บท 51: Congratulations

[Later in the evening.]

"How many people do live here?" Lillian couldn't hold her curiosity back as her green orbs tried to get all of it in. She was left awestruck by the lush green back garden of the mansion.

The freshly mowed grass felt more soft than a fancy floor carpeting under her bare feet. She had thrown her slippers away right after getting settled on her chair. She wanted her soles to feel the cold wetness of the grass, hoping that the ground would suck away all of her tiredness.

She had tried sleeping for a while after she was left alone in her new room, but no matter how much she tried to sleep, it refused to come to her. She had even tried lying in the same posture with her eyes shut and the lights dimmed off, but she couldn't doze off. There was so much going on in her mind that her body refused to relax.

She was hoping that spending some time out in the fresh air, surrounded by nothing but trees and flowers would somehow help her mind to calm down.

"Actually, it's just the staff for now." Katherine was the one who replied to her after seeing that Blake had no plans to do so.

"Just the staff?" Lillian gave her a puzzled look.

"Yes, only the caretaker of the place and a bunch of staff people live here now. Their job is to make sure that this place stays clean and all tidy." Katherine explained to her.

"What about you two?" Lillian couldn't hold her curiosity back and asked her.

"Blake got too busy after taking over the organization that he barely got any free time to return to the mansion. So, he slowly shifted his belongings to the base. It was his way of saving some time from going back and forth between the two places." Katherine took a pause as she brought the cup of her coffee close to her lips and took a small sip of the warm liquid.

"He used to at least visit the place when I was staying here, but with me moving out of the place, he had no reason to return." She continued.

"Why did you move out?" Lillian asked her once again.

"I have to leave for France to finish my degree." Katherine answered her with a shrug. "It was hard for me to go back and forth between the two places, so I thought it would be better for me to stay in one place."

"She is only here for a couple of days before she has to go back to Paris." Blake, who had been quiet for a while, finally spoke up, interrupting the girl's conversation. He was pointing out indirectly, how Lillian shouldn't get too attached to his beloved twin sister, but what he heard next wasn't something he was expecting to happen anytime soon.

"Oh, no! Not this time. I am here to stay for longer." Katherine shook her head before she took another sip of her coffee. "You want your coffee to get cooled down before you could have it." She turned her attention back to Lillian and pointed out how she hadn't even touched it.

"No, no. I don't like it too hot." Lillian mumbled as her eyes came to linger over the piping hot coffee. "And that's great if you are going to stay here." She added, giving Katherine a wide smile. She found talking to the girl much easier than her brother who always had this expressionless resting face.

"What do you mean by that?" Blake interrupted the two ladies once again after being silent for a couple of seconds. He was processing Katherine's words, trying to make out what she actually meant by them.

"I mean what I said." Katherine replied back in a nonchalant manner. "I will be staying in Berlin for much longer this time." She added to clarify her statement.

"If you will stay here, then who's going to finish your studies? Me? Or her?" He added the latter part while pointing towards Lillian.

"No one, because I did it already." Katherine spoke up. There was a proud smile resting on the curve of her lips. "Did I forget to mention this to you?" She frowned as she observed the shock on Blake's face. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

"What do you mean by that Katherine?" He leaned forward and questioned his sisters. As far as he knew, there was another year left before she was supposed to get her degree. Where did the year go? Did he miss on something?

"No, you didn't. It is I, who forgot to mention this before." Katherine gave her head a couple of shakes.

"Forgot to mention what?" Blake was starting to get annoyed by her way of revealing things.

"I wasn't enjoying my life back there too much, so I thought to finish the last two years together. It took me a while to get the chancellor to say yes to this, but she eventually had to agree with me after seeing how talented your sister was." Katherine rambled on.

"Are you trying to say that you are going to graduate this year instead of the next one?" Blake was still slightly confused.

"Yeah! You can say that." She shrugged again as if it was no big deal. To her family it actually wasn't. Blake had finished his degree in IT management two years before the said year, and since then he had done nothing but hone his skills more and more. So, Katherine didn't find herself finishing off her studies a year earlier weird.

"What are you going to do now?" Blake was left baffled and that was the only thing he could manage to ask. He had something planned for her, a surprise gift, but he had no idea what he would do now. It looked like he needed to up his game and get the thing a year in advance.

"I will do what everyone does to celebrate, party till I drop." Katherine chuckled leaving Lillian in an awkward place.

The girl had no idea how to respond to that except for congratulating her. "Congratulations." She mumbled softly. She couldn't help but get lost in her own thoughts. She couldn't recall when was the last time she had studied something or held a book.

"Thank you so much." Katherine replied to her like her usual overly enthusiastic self. "Blake, I have an idea. We should arrange a party before things go down for either of us. I want Lillian to enjoy herself as well." She suggested, knowing fully well that they have to go through with it anyway. After all, they were the Collins.

"I will see what I can do." Blake replied briefly as he glanced in Lillian's direction, watching her lost expressions. He didn't waste any more of his time before picking his own mug of coffee.