CHAPTER SEVEN

******BILLY'S POV******

It's crazy how fast life can turn on you. One second, you think you've got a grip on everything, and the next, it all slips right through your fingers like water—impossible to hold and impossible to recover.

It's been two months. Two agonizing months since my life has transformed into something I no longer recognize. I won't say my life was great before, but definitely not like this

It’s now a nightmare.

Where do I even begin? Where do I start from? I didn't even know.

But I’ll say it all started after having sex with a stranger who vanished into thin air the next morning.

The following morning, I got sacked from my job with the manager saying, "We have standards here, and you know the rules about fraternizing with guests.”

I knew I deserved to be punished as I broke the rules, but I never expected it would be me getting sacked.

When I lost my job at that hotel that day, I didn't even fight it, as that’s just one of my multiple jobs, but it’s just that it's one of my highest paying jobs. And moreover, because I really did enjoy what I felt throughout that night, and I could still dream about it every night.

Sometimes I still crave and long for his touches. A stranger whom I know nothing about.

But things turned different from my imagination when my mom suddenly got sick, and I used up all my savings to save her, including the one he left behind.

And next, I suddenly began to get sacked from all of my multiple jobs, and surprisingly, it all happened just within two days after I was fired from the hotel.

Each one of them told me they no longer needed my services and paid me for the time I had worked.

I begged. Kneel. Cried. God, I even did many things that bruised my ego, as I really needed those jobs. But it all fell on deaf their ears. I even told them that I'm ready to work for half my paycheck, but it’s as if I was irritating them more.

Some even had me dragged out of their workplaces, throwing me on the streets.

And in just three days, I became unemployed, with a lot of debt drowning me. Banks kept calling me for repayment. The landlord kept banging on our door for rent. Mom's remaining hospital bills are still there, and loan sharks even threatened to take Tiara and sell her into prostitution if I refused to pay.

I could see fear on Tiara's face that day—something I had never seen before. She didn't talk much throughout the entire day and had herself locked in the room. But when the morning came and I went to her room to call her out for breakfast, Tiara had vanished into thin air, leaving me a message not to find her as she was tired and fed up with everything.

Now I’m all alone with my mother, who sometimes doesn't even recognize me. The surgery was successful, but… there are side effects.

I applied for many jobs, no matter how small they are, but still got none. It was as If my name had been on their blacklist.

There’s even a time I thought luck had shined on me and I got an interview at one food company. Their criteria were simple, as the position was open to everyone and not just graduates from college. I went for the interview, and I was sure I got the job, as the interviewer nodded approvingly at my answers and even told me that I gave a good impression..

That night, I let myself dream that I would definitely get the job, but when morning came, the rejection email arrived at 6:13 AM. "We regret to inform you…”

I cried my eyes out throughout the entire day.

I felt as if the good door that had always been open for me had suddenly slammed shut in my face. I felt the entire world turning on me. I had no one to turn to, no one to call for help.

It was all me, carrying this heavy burden alone. My friend always tried her best to help, but she also has her family and I hate to become a burden on her, not when I also know how she's struggling.

I got tired of everything.

And one day, I was cleaning the house when I remembered the insurance policy I took. So I decided to end it all so my mother could get the money and live a better life.

The bridge over the river had always been beautiful to me. But that evening, it looked like an answer—the only answer I had left.

I didn't even bother to leave a note, as I didn't even know what to write or say your my mom. After taking me in and suffering on me, I decided to end my life. I’m sure she would curse me even in death.

I shut my eyes and told myself that it would be fast, so I jumped into the river. But it wasn't really as fast as I expected. The death didn't come quickly as I had expected. I was struggling to breathe in the water; there was even a certain point that I wanted to scream for help, but as I opened my mouth, the water filled all my lungs.

It wasn't that easy. Drowning to death.

It was torture and very slow. I should have just run in front of an oncoming car. That would be faster than drowning.

Later, I lost consciousness after a lot of struggling. I thought everything went well, and by the time I woke up, I was expecting it to be in heaven or even in hell—but it was in the hospital.

It seemed I chose a bad time to commit suicide, and I was rescued by an older woman and her grandson, who saw me jumping in.

Hearing that they rescued me, as I opened my mouth to talk, the first thing I said was:

"Why?" I screamed at them. Her grandson flinched back, startled. "Why couldn't you just let me go? Who asked you to meddle in my matter? Did I ask you to save me?!!" My voice was raw, broken by sobs that seemed to come from somewhere deeper than my chest.

But the old woman didn't even flinch at my rage. She just watched me with knowing eyes until my screams dissolved into whimpers.

I broke down and cried again and again, my voice filling the hospital and many eyes on me.

Knowing that all hope isn't lost and there’s always a second time. Although it wasn't going to be easy. I ripped out the IV from my hand, ready to find another way out and try it again.

That's when she said it—words that froze my blood mid-flow:

"If you want to die, you can die. But why do you have to take that innocent soul along with you?"

The words hit me like lightning, and that’s when I found out that I was a month pregnant. Pregnant for a man I knew nothing about. It seemed the contraceptive I took didn't work, as I took it late because I was trying to save my mother, forgetting to take it earlier.

Life always has a hard way of hitting one hard, and it just hit me again. But this time, it really hit me hard.

I spent days afterward searching for him online. A man called Lorenzo, as I knew he must be connected to the Lorenzo family. But among the Lorenzo family tree on the internet, there’s no one that looked like him.

Neither was there any trace of him among the city's elite families. No social media presence. No business profiles. It’s as if he had existed only for that one night, as if I had imagined him.

So here I am. No job. No money. And a baby I never planned for, with a father who has vanished like morning mist. A baby who deserves better than to be born into this mess I've made.

Yet this same baby has become the one thing I cannot abandon. The one responsibility I cannot shirk. And because of this small life, I chose to live again—against all odds.