nice, doctor. You call me when you hand those pills off and I'll wire five million into your offshore account. By the end of this partnership you may be able to retire a wealthy man by fifty."
Richard smiled. "That's the idea, Mr. Takagawa," he said, starting at the small piece of paper. "That's the idea."
"I take it things aren't going as well as you would have hoped," said Darien, his soft fingers caressing her shoulder. The blonde lifted her head from her hands to face him.
"No, not really. I thought I'd be able to get my same position back somewhere but every magazine has a Fashion Director right now. I don't know what I'm going to do. Without proof that I'm rehired my landlord won't let me resign the lease and without a job I won't even be able to pay the rent."
Darien sat beside her and kissed her cheek. "Serena, you gave up your career for me, you think I'm just going to sit back and let everything fall apart? It'll all be fine, I'll handle things. Besides, I have a proposition for you."
"A proposition?" she asked, her right eyebrow arched.
"Things have been crazy lately with me, with Lily, the hospital, and I don't get to see you as much as I would like. I won't be able to move with you immediately because of Lily, but I want us to go find a place…together."
"You want me to move in with you?"
"Yes, I do."
"What about your place?"
"I'm going to let Lily live in it. The penthouse is paid for. Once she gets better it'll be good for her to have a place of her own since she's adamant about staying in Japan," he said, grabbing her hand. "So what do you say?"
"What do I say? The man that I love wants us to live together! Let me think about it," she said, feigning pause. "Yes! Of course I'll move in with you."
Darien laughed as she threw her arms around his neck and peppered his face with soft kisses. "Good, because I already called my realtor. I figured we could start looking in the Lakeshore district."
"Lakeshore? That's all houses."
"As I recall, you've wanted to live there since you were sixteen."
"You remember that?"
"Yep. I remember you coming into the Crown Arcade gushing to the girls about how you went to tutor a girl who lived there in English and that you 'would just die if you could ever afford a house out there,'" said Darien, his voice rising as he playfully mocked her tone.
She laughed loudly, punching him gently in the arm. "I did not sound like that."
"Yes, you did. You used to sound like Brittney from the Chippettes!"
"Whatever," she said chuckling. "Those are mansions out there; do we need a house that big?"
"Maybe not now, I'm sure one day they'll be filled you and me and our children. I bet we'll end up with about two or three dogs too."
She giggled. "I've always wanted a dog; a Pomeranian, and a beagle and a husky and-"
"See, my point exactly," he said looking at her affectionately. "I'm just ready to start my life with you. I don't want to wait."
Serena leaned in and kissed him gently. "Neither do I."
"This is the second time I've had to do this, you know," said Serena, blowing her bangs out of her face before lifting another box and heading towards her front door.
Darien quickly interceded by grabbing the cardboard box from her hands and placing it on the floor. "That's what I hired movers for, dear," he said, affectionately kissing the top of her head.
"I know, but this is my grandmother's china, it's fragile."
"Which is clearly indicated on the box," he said, motioning toward it. "Could you have written 'fragile' any bigger? The movers can read Serena."
The blonde chuckled. "Fine, I surrender. You didn't have to hire a cleaning crew though, Dare, I could have cleaned the place myself," she said, eyeing the women in blue dresses as they scrubbed her now completely empty kitchen.
He smirked. "The point of all this was so you wouldn't have to lift a finger, a token of my gratitude for you choosing to stay."
"You bought me a house! That's a token enough."
Darien pulled her into his arms and kissed her gently. "There are some perks to being my girlfriend, you know. You'd better get used to it." She giggled loudly after gently swatted her backside. "Is everything out of the bedroom?"
"Yep, all the rooms are officially empty."
"Good, why don't we leave the rest of this to the movers and go to our new house. You'll need to be there delegate. The furniture is going to be arriving today too."
"I forgot about that," she said, scratching her head. Darien had decided that their brand new six bedroom, seven bathroom, 8,000 square foot home should be filled with brand new furniture. It had been a hell of a battle trying to agree on a design scheme, but in the end, modern won out and they were expecting a huge shipment of deep espresso colored furniture, green plants and red and black decorative pieces to fill their home. "We'd better head out then."
Darien nodded, grabbing her hand and walking towards the elevators. It had been a hectic couple of days. About three hours after she and Darien had decided to cohabitate, his realtor called and they went looking for houses in the Lakeshore district immediately. After three houses that they couldn't agree on, Marie had shown them a Spanish style villa on seven acres of land that they both instantly fell in love with. The house, with its red brick walkway, fountains, and adobe colored walls was like a dream. As soon as they entered, Serena went glassy-eyed as she pictured them lounging around in this house, entertaining here and raising their children here. Darien saw the look on her face and he knew exactly what she was thinking; he was thinking it too.
The next day the two of them went down during Darien's lunch break to sign the papers and get the keys to their new home. Serena hands were trembling as she signed her name to the documents; it wasn't every day that you bought a house with a price tag in the millions.
And now, here they were, their bodies pressed against the leather seats of Darien's red Porsche Cayman Sport. Serena smiled as the engine revved to life and the car pulled out smoothly onto the road. At this point, she felt like her life couldn't get any better.
Her hands trembled as she opened the bottle, her body shuddering with quiet sobs as she popped another pill into her mouth and swallowed it. It was nearly eleven o' clock at night and Darien still wasn't home. He had told her he was helping Serena move; he hadn't said to where or when he would be back. But Lily, in her paranoia and depression had moved to the file cabinet in his study and found a stack of papers hidden away among other benign files.
She grabbed the manila folder and opened it, her eyes widening as she read over the documents, another bout of nausea ripping through her. Her vision blurred for a moment before returning and her mouth fell agape over what she saw.
He had bought Serena a house.
Not only had he dropped millions on a brand new home for her, he had deeded the house to them both. Her bottom lip quivered; he'd had every intention on pursuing a future with the blonde. Deep in her heart Lily knew this was the first step. Soon they would be married, soon she would be swollen with his child, soon Serena would be living her dream.
She felt a pounding her head and contemplated calling the therapist that Darien had made on call for her. Her breath was coming in short bursts as she looked to the pill bottle that lay idle on the desk behind her. She had just started taking the pills this morning, hoping that the anti-depressants would fill her with a sense of well being. Instead, she felt confused and lethargic and as the day passed on, it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Maybe she was allergic to them; maybe the grief she was feeling was literally making her sick. Her life was falling to pieces in front of her and there was nothing she could do about it.
Panic seemed to be flooding her veins with a viscose poison, pressing out all the happiness through her pores, filling her to brim with new waves of nausea inducing anxiety. She needed Darien here, with her…she didn't care where he was right now or what he was doing. She was feeling miserable and he had promised, promised he would be there for her when she needed him. And she needed him tonight.
Quickly she dialed his number, her trembling fingers making it difficult to push the button on the cordless phone. It rang once, twice, three times.
"This is Darien," said a voice, a slight tone of humor evident in his timber; she could hear Serena saying something in the background.
"Where are you?"
"I'm helping Serena move."
Lily seethed. "Moving her into the house you two bought together?"
Darien paused for a moment. "How do you know that?"
"I'm not stupid, Darien. If you don't want me to find out about your dirty little secret then maybe you should actually lock your file cabinets when you leave."
"Pardon me for trusting you not to go through my things."
"Don't blame this on me! You lied to me. Why couldn't you just tell me the truth?"
"Because this is how you'd react Lily," he said calmly. "I was going to tell you, just not today. Your therapist said you were doing well this morning. I didn't want to ruin the progress you made."
She laughed bitterly. "Right, this was all for me, wasn't it?" she said, her body swaying as another bout of dizziness ripped through her.
Darien sighed. "Let's talk about this when I get home, okay?"
She scoffed, gripping her chest as it tightened painfully. "Don't bother! Stay there with her for all I care. You've clearly made your choice. I hope the two of you are very happy together," she said, ending the call and throwing the phone against the wall, the plastic shattering with a violent thud as battery and wire exploded from the module and fell to pieces on the hardwood floor.
She sobbed gently, her body falling slightly to the side before hitting the floor with a bone crunching thud. She clutched her chest, short bursts of breath passing her lips, her vision blurring, her mind racing as she felt herself falling in and out of consciousness. She wanted, more than anything, to push herself up from the floor and fall into bed, burying herself in satin sheet and comforter, but her body was so weak, it was so hard to breathe, she was so tired.
She laid there, the lids of her eyes heavy with sleep and turmoil, a whistling sound passing her lips as she wheezed and struggled for breath, her arms going still, her will dissolving as the pictures on the wall began to converge together forming a murky blur of shadow and color. Her eyes fluttered open and closed, sharp pains shooting down her arm into her chest as she lay there listening to the silence, weeping silent tears of sorrow as her vision blurred to darkness and gray shadow became night.
"I take it she found out and is not thrilled," said Serena, looking to Darien as he held his cell phone in his hand, a stoic expression on his face.
"Not thrilled is an understatement."
Serena sighed. "Did she really think you guys would have some fairytale romance?"
"Apparently she did. Things were never like that between us," he said, resting against a large box and pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt a severe headache coming on. "I liked her company, I liked being around her, but I never loved her the way she loved me. She had always had this vision of us that never really existed. Even now, with the only thing holding us together gone, she still thinks I belong with her."
"She loves you," Serena said, walking towards him. "The way I love you, you can't fault her for that."
"I know and I don't. But the feelings aren't mutual. They never have been. I just wish she would see that," he said, intertwining his fingers with hers and brushing his lips against her cheek. "I hate to do this, but I should go back and check on her. She sounded frantic…I should make sure she's okay. Will you be alright here?"
Serena had known she would have to spend the first couple of nights here alone, at least until Lily was well enough to sleep by herself. Because of her episode the other day, Darien could have had her 5150'd and sent for evaluation but he didn't. After talking to Lily that night, Darien didn't think she was trying to kill herself, but the pain in her wrist was easier to endure than the pain in her heart. After having suffered so many losses himself, he understood how she felt. "I'll be fine," she said simply.
He hesitated. This house was huge for two people, let alone one. But the locks were brand new and the security system was fully functional; it would be nearly impossible for anyone to break in. He knew Serena would be safe. "I'll call you as soon as I get things straightened out with Lily."
"Be careful," she said, "it's late and your old place is nearly an hour from here."
He smiled and placed a small kiss on her lips. "I will. I love you."
"Love you, too," she said, watching as he grabbed his keys and stepped out of the front door to his car, shutting the heavy, intricately carved door behind him.
She listened quietly as the sound of him pulling away flooded her ears before shutting off the light and ascending the sweeping oak staircase, her fingertips brushing against the smooth curved banister. It had been such a long day that all she wanted to do was put the sheets on their new California king bed and sleep. Walking down the long corridor towards the Master Suite she peaked into the large empty rooms. The one closest to the stairwell could be Darien's office and the two on the left side of the hallway could be rooms for their children when they got older. She past another door, the porcelain of the sink glistening beneath moonlight as the glow peaked into the privacy window above the empty wall. There was another bedroom downstairs that could be used as her own study and two more bedrooms nearest theirs. She surmised that the one closest to the Master was meant to be a baby's room. She smiled at the idea, the image of a little child made from a bit of Darien and a bit of her sitting on the floor playing with toys, its eyes lighting up at a glimpse of its mother.
Finally, she reached their bedroom, her hands folding around the brass knob as she pushed open the French doors, her breath hitching as she stared at the room in awe. This bedroom was probably three times the size of her old one and much more elegant. The dark cherry floors shone brightly as the rays from the moon peaked past the glass doors that led to the balcony overlooking the pool and sitting area outside. The crown molding on the tops and bottoms of the wall contrasted perfectly with the floors, converging near the fireplace that lay parallel to the Mahogany four poster bed that lay in the center. There was a small sitting area in the left, a chaise lounge and several chairs and a coffee table taking up the space. Just beside the fireplace, at the far left of the room was the a hallway that led to two matching walk in closets and just further was the Master Bath, a glorious compilation of marble and granite, of Jacuzzi tubs and steams showers and most importantly, his and hers toilets and sinks. For a moment she stood in disbelief. She couldn't believe he had bought this for her, for them and the future that lay before him.
Quickly she pulled open a nearby box and began to make the bed, placing upon it the burgundy Egyptian cotton sheets that she had ordered from the store where they purchased all this furniture. She reached for the comforter, the off-white goose blanket soft and fluffy against her skin as she placed it over the mattress and sheets. She moved to fluff the pillows, to unpack the boxes full of towels and placed them into the linen closet, a whimsical tune passing her lips as she hummed a made up tune. She quieted for a moment, the sound of plastic vibrating against wood rumbling in the distance as she realized that her phone must be ringing and that it was probably Darien calling to tell her he had calmed Lily down and that everything was okay.
She lunged for the phone and held it up to her ear, her eyes alight as she surveyed the bedroom once again. "You must have a way with words," she said into the phone. "You calmed her down really fast." There was a pause on the phone, heavy breathing, a sigh. "Darien? Everything's okay right?"
"No," he said, his voice thick and straining. "Lily…She's dead, Serena."