Chapter 7: Ned to get Lost

Some souls need to be lost before they get shattered by the same hand.

~ARLET~

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The morning brings faith to our lives, and we should always embrace it wholeheartedly. There will be terrible nights, but the hope of dawn will keep you alive. This is what my mother advised me, and from that day, I used to thank God for every morning he showed me, pleasing or not, but it still has some hope.

The dawn light sprayed through sheer curtains quietly knocked on my sealed peer, letting me open my visions and balance the cornea.

The sight was not expected like my typical basement view, but an enormous living room with shattered vases pieces to the ground, an explicit reminder of my changed life.

I got up and looked around. As envisioned, I was alone in the house.

With a deliberate walk, I sat on the couch, unsure of what to do next.

The door creaked open and thought to see Ruben navigate my mind, but Magda, the housekeeper, greeted my sight.

“Hello, Mam, how are you?” There was an uptight concern in her peer for me, watching the mess I welcomed her in.

Deliberately I searched around to write something. “It’s ok, Trevor informed me.”

“Would you like to freshen up? And later I will do some bandage on your feet.”

Quietly, I followed her upstairs and realized this house was more magnificent than I predicted. She opened the door, and my eyes widened with the welcoming view, gorgeous tapestry, and glass walls.

“Here,” she placed my duffle bags on the floor, thinking this was what I had brought from home.

“Do you need my help to arrange your belongings?”

Indeed, Debbie wanted to throw me out as soon as possible, and she must have shoved my clothes, my parent’s picture, and my journals in these bags. I shook my head and let her continue her work.

“I will make breakfast for you.” She smiled and directed me toward the bathroom. Opening my bags, I found out Debbie had missed so many clothes back in there, and the one she packed was my best dress.

Examining the surroundings, even my finest attires seems like a bag of cloth dust here, but do I have an option?

She stuffed my parents’ picture in that bag, and the tears rose, thinking how my life would be different if they were here. They must have looked after me from all this affront.

But it was not the time to cry, but to stand and prepare for the day. Now that I am here, I have to find out what I need to do now. I grabbed my plain white cotton dress and headed toward the bathroom.

Ruben, it must hurt him. Who would understand him better than me, the slap of rejection and the pain of betrayal? He must be heartbroken, but will he know it was not my fault? I was being framed.

I came down to see Magda had cleaned the living room. The freshly brewed coffee caught my nose, and I followed the direction and reached the kitchen.

“Hello, Mam, you look wonderful.” She placed freshly made pancakes and boiled eggs in front of me.

“I am sorry, forgot to ask you what you would like to have.” I was never asked what I wanted to have. All I did for the last five years was serve others and eat the leftovers. Delighted, I grabbed another plate and gestured for her to have breakfast with me.

“No, no, mam, we are not allowed.” I picked up a piece of paper from her apron and a pen from the kitchen counter and wrote.

Please call me Arlet.

I would appreciate it if you could have breakfast with me.

“Are you sure?” I nodded and pulled a chair for her next to mine.

We ate our breakfast in silence. But not that I wanted to, but my eager eyes searching and wanting to know about Ruben.

When a vehicle stopped outside the mansion, we heard the brake screech piercing the room’s silence. Magda hopped and sprinted to get a view of the responsible person, and her eyes cocked toward me, warning of a perfect storm heading towards me.

Before I could grab the same sight, we heard the door open, and someone headed upstairs. My impatient eyes wanted to take a feed off his feature, but Magda stopped me.

“I have never seen him get this furious. Is everything alright?”

That was not the correct question when someone was betrayed and left at the altar. Surely she must have considered I was the woman he loved. And I must know the reason behind his suffering. But how could I explain to Magda why her boss was upset?

He was supposed to get married to my sister. But she left.

Still holding my pen on the period, I met her gaze, and she cupped her mouth in shock.

“Oh! My God.”

“Did he even know you?” It was an unfortunate question, and now I knew the answer when he asked me last night who the fuck I was.

I pressed the pen on the paper, but we heard something slam on the floor before that. Magda followed the voice, and I saw her expression change, scanning something unexpected. Reaching the point where I could match her sight, my eyes stuck on the floor, where I saw my parents’ picture frame shattered into pieces.

My eyes welled with tears, and I looked up at the man who knocked another bag from the mezzanine.

“Who the heck kept this trash in my room?” He thundered with hatred, darting towards me.

Magda stuttered, but my entire focus shifted to the frame wrecked in front of me.

“I am sorry. Boss. I.. thought...” Magda answered. She must have thought keeping his wife’s bag in his room would be good enough, as from now his wife belongs in his room.

I kneeled and started picking every particle that belonged to me. There was no hope this morning, and I did not see any dawn coming. The tears dropped on the shattered glass, but it would not glue it back. It’s better to get lost before he destroys my every being again.

He sauntered back to his room-filling the place with his hateful voice only for me, and I didn’t dare to look at him again because I knew he had that last weapon to perish me off.

“Arlet,” Magda kneeled next to me, helping me with my devastated hopes lying on the floor.

“He is not a bad man. It’s just that he is broken.”

So was I. But I would never hurt another person because I was in pain. It’s about the choice.

I gave her a thin smile and pulled my bags close to me. How strange my entire being crumbled into two sacks and a broken frame.

“Wait, let me shift you into the guest room.” I smiled thinly, watching her effort to make me feel at home when everything inside me wanted to run away from here, including the man who now called my husband.

She took my stuff, and I followed her to the room on the same floor.

She opened the door, and to my expectation, it was as beautiful as the previous one and better than my basement rat hole.

“You can stay here.” Magda smiled and patted my shoulder.

My eyes landed on a doll resting in the corner. Picking it up, I showed it to Magda.

“Oh, this, this belongs to our little princess.”

Ruben’s daughter, but where is she?

“She is staying with her grandparents, as you know, newly wedded couple, and...” Magda added when Ruben called her out.

“Raya is coming. Make yourself ready and stop attending to unnecessary issues and people.” Ruben’s voice cordially spoke to my senses. I would never become the one he wanted to see in this lifetime.