ALFRED DECIDES HER FATE

She walked toward the room and saw her mother humming as she sat near the fireplace, knitting her winter sweater. Her favorite Christmas song filled the air, and the cozy room was filled with the aroma of cookies.

“Mummy,” she cried.

The older woman turned and smiled at her.

“Oh, baby, you look so pretty. But why are you crying?” she asked with a wide smile that deepened her cheek dimples.

Her eyes sparkled under the neon Christmas lights.

Mary shook her head.

“I’m okay, Mummy. I’ve just been a bad daughter,” she cried.

“Hey, hey, you are never a bad daughter to me. I love you. I carried you in my belly and waited a long nine months to meet you. Don’t you ever think you’re a bad daughter unless I say so,” her mother said, wiping tears from her eyes.

“I will always be with you forever,” she said, kissing her forehead.

But Mary knew it wasn’t forever.

She hugged her tightly when she suddenly felt something wet flung on her face.

She blinked slowly, adjusting her eyes to the dim light of the room.

The room was familiar to her. This was… her attic.

“Wake up, you royal baby killer!” someone snapped maliciously at her.

Her mother-in-law!

The nightmare was about to start.

The smile from her dreams slowly faded away. The room sent cold chills through her body.

She looked around.

She was in the attic!

“I don’t know why Alfred won’t let us lock you up, you baby killer, but trust me, I will make life a living hell for you,” the woman threatened, walking away.

No more tears… no more tears.

She hurriedly wiped her eyes and got out of bed.

Wishing that she could at least be allowed to see her mother’s corpse, she walked to the living room to look for Alfred.

Her stomach churned in hunger, so she made her way first to the kitchen.

There were Karen, her father, and her mother-in-law, all seated having breakfast, though their plates were very much untouched with the air filled with extreme sadness.

The aroma of toast, eggs, and bacon that filled the air, made her mouth salivate.

She slowly walked to the fridge and began rummaging through it looking for something to eat.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Karen asked, walking toward her menacingly.

She looked around again to confirm she was in her house, her heart racing as she took a few steps backward, trying to shield her face from more slaps.

“I really need something to eat,” she replied in a hoarse voice.

“Eat? Is my daughter eating at the hospital? Is she? You killed her baby, and you still feel like eating?” Karen cried.

Mary could see it—the tears seemed genuine.

She hadn’t meant to kill the baby… why couldn’t anyone believe her?

“I didn’t kill the baby, Mum, you have to believe me.”

“Mum? Who’s your mum, you cursed child? Your mum’s in the morgue, so don’t you ever call me Mum again. If you didn’t kill the baby, who did? Who did?” she yelled.

She dragged Mary by her hair and pulled her down to the floor, before kicking her in the ribs.

Mary gasped as pain ruptured in her body.

“Please… stop,” she cried weakly, but the older woman didn’t stop.

“I just lost my appetite looking at her. The fact that she won’t even acknowledge her wrongs. She still claims like she doesn’t know what she did. How can you be so hardened?” her father asked, annoyed.

No one believed her.

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Alfred walked in.

He looked pathetic, but not as bad as Mary, who was still lying on the floor.

He gave one wild look around the room, and his dark gaze fell on Mary.

He walked to her and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt.

“Tell me, what did you put in the food you gave her? What was in it?” he shook her.

Mary let out a low cry.

“I didn’t put anything. I don’t know anything.”

“Please, I’m begging you. Tell me. That way, we can know the antidote to help Selena with. The doctors say she isn’t getting better. They say she was poisoned, and it requires a lot of time to find an antidote for the poison,” Alfred said.

Mary was devastated.

“The baby is not out yet,  but it's life is in danger. Tell us the antidote so we can save it and Selena. I’m begging you, please. I will do whatever you want, just give me the antidote,” he cried.

“I didn’t put anything in her food. I don’t know anything about any poison, why won’t anyone believe me?” Mary wailed.

“This is the camera footage of the kitchen. There, you see it! There! You were sprinkling something with that waiter before her food was served. How can you say you don’t know anything?” Karen snapped, shoving her phone in her face.

Mary froze.

Her father was now pacing impatiently with a disgusted look in his face.

That was her… really her in the kitchen, looking shady.

How?

She hadn’t done that… she couldn’t have done it.

The doctor had told her symptoms would include amnesia, but she couldn’t have actually gone ahead to poison Selena.

Her slight hesitation gave her attackers all the evidence they needed, and they pounced on her with so much vigor.

“If you let my baby die, I will make sure you live to regret the rest of your miserable life,” Alfred said to her. She looked into his face, barely recognizing the man she had known for almost five years.

The man she had loved with every fiber of her being.

He looked like a stranger to her now.

His words were all threatening and dangerous.

Why wasn’t he believing her? Why couldn’t he, for once, love her enough to not watch her suffer?

Did he not know that her stepmother had already unplugged her mother from life support just to get back at her?

Everyone seemed to have someone to console them except her.

She was miserably alone.

Divorced and still accused of what she wasn’t sure she hadn’t done.

“Alfred… I’m sorry,” she said to Alfred.

His phone rang, and he picked it up.

Mary stood up and surveyed her environment once again.

She was so confused she didn’t know what to do anymore.

A pair of angry eyes stared back at her as if waiting for the marching order to tear her apart.

“No!” she heard Alfred mutter, and his phone slipped from his hand, smashing to the floor.

She jumped.

“The baby! She lost it!” he blurted out.

Karen wailed.

Mary didn’t see it coming, but a sudden blow to the back of her head made her black out.