Composing Love

“The latest blood results just came back from the lab. Everything looks good. We’re going to bring Kieu back up in a bit, but we’ll need to start limiting visiting hours then. She’ll be groggy, so getting her into a regular sleep schedule will be important. And then there’s a state psychologist who will need to see her…”

The doctor kept talking, listing out procedures they would need to follow because they decided to treat Kieu’s overdose as a suicide attempt. Given her history with drugs, no one was sure whether that had been the intention or just an accident, but they were trying to err on the side of caution.

As the doctor spoke, Minh’s mind floated away. She hadn’t heard from Chris since Saturday. He’d sent her a text, wishing her luck, and she’d written back a simple Thank you as she’d dashed to the hospital after landing, but that had been the extent of it.

She’d had a lot of quiet time since arriving at the hospital to just…think.

She’d seen the passion in Chris. She admired the way he had taken a risk, put all his money and time on the line for something he believed in. And The Accidental Prince was an amazing movie. It was something she was proud to work on.

He was different, and a bit wild, but he was a good man. He was good to his sister, good to his employees…and despite their rocky beginning, he’d been good to her.

All along, he’d been encouraging her to write the music of her heart. He’d seen it in her, and he’d believed in her, and she’d—

She’d hidden from him. She hadn’t given him the same respect he’d given her, because she’d cared more about the safety of rules than about him. Just like she hadn’t respected Kieu, and used her sister as a prop to make excuses for her own fear.

Chris had been right about that. Minh had been afraid and guilt-riddled, but instead of trying to help Kieu and fix the mistake she’d made, she’d retreated behind a blind made of rules and constraints.

She’d convinced herself that everything had to be neat and orderly and upstanding. That everything would be okay if she just conformed. Different was a disadvantage. Chris hadn’t fit her requirements, and so she’d dismissed what he’d said and let fear hold her back.

But despite her best efforts otherwise, she’d fallen in love with him.

She loved Chris.

The way he pushed her. The way he dressed. His dreams, his passion…

All of him.

She hadn’t given him all of her, and she hadn’t been able to admit that before. But now that she realized…she had to tell him.

But there was something else she had to do first.

“Thank you, doctor.” Her father’s voice snapped her mind back into the present, and Minh looked over just in time to see the physician leaving the room.

“I need to call your mother.” Dad fumbled for his phone in his pocket, the clumsiness so unlike his usual crisp, precise movements that it struck her in that moment that he was one more victim of her misguided rules. She’d used him as a paragon, as an example of perfection, but that was an unfair label. He’d tried to teach her to be an upstanding person—a model citizen—but in the end, he’d never told her not to be herself.

“Wait.”

He must have been as surprised as she was to hear that word come out of her mouth, because he dropped the phone he’d just pulled out, and it clattered to the floor, the case making a cracking sound when it hit the tile.

“Oh! Crap, I’m sorry.” She felt like an idiot.

He just chuckled, though, and bent to pick it up, snapping the case back into place. “No problem, Minnie. It’s fine. You think I should let Mom sleep a little longer?” He looked at the clock, high up on the far wall. “I suppose you’re right. We have a couple of hours before they’ll wake Kieu.”

She shook her head. “No, that’s not it. I mean, I do think you should let her sleep. But I also…I was hoping I could talk to you for a little bit. Just us.” He frowned in concern, and slowly sank back down into the chair. “Is everything okay?”

She stayed standing, though, too nervous to sit. “I need to tell you something.”

He leaned forward and looked up at her. “What is it?”

“It’s my fault that Kieu got into drugs. It’s my fault, and my mistake. I took her to a party where—”

Her dad held up a hand. “I knew about the party.”

That threw her off. “Wait. What? When did you find out?”

He looked old all of a sudden, far older than his fifty-one years. “I knew that night. I heard her over the phone, begging you to take her. And I knew she’d snuck out. I thought—well, you were both so good. Fine, upstanding girls who followed all the rules and never took any chances and, while I was proud of you for that, I saw how much you were straining to stand out. You were already working toward that, and it was incredible, to see the music you came up with and how alive you were when you were into that world. But Kieu hadn’t found her rebellion yet, and I thought, if I just let her have a little room, to try things out, then she might blossom too.”

He’d known, all along? And not just known…he’d encouraged it?

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