MasukShare
39
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-04-30 15:26:55
Bab terbaru
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 51. The Vow of the Daughter
The bedroom was filled with the scent of cardboard boxes and packing tape, the universal aroma of a life about to shift. But amidst the standard chaos of a high school graduate preparing for university, one wall remained a sanctuary of obsession. It was a mosaic of shadows: hundreds of newspaper clippings, some yellowed by time, others crisp and freshly printed.Every headline bore the same name. Budi Cahyadi.Lina stood before the collage, her eyes tracking the trajectory of a monster. There he was in his fifties, shaking hands with ministers; there he was in his sixties, receiving a "Man of the Year" award. In the most recent photo, he was an aging lion, silver-haired and sharp-eyed, his face a mask of impenetrable arrogance."The scholarship letters arrived today," a voice said from the doorway.Lina didn’t turn. She knew the sound of Maria’s footsteps—they had grown heavier over the years, weary with the burden of what she knew her daughter was becoming."I know, Ibu. Faculty of L
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 50. The Truth in the Shadows
The atmosphere in Lina’s bedroom was suffocating, thick with the dust of unearthed secrets. Maria sat on the edge of the mattress, her frame appearing smaller, more fragile than Lina had ever seen. Between them lay the note—that yellowed, tear-stained scrap of paper—pulsing with the energy of a live wire."Sit down, Lina," Maria said, her voice weighted with a decade of suppressed truth. "Please. My legs can no longer carry the height of this lie."Lina sat, though her body remained as rigid as stone. Her eyes were fixed on the word. "Tell me everything, Ibu. No more metaphors about wind and seeds. I want the truth. Plain and cold."Maria took a shuddering breath, her fingers twisting the hem of her apron. "I don't know her name, Lina. I don't know where she came from or where the wind took her after that night. All I saw was a shadow. A woman standing in the mouth of the alleyway, drenched to the bone, watching me take you inside. She looked like a ghost that had forgotten how to hau
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 49. The Locked Drawer
The house felt too quiet since Papa Hendra had passed away. The silence wasn’t just an absence of noise; it was a heavy, suffocating blanket that settled in the corners of the rooms. Twelve-year-old Lina sat on the floor of the hallway, staring at the high shelf of the linen closet.Ibu Maria was still at the school, likely grading papers to avoid coming home to the emptiness. Lina, however, was restless. The "Wind Seed" story that had once enchanted her now felt like a thin, tattered veil. She was old enough to know that seeds don't just fly; they are planted, or they are dropped."There’s something up there," she whispered to the shadows. "Something Ibu doesn't want me to see."She dragged a heavy wooden chair from the kitchen, balanced a footstool on top of it, and climbed. Her fingers brushed against a stack of mothball-scented blankets. Shoving them aside, her hand struck something hard and cold.A wooden box. Small, dark, and locked.Lina scrambled down, her heart drumming a fra
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 48. The Garden of Secrets
The Jakarta sun was a fierce, golden weight, but under the shade of the mango tree in Maria’s backyard, the world felt cool and manageable. Five-year-old Lina was knee-deep in a patch of loose soil, her small hands caked in mud. She was a whirlwind of motion—bright-eyed, chaotic, and possessing a laugh that sounded like silver bells ringing through the house."Ibu, look! I found a worm! Is he the king of the garden?" Lina held up a wriggling earthworm with the pride of a conqueror.Maria looked up from her trowel, brushing a stray hair from her forehead with the back of her wrist. "He might be, Lina. But kings need their castles. Why don’t you tuck him back into the 'basement' of that marigold?""Okay!" Lina carefully patted the dirt. She worked with an intensity that Maria found both beautiful and terrifying. Every time she looked at Lina, she saw the "defiant spark" that the mysterious note had mentioned. It was there in the way she tilted her chin, in the way she asked *why* a hund
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 47. The Name on the Note
The rain had retreated to a rhythmic dripping from the roof gutters, but the air inside the kitchen remained charged with the electricity of the storm. Maria hadn’t slept. She sat at the wooden table, her hands wrapped around a ceramic mug of coffee that had long since gone cold.Her eyes, however, were fixed on the plastic laundry basket resting on the counter. It was lined with three layers of her softest yellow towels. Inside, the infant lay as still as a doll, her chest rising and falling in the deep, heavy sleep of the exhausted.Beside the mug lay the scrap of paper. The ink was jagged, bleeding into the fibers where droplets—too thick to be mere rain—had smeared the letters."Lina," Maria whispered. The name felt strange on her tongue, yet it carried a weight that seemed to anchor the room. "Lina. You have a name. You aren't just a ghost."The floorboards groaned in the hallway. Hendra walked in, his sarong tied loosely at his waist, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He stopped
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 46. The First Step into the Dark
The echo of the doorbell was still vibrating in the humid air when Sari reached the mouth of the narrow alleyway across the street. She pressed her body against the rough, damp brick, her breath coming in ragged stabs."Don't look back," she whispered to herself, her fingernails digging into her palms. "If you look back, you’ll run to her. If you run to her, you kill her."Across the street, the porch light of the cream-colored house flickered. The door creaked open, throwing a long, rectangular slice of yellow light across the wet pavement. Maria stepped out, clutching her robe tightly against the morning chill.Sari watched, her heart stopping in her chest."Hello?" Maria’s voice drifted through the quiet street. "Is someone there? It’s nearly four in the morning..."Maria took a step forward, her gaze scanning the empty road. Then, her eyes dropped to the woven mat. She froze. A sharp, audible gasp escaped her lips—a sound of pure shock that carried clearly to Sari’s hiding place.
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 37. The Diary
Leaving the mansion felt surreal. The air outside seemed fresher, lighter, but my mind was heavy with the words Mrs. Halimah had spoken. "It is not what you think," she had said. "Read the diary, and you will understand everything." True to her words, Lina went to the library as instructed. Behind
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 35. Secrets of Blood
I took the letter from Lina’s hand, holding it carefully as if it were made of fragile glass. The paper felt thick and expensive, and the handwriting was indeed elegant, with sweeping curves and loops, but there was a noticeable tremor in the strokes. It was the writing of someone elderly, whose ha
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 33. A New Generation
Time has a funny way of slipping through your fingers when you are truly happy. It felt like only yesterday that we were celebrating our renewal of vows, surrounded by love and the promise of a bright future. And yet, five years had flown by in the blink of an eye. Five years of peace, five years o
BENEATH THE SAME SKY 32. Peace at Last
The months that followed the final victory over Rico and the dismantling of the criminal network were unlike any time I had ever known. The frantic pace of danger, investigation, and running for our lives finally slowed down, allowing life to settle into a rhythm that was not just normal, but beaut
Anda juga akan menyukai
The Untouchable Ex-Wife
Mizuki Sei2.7M DibacaMy Best Friend's Father
Thorns632.0K DibacaThe Three Little Guardian Angels
Ginger Bud3.3M DibacaBound to the CEO
wandering jedi695.8K DibacaBitter Ex, Sweet Revenge; Ex-husband Desperate Pleas
S.T.Novelle18 DibacaThe Husband Who Wakes Up Loving Me (English)
Senyorita17 DibacaSuit and Scars: Claimed By The Biker Boss
Edwinayuss114 DibacaFull Moon Sin: Werewolf Mating
Arthur42 Dibaca
