Can't I Touch Your Heart?

Chapter 60 I'm Coming Unravelled

Harnston poured some water in a tumbler from a jug and turned towards Maple. He took a sip of the water "I'll give you five minutes,"
Maple looked at him "Dad, tell me do you like me?" He asked in Danish.
"Of course I do. You are my son, after all," His father replied in Danish.
"Do you like Loraine?"
"Yes, I do,"
"Do you like Ember?"

"...I can't,"
"Why can't you?"
"You don't get the situation, do you? He isn't a person, he's like a flickering flame. You never know when it's gone, why waste your emotions on such a thing?"
"HE IS A PERSON, DAD! If tomorrow, I fall sick, will you stop loving me? What if I catch an illness that has no cure?"
"Maple, never say that again,"

"It hurts, dad. It hurts to see him like this. No matter how small his life may be, in some way he has changed all of us. We are a family,"
"I consider only you and Loraine as my sons. He can die today and I would not spare of a drop of tear for him,"
"You are so stone-hearted,"
"I'm just not an idiot,"

"Fine," Maple reached the door, "Then, I'm taking him to the hospital and you won't stop me," 
He slammed the door.

The next morning, Maple and Loraine took Ember to the doctor and decided to run a few tests on him. Meanwhile, Rhea decided to visit him. She wanted to talk about her paintings. But she was told to wait till Ember was back. He had gone to the hospital. This seemed serious, so he wasn't joking about breaking his leg? What if he was really sick? Rhea decided to wait in his room. She entered the lift and pressed the button for the 63rd floor. She walked to his room and opened that three-metre tall, magnificent metal door. It was unlocked-He must have left in a hurry.

The room seemed different. With a piano at the centre and the bed occupying a corner of the room, she seemed confused to see such an arrangement. It looked like Loraine's room unless it was his room and she was lost. She decided to wait till Loraine would come back. He wouldn't mind since they were friends now.

She sat at the piano chair and opened the case of the keys. She pressed the switch beneath it and the small red light on its corner started glowing. The piano was alive. She pressed one of the keys and it made a loud sound. Then pressed three keys each from both her hands and tried to mimic Loraine. It looked visually appealing, not musically, because all she played was trash.

She switched off the piano and walked towards the huge glass wall beside it. It had a balcony at the centre which grasped the view of the entire city and there was a small white wooden chest with glass knobs at the drawers kept at one corner of the wall. Rhea walked towards the table and observed it.

"This stuff seems so antique..." Rhea touched the drawer knobs "I'm sure they're very expensive. Rich people spend so much on decorating their house, don't they?"
She pressed one of the knobs too hard and suddenly, the drawer opened by itself. She looked inside the drawer.

The huge drawer had nothing else but a small notebook. The notebook wasn't very attractive, it was shabby and had an old brown cover over it. It was thick and seemed old. Among all the novel and antique stuff, the notebook seemed out of place. Rhea picked it up and looked at it while closing the drawer. She opened it and looked inside. It read 'Dedicated to my sweethearts, Loraine, Maple and Ember.'

'This seems like a diary'

The pages were old, so old that now a tint of yellow covered the blue ink. She turned the page and started reading.

'Dear Diary

When I was very young, around sixteen, my body gave me some indications that something was wrong with me. I was going to celebrate my seventeenth birthday, but I hadn't hit puberty yet. My parents grew concerned and consulted the doctors.