Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sapphie slowly regained consciousness, her senses dulled. As awareness seeped back in, the first thing she registered was the brightness in the room and the stiffness in her neck. The only sound she could hear was a constant beeping somewhere in the room. Her vision was still blurry so she tried to blink it into focus.

Pain flared as she tried to turn her head, realizing something hard restricted her movement. Panic set in as her breathing quickened. So did the beeping noise.

What was around her throat? Where was she?

With her free hand, Sapphie hurriedly explored the restrictive brace as a whimper left her throat, causing pain to explode in her side.

"Sapphie?" She heard a familiar voice say beside her.

"Kylian? Where am I? What happened?" She sniffled.

"Ssh mon ugges, you're safe," that's when she felt a hand gently take hers before she saw his face look down into hers, "You were in an accident but you're going to be okay."

When he said that, that's when fragments of the accident rushed through her head as if the flood gates had been opened. The tree, the crashing impact, screaming sirens.

"Let me call the doctor." Kylian's voice cracked as he looked down at her bruised face again.

Seeing the fear and confusion in her eyes scattered the last remnants of his composure. All he wanted to do, was to envelope her in his arms and shield her from further hurt. But her injuries prevented even that small comfort.

Since none of her relatives were in the country, and he was the only by her bedside. All he could do was call her mother to tell her and prep for her flight to Portugal.

Sapphie had suffered whiplash, a mild concussion, two broken ribs and a broken ulna. The doctor had said she was lucky her injuries were minor compared to ones that are commonly associated with her kind of accident. Lucky or not, he was happy she was still here.

After the doctor came by and checked her progress, the older woman gave them another update and left them alone. Before leaving, she'd elevated Sapphie's bed so that she was seated back in her bed. That's how she noticed that the TV in her room was broadcasting the game between Madrid and PSG.

"The match is still ongoing?" she asked.

"Yeah," he glanced up at the TV. The scoreline was just as he had left it, "I needed something to keep me distracted."

Sapphie looked at him up and down in realisation. Apart from the sneakers on his feet and the open hoodie, she could see he'd come straight from the arena.

"Are you sure you don't want to be there for when they lift the trophy?"

Kylian smirked, "How do you know if we are going to win?"

"I'm your lucky charm remember?" she grinned, then added, "But seriously, you should be with your team. See it through that you win, I'll be waiting for you here, it's not like I can go anywhere."

All Kylian did was shake his head. "You mean more than a trophy Sapphira. I thought I lost you tonight. Besides, my mind wouldn't be in the right place as long as I knew you would be in here alone. Plus I've already done my part."

When she saw the pain in his eyes, the effort it took to hold himself back, Sapphie caressed his jaw in her good hand.

"And here I was thinking you were giving me the silent treatment when you were here fighting for your life." He shook his head.

"Do you remember what happened?" he took her hand in his and kissed it.

Sapphie grimaced as memories of the accident flashed in her mind's eye. "Paparazzi." She took a shaky breath. "They followed me. Wouldn't stop taking pictures."

Then suddenly she gasped, her lower lip quivering as she realised something. "Do you think Pierre went to the press anyway?"

Kylian's blood boiled at the thought of those vultures, Pierre included, tormenting her. "If he is involved, he is going to pay."

Tears welled in Sapphie's eyes, reliving her terror. "Just wanted them gone. I drove too fast and completely miscalculated that curve. That car was a rental." Self-blame creased her brow.

"None of this is your fault, Saph," Kylian soothed, caressing her hand tenderly.

Though anger at how those bastards had hurt her made his blood boil, Kylian knew that he his first priority should be Sapphie. Seeing the raw trauma still clinging to Sapphie's haunted gaze, he swallowed his outrage for now. All that mattered was comforting her while she pieced the entire accident back together at her own pace. He would deal with Pierre later.

Kylian pressed a light kiss to her knuckles. "You focus on healing. I'll take care of everything else from now on, I promise." Sapphie's safety was all that concerned him as she drifted back to much-needed rest.

"I called your mom and arranged for her to fly over. She should already be on her way."

Sapphie's gaze melted as she regarded him through hr tears, "Thank you Kylian. You didn't have—"

"No. You don't need to thank me. What you can do instead is rest and get better, don't worry about anything."

Before Sapphie could say anything else, they were interrupted by the sudden cheering of the thousands of fans in the football stadium. PSG had scored yet another goal, giving Kylian's team a one up over their opponents.

But as much as the goal was exhilarating, especially since they only had less than half an hour to finish the game, Sapphie couldn't help think about something.

"I really can't believe this probably involves Pierre again." She shook her head and let out a humourless laugh until a sudden stab of pain in her side had her stopping instantly.

"What do you mean?" Asked Kylian with a furrowed brow.

"We have been fighting for the past two weeks and all of it has been because of him...well partially because of him. I also blame myself really."

"Sapphie—"

"No Kylian. You were right and my stubbornness likely got me in here. You wanted to go public with this way back but I didn't. I let him scare me into a corner."

"You don't know exactly what going public sooner could have done. Maybe they still would have chased you just to get a new exclusive of Kylian's girlfriend, just like they did tonight." He argued.

"Besides," he added as his shoulders slumped, "you were also right. I didn't want to admit it because it made me sound like a jerk but, part of me wanted you to quit your job because I somehow saw it as inferior to yours."

"I was being selfish in not considering how much keeping your job meant to you and helping your family. And I also apologise for what I said last night, accusing you like that. I don't know where that came from."

"No, you know." Said Sapphie. Even as her eyes started growing heavy with exhaustion. Bust she fought it with everything in her to buy some time.

"Excuse me?" He frowned.

"When your mother came clean about investigating me, she mentioned that something happened before. With you, and that to find out what it is, I would have to ask you. What is it?"

"Sapphie," he shook his head, "I don't think I want to go there."

"We have to Kylian. If we want to have any hope of this relationship working, we can't have it or dark secrets hanging over us. It only took you one argument to accuse me of something related to that last night. So please."

Kylian averted his eyes from her worried face. Her worried eyes. He knew this day would come, but he always imagined he would feel...comfortable talking about it. He sighed and got of the stool beside her bed to go and look out the window of her room.

"Kylian?" he heard her call from behind him, but he was struggling to find where to start from.

"When I was seventeen, still at Monaco, I met this girl. Her name was Bernadette. We met through a mutual friend and hit it off right away. Our relationship was secret. We dated for a while and things were fine, until they were not anymore."

Kylian went silent as the memories played through his mind as I they'd happened yesterday. Right then, he couldn't help thinking whether he was repeating past mistakes by keeping his relationship in secret. Even though it was for the best the first time considering the way things ended.

"What happened?"

"She recorded private conversations with me, manipulated the content to make it appear as though I had made controversial or offensive remarks. She also got pregnant," he turned around to face her, "But it was by someone else and of course tried to pin it on me. She threatened to go public unless I gave her money. She would have gone to the police and then the press with the story that I had raped her after inviting her to my hotel room while"

"Kylian." She whispered as things started to make more sense. His mother's investigation, his reaction last night. He had gone through something horrible like this to warrant such reactions.

"But obviously she failed."

"Yeah, my parents made sure we had a good team of people to manage the entire scandal, from PR, hiring a lawyer to finding a private detective."

"All I can say is that, we made sure she wouldn't stand a chance with her accusations. A paternity test after the baby was born quickly verified that she was lying. We got a restraining order which kept her from releasing any materials or making public accusations."

Sapphie could finally see how her refusal to go public with their made her look suspicious, even though the investigation had cleared her.

"You know...I wouldn't do that to you right?" she asked, her eyes starting to close, "I mean of course you have a legal team, you're older and wiser but...I would never dream of hurting you like that."

"I know you wouldn't. Rest Sapphie. I'll be here when you wake up."

"You...promise?" She whispered.

"You know I do." He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "I love you."

"Kiki," Kylian raised his head to see Achraf stood at the doorway of Sapphie's room. He looked hesitant to enter. Not wanting to wake her up, Kylian promptly got up from Sapphie's bedside and trudged up to his best friend.

Kylian looked up as Achraf softly knocked on the open hospital room door. "Any change?" Achraf whispered.

He shook his head. "Still sleeping. Come, let's talk outside."

In the hallway, Kylian quickly filled Achraf in on Sapphie's condition and the accident details.

"She'll be okay, the doctors said this will be the most critical time. The worst is over," Kylian added, though he was still worried.

Achraf nodded understandingly. "And you, how are you holding up?"

Kylian ran a hand over his face. "Honestly, it's been hell. I thought I'd lost her." He shook his head as he remembered what he had said in the locker room at half time.

Noticing Kylian's distress, Achraf pulled out his phone. "There's something I need to show you." He showed him a recently posted news article about Sapphie's crash. And by the looks of it, it was already spreading online like wild fire.

Kylian felt sick as he scrolled through pictures of the mangled vehicle wrapped around the tree.

"Pierre. It has to be him; he must have gone ahead with leaking our relationship to the press."

Before Achraf could reply, they heard voices down the hall. Rounding the corner to the ICU's reception area, was Kylian's entire team. When his teammates saw him, warm embraces and pats on the back followed.

But then Kylian spotted Pierre lingering at the back. Seeing red, Kylian charged, punching him in the face. He pinned Pierre against the wall with a furious right hook.

"You bastard!" Kylian growled as the team hurried over in shock. Pierre merely blinked, blood on his lip.

"What the hell is going on?" The coach demanded.

"Ask him!" Kylian seethed, pointing at Pierre. "He's the one who's been blackmailing Sapphie!" And he recounted Pierre's cruel threats to the stunned group.

Pierre struggled free. "I had nothing to do with her accident. The press must have found out on their own about you two lovebirds. Now let me go or I'm calling the police on you."

"You are lying." He growled.

"Prove it." The taunt fuelled Kylian's fury further. He drew his arm back to punch Pierre square in the jaw.

"Kylian stop!" Achraf yelled, rushing over to hold him back. The coach helped pull Kylian off as Pierre wiped the blood from his mouth. Pierre chuckled darkly.

"You have no proof."

Kylian struggled against Achraf's grip, desperate to land another blow. "That you don't know of."

That wiped off the smirk on Pierre's face. All this happened while everyone looked on in shock and concern. This kind of behaviour was way out of character for Kylian.

Pierre scoffed. "Baseless accusations. I had nothing to do with her crash or what the media reports."

Kylian glared daggers at Pierre, barely containing his anger. "Whether you did this or not, your threats end today. I'm taking this to management, you won't torment Sapphie or anyone like her ever again."

Pierre smirked and walked away, leaving Kylian fuming.

When Sapphie awoke again sometime later, Kylian was again by her side, lost in thought as he watched over her. Seeing her look up at him the way she did, brought a gentle smile to his lips.

"Hey."

"Hi. How are you feeling, mon ugge?" he asked softly.

That made her blinked and them chuckled.

"Since when did you start calling me that?"

"Since I realised, I almost lost you tonight."

"Kylian," she took his hand in hers and kissed it, "you don't have to worry. I'm right here."

As she held it, that's when she noticed the slight discolouration on his knuckles.

"What happened to your hand?"

"Nothing, I got into it with Pierre earlier while you were asleep."

"Pierre? He's here?" she looked around.

"No, he left right after. But the team was here and look what they brought you." He smiled as he pointed at the table on her left. Beside a huge bouquet of get well soon flowers, was the silver champions league cup.

"No way! You won!" Sapphie grinned as a surprisingly overwhelming feeling of joy burst in her chest. This was something everyone had thought would be impossible for Kylian. Seeing as how there was always talk that a player from a 'farmer's league' would never lift a UCL cup because their teams were always crappy whenever they played in the big leagues.

"I'm so proud of you, congratulations." She gave his hand a tight squeeze.

"Thank you, but I don't think I can celebrate tonight. I'm not in the mood."

"What do you mean you're not in the mood? This is something you have been working for for the past seven year.'

"No, I know, but you don't get it Sapphie. Tonight...you weren't there when they gave me that message. I thought by the time I arrived at the hospital they would be asking me to ID you. That this would turn into another tragic story for the papers and that last night would have been the last time I spoke with you." This time, he squeezed her hand, then laughed with a shake of his head.

"It's funny how it takes a life-threatening situation to make you see what's important. What really matters."

Sapphie watched him quietly. She studied his face, seeing the deep worry and care etched on his handsome features. In that moment, the truth became clear.

"You don't know how much you mean to me do you?" he asked. She remained quiet, watching him.

"Just what I thought. I want to say something. Something I should have told you that night in Marseilles when I opened Marco's door for you."

"I am in love with you Sapphira Maida."

"Kylian. I'm just some girl."

"I mean it Saph. You have become frighteningly important to me and I am not ready to not have you in my life. We just started this journey together and I want to see where it leads us."

"You are not 'just some girl'. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me since Emery knocked on my parent's front door all those years ago. I know I'm usually focused and self-motivated but you—you're just strong and so kind, fun and you're one of my closest friends. I just wanted you to know this."

"I love you too," she cupped his jaw as a tear slid down the side of her face and laughed, "wow, I have been waiting to say those words out loud for a long time now."

He smiled, his eyes roaming over her beautiful face, "Say it again."

"That I love you?"

He nodded.

"I love you," she repeated, her gaze fixated on his.

"Man, you don't know how good it feels to hear you say that." He got up and kissed her long and deep, careful to not cause her any pain.

"Trust me, I think I have a pretty good idea. But promise me one thing?"

"What?" he asked.

"Let's not fight like we were doing again. I never want to go bed angry at you again. And that being said, I also want to apologize for not giving you the benefit of the doubt. I had no idea that what was happening between us was so close to a bad experience. You had your reasons for suspecting me with the way I was acting and I never thought to ask you about youruggestionns. Instead, I just jumped the gun and...here we are."

"Here we are, now you're ready for us to go viral?" he grinned.

Sapphie smiled back, "As long as it's with you? Heck yeah."

Again, Kylian eagerly dipped his head down and captured her lips with his. The both of them ignored sound of her ECG machine beeping faster by the second.