Chapter Six

“ Oh, hi, Angelo right?” He asked, smiling with his perfect white teeth. No one could have such perfect teeth. He must've visited a good dentist.

“ Yes, officer. How're you doing?” I was still faking the smile.

“ I'm good”, he said in an almost singsong tone, “How about you? How are you doing?” There was something that seemed like sincere concern in his voice.

“ I'm good too. I just got discharged from the hospital and um….. my parents just wanted to get some groceries so we stopped by”, I wanted to say more, but I feared that I might stammer.

“ Oh, that's great. I see you've met Diamo”, he said, looking at the little man that was tugging at his feet.

“ Yeah, so sorry I bumped into him, I wasn't paying attention”.

“ No need to bother. He doesn't listen so a little bump wouldn't hurt”, he said and we both chuckled. His chuckle drenched my soul, it was like irrigating a desertified area, and the little guy's laughs flashed a torchlight in the darkness of my soul.

“ Well, he's such a charmer, isn't he?”

“ He sure is, but he can also be a pain in the ass when you want him to”, he said and we all chuckled again, with Diamo laughing the loudest, as if aware of the allegations his father was throwing against him.

“ Well, we gotta go. See you around”, he said, clamping the grocery bags together, each finger holding one bag, and then holding his son with the other hand.

“ Okay, bye”, I said and waved slightly. I didn't want them to go, it felt as if there was something that I was supposed to say which I didn't say, and only when I saw the “ thank you for buying from us” poster inside the mall did I realize that I had not thanked him for saving me from drowning and talking a little bit of sense into me. I felt like running outside to look for them but it was obvious that they had left already, and there was no way I could contact him. Well, I could go to the station where he worked and demand to see him, but that was another issue, because I didn't know which one he worked at and there were about thirteen stations in the city. I could hire a private investigator to get me the information I need, but it was merely an idea born out of watching too many movies.

At least he said " see you around", not bye. Doesn't that mean that he believes that we will still meet again? Even his tone wasn't a finalizing one, so there was still hope, right?

I tried to believe that, but it seemed pretty obvious that we were never going to meet again, especially not when I was living on the other part of the city.

But wait, what if he said “ see you around” because he was still expecting his thank you response? Oh my God, now that was a crisis.

It felt as if the world went vague when I got home. Everywhere was still scattered, the ring light that my makeup artist was using was still on, and the cake, my wedding cake was there in the sitting room, still looking elegant and untouched. Alberto had picked a cute four-step white cake with two straight tie designs on the top, and as I stared at it with a broken heart, I imagined what it would've been like to hold hands with Diego and cut the cake. It would've been wonderful. I could've done it, I almost did it.

I wiped the tears off my eyes and went straight to the fridge. I pulled out a bottle of milk and a glass and took a knife from the kitchen, settled on the sofa, turned on the television and switched to Modern Family, and cut myself a huge slice of cake, and as I ate the cake and drank the milk while watching Sofia Vegara and her funny antics, I thought to myself “ life isn't actually that hard”. I couldn't cut the cake at my wedding, but at least I got to cut it and eat it comfortably in my living room.

“ I'm done being a corporate lawyer”, I said to Alberto when he came to visit.

He scoffed, a smirk growing in the side of his lips, “ you're not serious, are you?”

“ I am. I am quitting the job at the law firm”, I said.

“ Wait, wait, first of all, you can only say you're quitting when you've actually started the job, not when you are supposed to start getting ready to start the job, and secondly, where the hell did it all come from? You've always wanted to be a badass corporate lawyer signing off deals and preparing contracts for large corporations and institutions, and you were so excited about this new job of yours, so why the sudden change?” He asked, sitting on my couch with one foot on the couch and the other on the ground, with his long lashes right back on track.

He was right. Ever since we had a career guide tour back in highschool, I had always dreamed of being a corporate lawyer, working behind the scenes and being a legal boss in the business world. But something changed. Maybe it was because of what happened or something else, but I was sure that something changed.

“ I don't know, it just feels like something changed, or rather that I changed. I've been reading documentaries of people who were victims of sex crimes and I don't know, I just felt this burning desire to defend them or something, I can't just explain it”.

“ Oh, so that was the reason”, he rolled his eyes, but in them I could still see that he was concerned. He didn't want to say it, the word, that the reason was because I was raped, he didn't want to say it.

“ I don't know, I can't say that it is the only reason, I just feel like it's calling on to me”.

“ Of course, prince Moana, the light at the end of the sea calls you and no one knows how far it goes”, he joked and laughed while I rolled my eyes.

“ I'm serious”, I said, feigning annoyance.

“ Okay, I know you are”, he came and sat close to me, “ I know you are. And I support you all the way, but you do know that you will have to become a prosecutor, like, a damn prosecutor”, he said and we both laughed. We both hated prosecutors, especially after seeing their characters portrayed in K-dramas.

“ I know that”.

“ Well, if that is what you want, then so be it”, he said and hugged me playfully.

The next morning, I woke up early, dressed up, left my house, and submitted my resignation letter at the law firm that had employed me.

I made my way to the city's judiciary council, and as I stopped in front of the office complex to take in the breath of fresh air, I knew that it was a new beginning, a fresh start. My wounds were still healing, there were probably going to leave scars, but it was still a fresh start, for my carrer. This I knew, but I never knew that it was also going to be a starting point for something else, something magical and lovely, something true.