Always HIS

Prologue

[ Author's PoV ]

After two stops and a twenty four hour flight from Paris to Sun Valley, Anna had finally landed in her home town. The journey had been weary for most part of it, but there was a sparkle in her eyes as she was able to get out and find herself some network connection, stacking her bag beside her to sit in one of the corner waiting chairs after the emigration, plugging in her earphones and disconnecting herself from the world for a little while. 

The network connection though poor, was enough to be able to watch some live TV, most of them covering the most talked about thing about today- Zach Davis' concert.

Zach Davis. The star crossed love of her life.

The world stirred around her rapidly and despite the lingering thought of how she should leave for home, where she knew her father would desperately be waiting to see her, having returned home early for her. Not to forget, while her body was set on Paris time where it was midnight now, it was only afternoon here in Idaho. She was sleepy, and that was quite evident by how she kept yawning while collecting her bags, but in that moment that she saw his face on the little mobile screen, all the tiredness just vanished. The concert was over about minutes ago, and they were now only showing snippets of how the band bid goodbye to their fans after the fireworks and announcing their album, it brought enough warmth to Anna's heart to see Zach's face in a single shot, the smile never leaving from his lips. Only seeing that, the ghost of a smile lingered on her lips too.

Of course, there was also this inevitable tug at her heart about how she'd just left this very thing behind. She just left him behind.

But there was also hope. Hope she would see him again. And a strong instinct that she'd see him sooner than she expected.

Nonetheless, she didn't want to get her hopes high. As a kid grown up with optimism, she also knew the price of being hopeful. Hope leads to expectations. And expectations... they often led to disappointment.

Locking her phone once again without bothering to read the news headlines or what the fans who had just attended the concert had to say about their experience, she shoved it in her purse again, and with her luggage bag dragging behind her, she walked to the small cafeteria store, which was rather empty.

She wasn't overly fond of coffee, but having skipped sleep last night and slept only for a few hours in the morning and then in the plane, Anna knew she could really use a booster. "Hi," she said, looking at the young girl, who looked about her age if not lesser, dressed in the black apron with her café name printed on the side, and a black cap over her blonde fairytale. The girl's eyes flickered from her phone to Anna, and although at first she smiled, the smile soon almost disappeared. The girl behind the counter stared at Anna a little weirdly, making her wonder if there was something on her face.

"I'd like a coffee please," Anna went on, when she got no response. "Latte. Less sugar."

The girl still seemed rather dazed. "That'll be 7 dollars, ma'am."

Sighing, Anna dug into her bag for her wallet, bringing out the exact change and keeping it on the counter while the girl disappeared. And sure, in a minute or two, she is as back with a plastic cup and her coffee. After taking in the cash and printing out the bill, Anna was given the coffee along with two standard tissue papers, and that same weird stare as before.

Conscious as she could be, when Anna walked away, she tried glancing at the glass walls of the an adjacent store, and even though her hair were a bit of a mess in that high ponytail, her face did seem pretty fine. Not wanting to take a chance, Anna stepped away to the restroom.

She looked fine. Absolutely fine. At least to herself. Maybe, others were just not as accepting of her no make up look as her. So splashing her face with cold water, she moisturised and then getting the compact out of her bag, powdered her face a little. Not much, just enough to hide the temporary dark bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep, and opened her hair from that ponytail. Maybe now that café girl wouldn't think Anna was a member of The Walking Dead. At least, she hoped so.

And then, it was time to leave for home. There was a small debate between booking a cab from inside or just calling an Uber when she gets out, and she quickly decided on the latter. 

Sipping the overpriced coffee she'd just bought, still dragging her bag behind her, Anna walked out. 

They say, there's nothing better than coming home after a very long time. No matter how many cities you go to and how much you travel or if you make a foreign city your home, nothing compares to the feel of returning to the place where you were both and brought up and where you have your family. This time, Anna was back to stay. She wasn't here on a return ticket to Brooklyn. And so, somewhere deep down, she had imagined the pollution free air on that particularly crimson afternoon to hit different, to feel familiar and more homely, but she was nothing more than absolutely shocked when after walking only ten full steps out of the airport, camera light started flashing at her.

She froze.

She froze like an antelope in front of headlights. 

She didn't even know if those cameras were focused on her was there some celebrity behind her and she was just a blockage in their way. But that question didn't bother her for long, because soon, the reporters started talking to her. Throwing questions. So many of them at one time that it was as if they were speaking gibberish, although she could make out her name quite clearly in many of those questions. And Zach's.

Anna still didn't know what to do. Many a times, she'd seen Tara and Ruth facing the same. Of course, sometimes they would gracefully pose for pictures and even have small conversations with reporters, and there were also times when they'd put on their shades and still cover their faces with a hand, eyes on ground, and just walk away. But she was accustomed to do neither.

So she believed she would have remained like a statue for the longest time, startled and scared, had a hand not pulled her.

She didn't know who's hand it was. Or where she was being pulled. She was just so happy to be brought away from the crowd, even as blank as she felt, trying to make sense of everything suddenly happening around her.

A little meow from below made her snap out of her reverie. She'd been pulled into the lift, headed to the basement parking lot. Her last vision was of cameras still focused on her even as the metal bars of the lift closed, and she first looked down, to the familiar grey cat with a pink bow that she immediately realised from the streets of Paris.

It was Faux.

And then, at the old lady who was looking at her.

"Uh... thank you," Anna's voice was a breaking whisper.

"You're welcome." A smile gauzed the old lady's face. "Anna, right? We met in Paris."

Anna quickly nodded. "And you are...?"

"Stormi." The lady replied.

"Thank you, Stormi." Anna's smile widened, and her voice was laced with gratitude.

"Oh, you're welcome, kid," Stormi replied, as the lift doors opened and the two of them stepped out. "Although I'm very intrigued to know how you managed to get yourself caught up in that mess?"

"Uh..." Anna slightly shook her head, still feeling lost. "I.. I don't know, honestly. I just got out all ready to go home and before I could comprehend, there were so many cameras on my face."

"That doesn't sound very good."

"Y– Yeah. It wasn't."

Stormi shook her head lightly. "Let me drop you home."

"What?" Anna's voice was a mumble. "No, I mean... thank you, but, I'll manage my way through."

"Do you have any transport?"

"I was thinking of a taxi."

"And you're thinking an Uber can get you out of that swarm waiting to gobble you up?" Stormi ridiculed. "Don't be crazy. Let me get you out. There isn't anything that my 1972 Ford hasn't gone through."

A gratitude filled smile appeared on Anna's lips. "That'll mean a lot, Stormi. Thank you."

*

"So, you live in Idaho?" Stormi asked, once they had successfully managed to pull out of the airport, with the old lady on her the driving seat and Anna on the passenger, with Faux in her lap.

"I used to live in Brooklyn, but Sun Valley is my hometown.... yes," Anna nodded. "What about you?"

"Nah, I'm from Paris." Stormi shook her head, her eyes still on the road. "I was just born in the Valley. My brother still lives here though. Hence, the trip."

Anna nodded, and then silence spread through the car again with the stereo playing in the background. Anna's eyes turned and then focused out of the window, and even still, her head kept flying time and again to that one single moment when she stood in front of all those cameras. Just the thought of having to relive that again made her shut her eyes dreadfully. 

At this point, Anna was just desperate to get home and find out what all of this was about. And even when she pretended to be curious about it, a part of her knew this was because of Zach. He was the only link she had to the crazy world full of paparazzi. Of course, there were his bandmates too, but she was sure the media wouldn't be too interested in their common friend. At least not as much as they would be in their superstar Zach Davis' alleged girlfriend. Which so happened to be her.

"So, how did you like Paris?" Stormi asked, once again cutting through Anna's trails of thoughts.

"It was beautiful like you'd said, indeed," a sad smile appears on Anna's lips as flashes of every moment she'd spent in Paris played through her head. "But I'm just beginning to think it wasn't meant for me."

"Wasn't meant for you?" Stormi's eyes flickered from the road to the young girl next to her only for a brief moment. "Are we now talking about the city of love, or love itself?"

"Both, perhaps." And as much as Anna tried keeping that smile on, it kept vanishing. For some reason, she felt the overwhelming urge to cry again. Maybe because she already missed Zach and wanted to be with him right now. Maybe because of the mishap that had just happened at the airport. She didn't spend time amongst the two reasons, as her entire focus shifted on taking deep breaths and calming herself down. She wasn't one to cry easily. Especially not in front of a stranger.

"Oh mon enfant," Stormi stopped her, "Don't say that. This is exactly what I thought when I came to Paris thirty years ago. I ran away from home, never thought I will find peace again. But that city and a very young man painted my life with colours I didn't even know existed, and made me fall in love with it's very soul. Be upset with the city, not love itself. And it shall not disappoint."

Anna nodded, meaning it this time. She was overthinking it all for nothing.

With her eyes focused on the road, she watched as Stormi took the turn for Octave's Motel. "That would be my stop." Anna said, and soon, the car parked on the side of the road. She could see her house at the end of the street, not very far away.

"Would you like to come inside?" Anna asked, when she stepped out of the car.

"No, love. Some other time, perhaps."

"Merci," Anna said, taking her bag out of the car and her fingertips purring Faux one last time. "For everything, Stormi."

"Goodbye child, don't let any silly boy fade your smile," The older lady said in return, a firm and intense nod with a smile on her lips and Anna took a step away, towards the footpath, and then the engine roared as the car drove away.

Anna walked into her house, through the wooden fences. The lights of her house were all dim inside, which meant her father wasn't home. So much for hoping that he'd be waiting for his daughter to come back. 

Despite having the keys, Anna didn't feel like going inside. Keeping her luggage by the main door frame of the house, with only her purse with herself, Anna sat on the swing in the porch area. Her eyes flickered from the green cold grass below her feet, to the set sky above, with the sun now below the horizon, as a lovely twilight spread through, in colours of a faded orange being overtaken by a lilac pink. There was a heavy grey in the cracks between the clouds, adding to making the lilac darker. It seemed like it could rain. But she didn't mind. With the amount of sunsets and sunrises she had watched with Zach and for all the times that they'd sat under the stars talking sweet nothings, one thing she was sure of right then was that every time she looked up to the sky, no matter what colour or tints it was shaded in, it'll always remind her of him. Rather, it'll always remind her of them. 

Taking a deep breath, and keeping the ghost of a smile still lingering on her lips, Anna managed to search for her phone.

There was a missed call from Zach. She hadn't realised when the phone rang in her tote, but for some reason, she knew he wasn't calling her because he missed her or to check on her. This had to be about why the cameras had been chasing her.

And she didn't want to hear it from him.

She was afraid it would be what she was thinking, that the world must have gotten to know about the two of them, and as she wished it wasn't true, a part of her knew it could be. And she didn't want him to tell her that.

Mostly because she didn't know how she'd react.

There was a very specific reason why she didn't want any one to know about them, especially not his fans and the media and every one who thought they were entitled to an opinion about her relationship with their idol, and she was afraid her reaction wouldn't be very pleasant when Zach would finally confirm her doubts. And she didn't want to spring it upon him.

So, she decided upon calling him back when she was more composed than she was now. 

And with nothing but utmost curiosity and a nagging fear in her heart, she opened one of the first media articles that popped up when she searched their names together, reading it to herself.

'In an earlier report, we talked about how superstar Zach Davis had flown down to Paris a few days earlier than his bandmates to spend some extra time with his girlfriend. The Daily Mail was also first time inform that his sweetheart happened to be no other than model Daisy Wilson, and the two of them were spotted sipping coffees at a local café. [picture attached below.] Fans had been thrilled to see their favourite together, and we had hopes to finally see the rockstar settled, but oh boy, could we have been any wrong?

Apparently, after almost three years of living in the dark, Zach Davis has finally returned to his true nature of loving many, many girls (winks).

He was first spotted with his ex Mia Morgenstern on the Tuesday morning, where the two of them were enjoying a quiet lunch. While we were still debating between whom he could actually be with, Mia or Daisy, turns out there was a third girl in his life after all.

Remember us telling you about a mystery girl who had scooped in to save the day one midnight when Zach apparently got arrested for trespassing a private property? Yes, that mystery girl happens to be none other than his person secretary Anna Collins, who was also the third girl in Zach's life.

Sources confirm that Zach and Anna had been together for quite some months, and our source also added that the only reason she had been working under him for about almost three years now was because they were secretly dating all this while.

But again, we know that Zach Davis doesn't date. So it isn't difficult to guess what kind of relationship their shared in those three years while Zach remained in the shadows, is it?

However, he decided to kick the curb of privacy when he met up with his ex and didn't seem to mind all the media outside. While reconciliation rumours with his ex Mia surface, Zach apparently dumped his mistress and former secretary Anna, who 'resigned' from work about a few weeks ago, and flew home to Idaho just this weekend. But... that's not just it. Zach couldn't stay with his ex as well. Or maybe they never reconciled after all, because Zach flew down in his private jet to Paris to meet Daisy soon after, and while engagement rumours float aboard, the two of them apparently also brought in his birthday in a very private party.

While we don't know if it's Mia or Daisy for our superstar, we do know that the fairytale is over for our little mistress.

Poor Anna, our sympathies are with you. After all, it isn't as easy to tame the playboy as books have taught us to be, and we can bet Anna Collins is a living witness to the same.

For more scoops inside their enthralling story that's got all the world wide fans hooked, keep reading, The Daily Mail.'

'Fuck.' 'Fuck.' 'Fuck.' That was the only train of thoughts running wildly through Anna's head. She couldn't quite even begin to explain what she really felt like... maybe she would, if only she could explain to herself first.

But instead, the article she just read already began making its way in her head, some specific words and lines hurting much more than anything else.

'Mistress'

'Former secretary'

'But again, we know that Zach Davis doesn't date.'

'It isn't difficult to guess what kind of relationship their shared in those three years while Zach remained in the shadows, is it?'

'While reconciliation rumours with his ex Mia surface, Zach apparently dumped his mistress and former secretary Anna, who 'resigned' from work about a few weeks ago, and flew home to Idaho just this weekend.'

'Mistress.'

'Mistress.'

'Mistress.'

More minutes than what could be counted on one hand passed, and Anna still remained just as she was when she finished reading that insulting article. She felt blank. Frozen. Numb. Stony. Empty. Except she wasn't. She wasn't empty. She was so full of emotions to the brim that she felt she was going to tear herself down to let them all out.

She didn't quite care about how the slight drizzles turned into full fledged rains or how that rain water soaked her completely. Or her phone, that just lay beside her, was now full of water and had switched itself off. With water dripping down her hair and the full clothes she had worn, the sweatshirt feeling all the more heavy with all the water it was soaked in, she just stared at the grass below, with her lips parted, her concentration focused on her breathing because she felt if she didn't, she'd either hyperventilate or feel too suffocated to breathe. 

The sky thundered overhead and soon, lightning flashed across the sky that quickly changed from shades of lilac to lavender with a very heavy grey, threatening to take over the sky as a sudden storm broke out. The wind gusted, and loudly so, leaves of the trees rustling and the grasses bending. Windows of the adjacent houses rattled with the sudden wind and Anna knew her neighbours would come to shut them completely and probably see her this way, but she couldn't care about what they thought when she was already burdening herself with everything going on in her head.

She just stared at the grasses with open eyes until they burned so much that water formed in them and she had to blink, but the water soon formed into tears that she had been holding in all this while.

She let tears freely run down her face and mix with the rain water as she hugged her knees close to her chest, completely breaking down right there, to a point she didn't even know why she was crying anymore. Maybe, because this all felt like a nightmare. Or maybe, she was crying because she fell in love with all her heart for the first time ever, and time and again, the universe left no shortage to show her how she was never meant to find that love in the first place, as if it was never meant to be, as if she'd fought against the wishes of the stars to snatch those days from fate and now this was destiny's way of getting back at her. It was a stupid reason, but to blame the God and her stars and the universe and every other supernatural force seemed perfectly logical to her, because if she didn't find logic in that, she'd end up blaming herself or Zach, and she was ready to do neither.

But one thing she didn't know was for how long could she go on like this?

She stood at a point in their story where she was too afraid to flip the page ahead and start the next chapter, as well as too scared to revisit the old ones. And from how she saw it, she stood alone.

He wasn't here.

And so, she thought of doing the only thing she thought she should.

Shut the book and burn it all away. She wanted it all to be over. And as selfish as it sounded, it was easier to burn the book then let herself burn.

What she didn't want to acknowledge was, whether she chooses to read ahead or not- either ways, the story would go on. It always does. Burning the book doesn't magically vanish all the chapters you don't wish to read.

And no matter what she said to herself to pacify her in that moment, truth was, she was the one on fire. Not him. Not them. Just her. And he was the only one who could save her, but wanting to save her could mean entangling himself into the webs of lies and reform them to make a truth, which would in turn mean giving his side of the story to the media, which was not as easy as it sounded. He had once made the mistake of thinking it was easy to tell the world the truth, and it had led to the formation of the biggest scandal three years ago, that had not just affected him or Mia or Daniel but his family and his bandmates and his company too. And Anna knew trying to do it again could as well mean history repeating itself.

So while he could save her from burning into ashes, question being: Would he?

After all, he had been seen with his Mia again. And he didn't bother telling her about him. 

And if this was history repeating itself, then their relationship was doomed to failure right from the beginning.

It was just like the media articles in the tabloids had written. Dating a celebrity wasn't all about the upsides. And, taming the playboy wasn't as easy as all the romance novels had taught her to be. Anna was just afraid about having to learn that truth in the hard way.

*       *        *