Part 72

72

"Daddy, where's Mama?" Vano asked, following Carlos, who stood at the doorway. He scanned the room, looking for his wife among the extended family gathered for Vano and Celine's wedding.

"Mama, what do you mean? Didn't your mom enter with you and the others earlier?" Carlos responded.

"Yes, but Auntie said Mama left with Margareth. She said you asked for it, Daddy."

"I never asked for anything, I swear! Wait a minute." Carlos paused. "That means Chelsea and Margareth left in a car?"

"Yes, she said there was..."

"Margareth, damn it!" Carlos cursed as he rushed out of the room, with Vano following closely behind.

"Why, Dad?" Vano tried to keep up with Carlos.

"Why did you let Margareth take Chelsea with her? She's clearly a madwoman, and you all were so careless."

"I'm sorry, Dad."

Vano and Carlos hurried to the car, chasing after Margareth and Chelsea. They hoped that this foreboding feeling was something only they experienced.

"Van, why did you leave? What about our wedding!?" Celine shouted, running after Vano. She didn't care about her kebaya; what mattered was getting clarity on her wedding with Vano.

"We'll have to postpone it. There's something more important than our wedding," Vano replied before getting into the car with Carlos. He didn't care if Celine would be angry or call off the wedding. What mattered was ensuring his mother was safe because if something bad happened to Chelsea, Vano would never forgive himself. After all, Chelsea had entered the house with him, but he had casually allowed Margareth to take his stepmother away.

"Daddy can only pray to the Lord that your mom is under His protection."

Vano nodded, gripping the seatbelt tightly, as he silently joined his father in prayer.

However, during their journey, Carlos abruptly stopped the car when he saw a crowd of people in the middle of the road. Not far from that crowd, he also noticed another group of people surrounding a metallic black sedan—a car he was very familiar with.

Carlos' body instantly tensed as he imagined what the state of the car would look like, given the accident that had befallen his late wife.

Carlos would have wished for his own death if Chelsea was indeed in that car because the sedan was completely mangled and unrecognizable.

"Dad, isn't that Aunt Adinda's car?" Vano pointed to the sedan. He rushed out to check if it was indeed their family's car, leaving Carlos stunned.

Fortunately, Carlos didn't have a history of heart disease. Otherwise, he would have been rushed to the hospital by now.

Pushing through the crowd to get a closer look at whose car had been in the accident, Vano froze when he saw a lifeless body lying on the roadside, ready to be covered with newspaper. Vano stopped it from happening.

"Wait, I want to see who the victim is because this is my aunt's car," he said, stopping a bystander who was about to cover the body.

"Oh, so this is your relative's car, sir? Of course, you can take a look first to confirm if it's your aunt."

One of the bystanders prepared Vano to approach and see for himself.

"Aunt Margareth?" he mumbled, almost collapsing on the asphalt when he saw Margareth lying there. Her face was unrecognizable, but Vano remembered the kebaya she had been wearing earlier that morning. He didn't need any tests to convince himself that it was Margareth.

"So, is she indeed your aunt?" a bystander asked.

Vano shook his head. "She means nothing to me, but where is the woman who was with her? Tell me where she is." Vano began to panic as he looked for Chelsea.

"Chelsea, where are you? Mama, where are you? Say something, Ma. Where's Mama?" Vano cried out, just like when he had shouted for his late mother when he was searching for her whereabouts.

Vano continued to call out and cry, inspecting the shapeless wreck of the sedan.

"There's only one person involved in the accident, sir, the one inside the car."

Vano stopped in his tracks, looking at a middle-aged woman who had touched his arm. "Are you sure there was only one person in the car?"

"I'm a witness to the accident; there was only one person inside because the other person jumped out of the car just before it collided with the truck," the middle-aged woman pointed towards the crowd near the car.

Vano managed a relieved smile and was about to thank her when he trembled, uttering one word.

"Chelsea."

He hurriedly ran towards another group of people and found Chelsea, who was already in his father's arms.

"Daddy, mama?"

Carlos nodded his head the same as Vano, the man seemed to be crying holding his wife who was covered in blood. Vano immediately gave the signal to the residents to step back and give way for his parents to pass. He would drive to the hospital and leave Carlos with Chelsea in the back seat.

There was no sound between them, Vano focused on the busy highway while Carlos hugged Chelsea, crying silently hoping that God would not take his wife. He swore that he would destroy Margareth's life after this."

"Daddy doesn't need to think about anything else right now because we will never be able to avenge what Aunt Margaret did to Mama because she is already dead."

"You mean?"

Carlos raised his head.

"I'll tell you later, we better focus on Mama first." Carlos did not answer Vano's statement again.

15 minutes of travel is very long but that's how it is. Even though Vano tried, he still couldn't shorten the distance because they didn't use an ambulance, so it was very difficult for the man to get through the traffic jam.

However, that is not a problem now because now Chelsea has arrived at the emergency room and is being treated by several doctors and nurses at once. Because the woman is currently pregnant too.

"What happened between Daddy and Aunt Margaret outside that he invited Mama to commit suicide like this?" Vano asked after a few minutes of the two of them sitting in front of the emergency room waiting for the doctor to do his job.

"What do you mean?" Carlos' pale face turned towards Vano.

"As far as I remember, when we all went into Celine's house, I didn't see Aunt Margareth. "That means he was with Daddy outside, what were you talking about that made Aunt Margaret offended and did this to Mama Daddy."

"Never spoke to Margaret, for God's sake Daddy swears by anything, never discussed anything with her even if he only said one word. In Daddy's mind, when you and Chelsea got out of the car, he was there with you. In fact….” Carlos paused for his words, remembering what he had done before entering Celine's house and then realizing that his wife was not there.

"Daddy doesn't talk to Margareth, but he doesn't come with you. "That means he heard Daddy's conversation in the car earlier."

"What conversation?' Vano knitted his eyebrows together.

"The person sent by Daddy contacted and conveyed to Daddy what investigations he had carried out.

"So?"

"So all this time, Margaret was the one who took her own husband's life in order to get a divorce certificate, she was also not a good woman and had been selling herself all this time even though she was already in a relationship with Daddy. "That means all this time what Chelsea said was true, I'm very grateful to be free from that snake woman."

"Unfortunately we can't give any punishment because he died in the accident earlier, I clearly saw his body lying there."

"Is she already dead?"

"Yes, Dad," mumbled Vano, his lip curled slightly. He wondered how he would ever settle the score with that woman, as it seemed that God had chosen to take Margareth's life rather than letting him seek revenge.

"It's better if you go back to Celine's house and proceed with your wedding. It's not good to keep them waiting too long; they might think you're breaking your promise."

"I don't care what they think because, if they had any conscience at all, they wouldn't be angry and would understand that we're going through a tragedy."

"Suit yourself; right now, Dad has a headache," Carlos said, attempting a smile, though he didn't feel like smiling at all.

Carlos couldn't even summon the strength to breathe. Chelsea remained in a deep slumber, refusing to wake up despite 13 hours in the ICU.