Chapter 8

Nathaniel opened his refrigerator and grabbed a canned drink from the arrays.

He walked over to his study table, sitting down while taking sips from the opened can. His window was opened which gave way to the cool breeze that came into the room at instances.

He was going through the court case he has finished preparing.

It had being assigned to him by his head at the Elizalde Firm he worked at.

Finishing the canned drink, he closed the file and stood up to the side of his door to dispose off the can.

On walking back, his gaze caught one of the photos that hung on the wall.

It was from his childhood, it was a photo of Morgana from her school graduation.

She was also in the other photo frames on his wall but they had taken them together.

The one he was staring was the only one of the took alone and he had made it extremely larger than the others, hanging it in the middle of them all.

He walked up to where it was and touched her face.

Then her lips that curved into a smile in the photo.

His thoughts drifted to the day and how hard it had been to make her smile for the camera.

She had kept a straight face, like she did in the other photos and has refused smiling even though it was for the occasion of her graduation from highschool.

He had promised sending her abroad if she smiled but she waded it off thinking he was trying to get her to laugh.

Seeing as she did not believe him, he had gotten a paper from his bag and put it into writing, stamping it with the Elizalde Firm's emblem he had with him since he had also just recently graduated from law school and joined the firm.

On seeing it, she had smiled. Not at his efforts towards making her smile, but because he had seemed like a clown in public, like she had put it.

"I only smiled because I did not want your friends to laugh at you. Imagine being the nation's clown when you're a certified law graduate" he remembered how she had put it.

She had then moved to take the signed and stamped promise from him and had torn it into pieces, throwing them into the air.

" I won't be traveling abroad Nathe, I will stay in Montenegro. I will never go far from Montenegro not unless the Montenegro's fell" she had added after shredding the papers.

" It's been years Ana, haven't you forgiven them yet" he had murmured to himself, dying the words at his lips before they came out.

He stared at her and smiled. Extending one of his hands to her head and rumbling her hair.

It was a happy occasion for her and he had not wanted to ruin it with her caged memories and trauma.

He picked up his phone and logged into the Social Media App BookFace.

He typed "Morgana Liam" and searched for it but no familiar face showed up on any of the accounts that beared the name.

He repeated it on Geegle and nothing came out of it either.

The same way it had been for the last Twenty years. It was as if every trace of her had been wiped out across all social media platforms.

He walked back from where he stood and went back to his study table.

He picked up his calendar and circled the date.

He flipped it backwards and saw all the whole other days he had circled the dates.

It had been 20 years already.

He always circled the date of each day, countless times, depending how many times thoughts of he crossed his mind.

The other day he had circled it more than twenty times with different colour pencils.

"Where did you go, Morgana. Where did you go to for the past Ten years" he asked himself and the air as if the birds of the sky would take his questions to her wherever she was.

He went to his gallery and opened the folder he has dedicated just for her.

All memories they shared.

He began to scroll through as he watched the photos.

Then he reached the photo of a file.

He reached out to the drawer in the chair at his study and pulled it out, taking the file in the photo out of it.

```

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF ELIZALDE FIRMHOUSE

COUNTY OF ELIZALDE

Nathaniel v. Mr. Montenegro, Governor of Montenegro

Case No. EFH-2024-001

On October 2010, in Lomanlinda, Mr. Montenegro, Governor of Montenegro, allegedly committed the following actions leading to the death of Mr. and Mrs. Liam

```

He read and stopped midway beginning to tear up.

"Morgana..... " He called out and cried.

"If I knew I would have lost you this way, I wouldn't have dated send you abroad, Morgana I'm sorry" he continued sobbing as if she could hear him.

His thoughts flashed back to the incident that happened ten years ago, the incident that changed everything and separated him from Morgana.

"We need to arrest my papa's killer Nathe" Morgana sobbed holding on to his hand at the front of the airport they stood.

." You can't send me away please" she continued crying.

" You promised you'd arrest them when you became a lawyer. You're already a lawyer but I overheard your friends talking about how you withdrew the case. Is it because he's the governor? Is it because their family is rich? Is it because I am poor and cannot pay you the way they would do if you withdrew the case?" Her hands left his and she pushed him at his chest.

" You fuckkng promised me!! You fuckkng promised me that you'd give me a graduation gift. You fuckkng promised that you'd put them behind bars. Now you want to send me abroad? You're a fuckkng liar!! You're a cheater!! You can't even keep your words. Why did you make the promise in the first place. I fuckkng hate you Nathe, I fuckkng hate you!!!"

He tried to pacify her, clamping her head into his arms and trying to make her stare at him.

" I love you Morgana. I love you alot and that's why I can't let you get hurt. I don't know what I'd be able to do if I lost you two.. Please don't hate me. My mother , she hated me and abandoned me and my father, you know, please don't hate me too. I can ot live without you. I promise, even though you go to Canada and start going to college for your MBA, I'd always visit you. Even if I exhaust all of my savings coming to Canada, I will borrow money from anyone I can. But please don't hate me. I am doing this for your sake, I am doing this for your safety. Please go to Canada and continue schooling there. I promise, I'd stay back here and find more evidence to put the governor and his family behind bars like you've always wanted. I promise you" he sobbed too, explaining to the much smaller girl in front of him.

People entering the airport would occasionally stare at them and at him especially. He knew what must have been going on in their heads. He was twenty four afterall and had the body of a grown man, whereas Morgana was eighteen but had a much smaller stature.

He took his hands away from her head, noticing that the position did not quite send a good message across to the people.

"Move away, I hate you! Stop making any more promises to me, you're just good at giving excuses all the time" she blurted and cleaned her eyes.

Reaching out, she snatched the passport and documents that were in his hand.

Nathe caught her gaze.

" I'm sorry Morgana, please don't hate me. I'm sorry for booking a flight without telling you, I'm sorry for applying to a college on your behalf, I'm sorry for tricking you and bringing you to the airport, please I'm sorry" he kept begging but the girl did not pay attention.

Instead she allowed tears to stream down her eyes as she carried the traveling bag and began to walk away from him, into the airport, without looking back.

" I'm sorry Morgana" " Morgana I'm sorry" he followed her, but maintaining a reasonable distance.

People stared at him as if he were a psychopath but he paid no necessary attention to them. His eyes were fixed on Morgana who continued walking away without looking back.

In a frenzy, he collided with other passerby's as he was not looking at his front while walking. Getting back his grip, he stared but could not see Morgana again.

He began to scan his surroundings carefully until he caught sight of her almost entering the boarding gate.

"MORGANA" the screamed on top of his lungs calling attention to himself and ran with all his might, up the stairs.

He reached but she had already entered without looking back to bade him farewell.

He tried entering but was restricted by the security.

"Please let me just see her one last time before she goes" he pleaded.

" She has not even told me goodbye yet, sh did not look back at me. How am I going to cope? Please, let me see her one last time and apologize properly" he lamented and begged but they still did not grant him entry as he had no valid pass with him.

" I haven't even told her how much I love her yet. I haven't told her that I loved her more than a sister. MORGANA, I love you, please come out and greet me, Morgana"

He continued, Minding not the apprehensive gazes and looks he earned from people. Some who had already started making videos of him.

His outbursts we're later halted when some security men came and took him out of the airport.

Morgana was gone, away from him, without a proper goodbye.

What pained his heart most was that she left angry at him. She left with a ruined soul. He had shattered the remaining pieces of her shattered heart.