Chapter 8

The reason behind why Penelope Lore had been rushed to Sir Williamson Hospital's burn unit was finally revealed around dawn. John had initially pushed to find out earlier, but it soon became clear that the fire had left a large number of people injured; it was no small blaze but an enormous hellfire that had led to the collapse of half the school's music building. Seeing that they were not the only parents sitting in the dark on both the situation and the children's conditions, Hanna and John had slowly calmed down enough to sit patiently, in turn giving faith and reassurance to all the other panic parents that had piled themselves into the burn unit's waiting room until news came.

When the doctor finally had time, he explained that Penelope had been very close to the origin of the fire for a considerable amount of time, leading to the paramedics suspecting possible internal burns. While they had thankfully been proven wrong, what the youngest of the Lore family had failed to inform the paramedics was the considerably large, second degree burn on her back. Since it was not the most severe of the injuries, she had been given care until they had the time to treat her fully.

The overly worried parents had decided that this was enough for their daughter to stay in the hospital under observation for a few days. They had seen a trend with their sons, who were surprisingly weak despite their characters, they were not taking a chance with their baby.

The aforementioned sons, at that very moment, were texting, Joshua informing his older brother of the developments over the night. Once realising his cute little sister was injured and his younger brother was not handling it well at all, Archer had no desire to sleep and stayed up with his family despite being across the country. A lot of the night had consisted in him calming down Joshua and convincing him things would all be fine, starting to worry a little about him. Of course Archer was worried himself on Penelope's condition, however even he had never seen his brother act so vulnerable, not since they were children that is. Joshua's unchanging face had become the norm at the very young age of 10 years old, shortly after the last kidnapping situation within the Lore family. Since that day, no one knows exactly what had happened, but the young boy had matured greatly and never went back to the ways of a child.

To see him in this state was a little strange for all his family.

The young man himself knew he had reacted abnormally to the situation, he would have never thought that the prospect of his younger sister would terrify him to such an extent, much less to the point where it conflicted his own personality. However, he knew it was not just his sister. He felt bad for admitting this to himself, but the shock of being set up for a marriage interview had thrown him so off centre that the added stress of his sister's health immediately afterwards had really pushed him off the edge.

Joshua had a far too modest a limit for what he considered the edge of sensibility.

But the important person right now was Penelope, not him, and so he would not even dare to bring up how he disliked the joke of a marriage meeting, let alone that he was only so shocked over Penelope because of that happening before.

He couldn't help but also feel that if he were to say the first part aloud, he would undoubtedly be considered a homophobic.

His family would of course not take it such a way, crediting the entire thing to insecurities with regards to his sexual orientation.

Whilst the Lore's went through a whirlwind of different emotions, Caroline and Marcus were also present. Unexpectedly, the couple had decided to stay the entire night, wholeheartedly knowing exactly what sort of pain they had been going through.

When Henry had been studying abroad, there had been a shooting in the university he attended. He had been texting his family the entire time the school was on lockdown, however his responses had slowly gotten slower and slower until he was no longer responding, only once texting that he was alive. They had spent a gruelling 12 hours with no other clue on his situation, in which they had all panicked and sent Samuel on a private jet to check on him. In the end, they found out that he had been shot in the abdomen getting someone to cover, the bullet grazing his gut. His response had reduced because he was slowly losing blood. In the chaos, he had lost his phone and couldn't contact his parents after he woke up.

Ramy had also been present, right up until the police had shed a little more light on the severity of the fire and suspected origin.

The Reyes, with their judgment unclouded from the current situation, immediately noticed a couple odd points from what the police had told them. The fire had started in the main piano room, suspected to be a cigarette butt inside the grand piano; that in itself screamed suspicious to Marcus. He was one of the chairmen of the school, being an alumni, and while he knew the students of the prestigious school weren't without faults – there were more than a handful of rich delinquents attending, there always had been – the students were smart. Too smart to smoke within the grand piano room and well beyond throwing a lit but anywhere near the piano itself, it was checked on a daily basis, that was how important it was to the music department.

What called out to Caroline was behaviour of the police, they had shared far too much far too quickly. Whether accidental or not, they would normally never share the results of a preliminary investigation unless it was to someone related to a crime. Secondly, they seemed almost biased on the fire being accidental; a piano in one of the most expensive private schools within the region had one of its most prized possessions burst into flames; there were a million different motives for the police to look into, a simple cigarette butt would not be enough to become certain the fire was accidental. Most of all, however, she was suspicious of what details they had kept quiet. They went into infinitesimal details behind the possible cause of the fire, however they had revealed absolutely nothing on why the fire would spread across such a high class building so quickly. The building had withstood many harsh conditions, it was not the first fire to occur, but while the others had left a room scorched, this clearly magnificent fire had left over half of the fully fire-proofed building in a sorry state.

Both Marcus and Caroline did not even have to look at each other to know they both suspected the Q Group of this. However, now was not the time to inform the Lore's of this thought, their daughter was the centre of their attention and that was how it should be. They could understand what they were going through.

This is where Ramy's role came into play.

Caroline had sent him out almost immediately to investigate the truth behind the fire through a variety of the Reyes family connections. Of course, the most likely suspect was the Q Group, however that was not much to go on. There was a matter of whether it was an act from the lead family or whether it was a more personal grudge or, the worst case scenario, a retaliation due to them learning about the merger.

As all this chaos was underway, Henry was, in essence, dead to the world, comfortably asleep with the thoughts of the past day far behind him.

Even after having been finally informed, there was still a 40-minute wait until the five were allowed to see Penelope; The Lore's had decided to let the more panicked parents, with their children in far worse condition to their daughter, go in first. Of course they had been asked if they would like to go in immediately, but knowing their daughter was safe was enough for them to graciously wait for their fair turn.

Marcus couldn't help but admire the pair, if it had been him, he would have gladly taken the advantage to check on either of his sons.

When they were finally let in, they came to find the 13-year-old girl avidly awake, talking to one of the other students sat across from her, a boy from the year above. It seemed the two were jokingly comparing injuries.

Penelope Lore was known as an ethereal beauty as well as a cool and collected piano prodigy to the public, ever poised, never even a hair out of place during her performances. But to the joy of everyone who worked and studied with the young lady had found that despite her reputation, she acted as any other teenage girl would. There was never even an ounce of loftiness to the girl, she was as down to earth as one could be, just as her older brothers were – well Archer to a certain extent.

She was also extremely well-behaved and the second she saw her parents and brother were accompanied by the Reyes's, she quieted her voice to a more respectful voice, greeting them as if completely uninjured.

The boy next to her couldn't help but be taken aback at the beautiful group that had come in to see Penelope. Of course he wasn't ignorant, he knew who she and her family were, it would be harder to not to know. However, he was not prepared for the outstanding image of the family, it was almost dazzling. Not just to him, but the entire ward; it was as if just the sight of these people eased everyone's pain just a little.

Deciding to give the family privacy – his mother had brought him up better than to snoop in another family's affairs, he curtly ended the conversation with Penelope, both understanding the unspoken agreement to pick things up afterwards.

With that, the curtains were closed around the piano prodigy's bed, and almost immediately came the word questioning. How was she? Was she close to the fire? Was she in a lot of pain? What could be done to help her? Anything that could come to her worry-stricken parents. Hanna and John, now with their daughter in front of them, could not care less about appearances. Of course, neither were too bothered about Caroline and Marcus, as far as they were concerned, they were going to become family.

Joshua was unaware of the extent how far the misunderstanding that had lead to the events of the previous day had grown, to the point where both families were each ready to join not just as companies but also as families. In reality, the young man was in fact unaware of a lot of his surroundings. He had heard his sister was okay, which was eventually enough for Archer to finally try and get some rest before his early morning board meeting, however for Joshua it wasn't quite the reassurance he needed.

Now things were different. He had finally seen his little sister as lively as ever, and the scene had hit him with a wave of relief. He could only find himself standing silently as the past day's events finally caught up with him. After everything, he was exhausted and he wanted no more than to forget everything and bury himself into a cute romance, most definitely not of one the boys' love variety, in the comfort of his own room.

It was only when a yawn escaped him he realised that was exactly what he now planned to do after some oolong tea and a good sleep. His yawn had caught everyone else's attention, his family still could not overcome the confusion of Joshua showing any vulnerability, or strong emotions in general. They had seen more sides of him today than they had in almost half of his life, Penelope the most taken aback having never once seen her brother like this.

She couldn't help but wonder if he was truly capable of his current condition, a redundant question however understandable, Joshua as he was now went against everything she had ever known about her second brother.

Oblivious to all this, Joshua announced he was going home.

"Was the date a fail?" The Lore daughter couldn't help but ask after her brother had left, a little worry seeping into her words. While she wasn't entirely sure he was gay, she really did want her brother to finally find romantic interest in someone, someone who could make him happy and put a little more life into him. Hanna and John shared a coy look in response, Caroline laughing rather merrily. She came over next to Penelope, shaking her head. "With the stolen glances between the two between the two and lack of retaliation, we are already as good as family."

Penelope broke into a smile, along with the parents. Another reason she had wanted this particular relationship to succeed was less pure than thoughts of her brother's happiness, she wanted someone who she would finally be able to go shopping and gossip with other than her busy mother and father. Now she not only had another two parents but also two more older brothers as well as an older sister, she couldn't be happier at the union.

The two families quickly got into a discussion of all the things they could do now that they were all family.

Meanwhile, both second sons – the ones who had somehow become responsible for the joining of the two families – were both blissfully none the wiser. All thoughts of the horrifying event, the marriage meeting, were out of the minds, including the part where they had to inform their parents that they were by no means accepting the marriage.