Chapter 1: BIRTHDAY

(FOUR YEARS AGO...)

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Carla Christine POV

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As usual, I ate together with my parents, because today is my birthday. Our meals are special on my birthday, because Mommy and I cook what we will eat. The maids and others in the house have a day off until next week, but their salaries remain intact.

My parents always did that. Every time it’s my birthday, all their employees in the company and here at home send home or take a day off so that they can be with their family and I can also be with my parents the whole day with no nuisance.

The day I like is my birthday. Because, every birthday we are together the whole day. We are all always busy, so we often just eat together and talk. My parents are busy with the company, while I am especially busy with school. Every time it’s my birthday, no matter what day it is, they dedicate their whole one day to celebrate my birthday.

I just gasp every time I think about our thesis defence. I feel like my head will explode with the amount of memories I will have.

“How’s school, Carla Christine Zabala?” My father asked me.

“It is necessary to call my entire name, Dad?” I ask him.

Both my parents just laughed at my question.

“Well, school is okay. I have all passed the exam. My thesis defence hurts my head, but I will pass that. ” I’ll just answer.

My mother and I laughed when Daddy shook his head. “Thesis defence, I remember that semester.” Daddy said, laughing.

“Why, dad?” I smiled when I asked.

“Because your daddy always stuttered on our defence day.” Laughing Mommy said.

And my parents annoyed each other about their thesis defence back then. This is how they often are, they tease, but in the end Daddy loses to the two of them. Daddy’s defeat was a desperate attempt to appease Mommy’s anger.

I smiled with great joy as I watched my parents while teasing each other, because that’s the tenderness of the two of them.

Someday, I want to find a guy like Daddy. There is no one else to love but Mommy. I never saw them fight because of another woman. In stress, maybe—stress at work, but every time the two of them fight, Daddy is the first to approach and will understand Mommy.

I hope one day, I find someone like Daddy and I will be like Mom, who also has no one else to love but Daddy.

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*(PRESENT)*

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As I entered Heirs International School, or H.I.S., some students greeted me. I just smiled at them. I wasn’t able to greet them back because I didn’t sleep well last night.

I couldn’t sleep last night because of my bad dream. Every time I remember that, every time I dream of that event, the fear always just returns to my chest, the heel I feel and, most of all, the hatred. I am brave enough, but when it comes to that matter, when it comes to that dream. I wish I could be brave enough to be. The fear I feel still dominates.

If I only had a valid reason, like I’m sick, I wouldn’t come. But, I’m a teacher, not a student who only needs to submit an excuse letter so I can not attend class.

I’m a Physical Education college professor here at Heirs International School or H.I.S. I’m not a teacher but because apart from having a degree, I have a background in physical fitness or anything else related to physical education. This school accepted me for the meantime.

I felt an immense sense of gratitude when this school accepted me as a P.E. student. teacher. I didn’t know what I would do with life. I felt lost and continue to feel lost, unsure of what I will do with my life.

I had a dream then but because of one terrible nightmare in my life; like a bomb. All my dreams disappeared and there was only one thing I wanted to do.

When I was in front of the door in the faculty room; I took a deep breath before opening the door. I don’t want to let my fellow professors notice I feel heavy.

Entering the faculty room, another professor noticed me immediately. They smiled at me and they greeted me warmly. I smiled at them all back and greeted them warmly too before going to my table. As I sat down, I rubbed headache medicine on both sides of my forehead.

“Ma’am Christine, are you okay?” Question of one of my fellow professors.

I just told her I was okay.

Discussing my colleagues in the faculty lured me away from my laptop and the tasks at hand, leaving me unable to resist approaching them.

I stood up and approached them. “Who is the new chairperson of this school?” I asked them.

“They said he is a handsome man. They said too that he is the brother of the former owner of this school.”

Curiosity has been bubbling inside me for the past three years since I joined this place, as I have yet to witness the chairperson that everyone is discussing. I’m not too interested either, the important thing is that I have a job that I’m busy with before running the company that my parents left to me.

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After my class at five in the afternoon, I went to the cemetery and went to my parents’ grave.

Going to the front of my parents’ grave, I placed in their grave the flowers I had brought for the two of them.

I smiled, and tears were pouring from my pair of eyes, which I wiped. Wherever they may be, I conceal my sadness from their view.

“It’s been four years and I still remember, Mom, Dad. I dream of that last night, again and again.”

How can I forget what caused their death when almost every night I always dreamed it, as if every night it also happened again?

Almost every night, whenever I dream of that event, my fear returns. Fear that I would lose and my parents would leave me.

I still wonder why someone would do that to my parents even now. Why they do that to my parents? I don’t remember that they had an enemy. My parents radiate kindness towards everyone, including our former maids. Their acts of kindness touch the lives of everyone they meet. So I can’t imagine who could do this to my parents?

I clenched my fist while looking at the grave of my parents. At the same time as I clenched my hand, my tears flowed from my eyes again.

“I promise to both of you, Mom and Dad. The person will pay to do this to you. Whoever is behind your death, I will do this to the person who did this.”

This is the only thing that gives me hope to live. I will repay the person who did this to us, to my parents. I will triple the pain I will inflict on the person who did this to us, especially to my parents.