Nazo Hedgehog

Sehari sebelum tahun baru, demi tiga kali upah lembur, kedua orangtuaku meninggalkan aku sendirian di rumah. Aku pikir selama dua puluh tahun ini, mereka selalu begitu. Jadi tahun ini, aku tidak ingin kesepian melewati tahun baru seorang diri. Akhirnya aku membawa Siomay pergi mencari mereka. Namun aku tidak pernah menyangka, kedua orang tuaku yang sering bilang mencari nafkah untuk menghasilkan lebih banyak uang, justru aku memergoki mereka turun dari mobil mewah. Mereka merangkul seorang anak lelaki yang tampak seumuran denganku, masuk ke hotel bintang lima sambil bersenda gurau. “Ayah, Ibu, kalian meninggalkan Nia seorang diri di rumah, nggak masalah? Ibuku berkata dengan datar, “Nggak apa-apa, dia sudah terbiasa kok.” Ayahku berkata dengan acuh tak acuh, “Dia nggak bisa dibandingkan denganmu, kamu adalah buah hati kami.” Aku pun berbalik dan pergi. Mereka pura-pura miskin, untuk menipuku. Kali ini, aku juga tidak berharap ditemani mereka.

Gagal ginjal stadium akhir. Ginjal yang paling cocok untukku… justru diberikan suamiku kepada adikku. Aku menolak saran dokter untuk terus menunggu donor baru dan memilih keluar dari rumah sakit lebih awal. Hati yang telah lama membeku, tak lagi punya alasan untuk bertahan. Seluruh harta yang kukumpulkan selama bertahun-tahun, kuserahkan kepada adik. Akhirnya, senyum orang tuaku pun kudapatkan. Suamiku merawat adikku siang dan malam tanpa istirahat. Aku tak marah, malah mengingatkannya untuk lebih hati-hati dan teliti. Bahkan ketika anakku ingin memanggil adikku sebagai “ibu”, aku pun tersenyum dan menyetujui. Semuanya sudah berjalan sesuai keinginan mereka. Lalu… mengapa sekarang mereka menyesal?

Adikku hamil di luar nikah. Dia melahirkan seorang bayi laki-laki di sebuah klinik kecil, lalu menghilang tanpa jejak. Berbekal alamat yang ditinggalkannya, dokter datang ke rumahku dan menyerahkan bayi itu kepadaku. Orang tuaku berlutut di hadapanku, memohon agar aku mengasuh bayi itu. Sejak saat itu, seorang gadis lajang sepertiku terpaksa membesarkan bayi, menjalani hidup dengan susah payah. Bertahun-tahun kemudian, ketika anak itu telah tumbuh besar … adikku kembali. Di sisinya berdiri seorang pria kaya berkalung emas, tampak seperti “bos besar”. Dia menangis histeris memeluk anak itu sambil menudingku. Katanya aku iri padanya, jadi mencuri anaknya, memisahkan dia dari darah dagingnya sendiri. Anak yang kubesarkan dengan susah payah, tanpa ragu memutuskan hubungan denganku dan berlari ke pelukannya. Orang tuaku pun mengusirku dari rumah. Tetangga-tetangga mencaci, menghujat. Dalam keputusasaaan, aku memilih mengakhiri hidupku dengan melompat dari gedung. Namun saat membuka mata kembali … aku justru kembali ke hari di mana adikku melahirkan anak tersebut.

Masih tersisa sepuluh hari sebelum aku mendonorkan ginjalku untuknya. Diam-diam, di dalam hatinya, Shasa Handoko menghitung hari yang tersisa. 'Tinggal sepuluh hari lagi. Setelah itu, Arya Lexim akan mendapatkan tubuh yang sehat, sementara aku... Pengganti yang dibencinya akan menghilang dari hidupnya.' Kira-kira... ketika Arya akhirnya bersama dengan perempuan yang dicintainya, apakah dia masih akan mengingatku? Mungkin... tidak akan.

On Mom's death anniversary, drug dealers break into the cemetery and take me away. To get revenge on my brother, Zack Smith—a forensic pathologist—they torture me until there isn't even a single uninjured spot left on my body. I hold on for almost three days, barely surviving, until I finally get a chance to call him for help. However, Zack replied, "Why didn't they kill you for good? A jinx like you who killed your own mother shouldn't be allowed to live!" When the drug dealers notice my action, they shatter all of my bones. The next day, a janitor discovers several large bags of human remains in the trash can. Zack painstakingly reassembles my body back together with his own hands—yet he fails to recognize that it's me, his younger sister he always claims to hate. When the drug dealers are finally arrested, he descends into madness.

Shortly after my boyfriend dies, I prepare to join him in the underworld. However, I'm saved by a rich man who passes by. He's worried that I'll do something rash again, so he stays by my side for three years and helps me move past my trauma. Before Benjamin Zoller's birthday, I receive a call from the hospital and learn that he's been diagnosed with cancer. I head to his company to look for him when I hear his smug voice. "I've always suspected that Cherilyn is still hung up on her ex, so I made up something about being sick to test her. I'll believe that she loves me if she's willing to take her life for my sake." I play along and fake my death before him. He loses his mind after witnessing everything.

I find cigarette ashes on the passenger seat of my wife's car. She brushes me off, saying, "My new assistant left it there. He's not the most sensible." When I ask for a divorce, she stares at me in disbelief. "Just because of that?" "Yeah. Just because of that!"

My husband's first love had been trapped in a car for an hour. After they pulled her out, his rage shifted onto me. “It’s your fault she got hurt,” he spat, his eyes blazing as he grabbed me. Before I could make sense of what was happening, he forced me into a wooden box, slamming the lid down with a deafening crack. “You’re going to feel every ounce of the pain she went through,” he hissed, nailing it shut. I pounded on the walls, my screams tearing through the air. “Please, I didn’t do anything! Let me out!” My throat burned with the effort, my fists aching, but nothing stopped him. “Stay in there until you’ve figured out how to act like a decent human being,” he said, his voice cold, dripping with contempt. Hours passed. My body twisted unnaturally in the tight space, bones throbbing as blood smeared the wood beneath me. I whispered into the dark, the pain unbearable. "Please… just let me out…" But he didn’t care. A week later, he returned, his laughter echoing with hers as they entered the house, carefree from their trip. He finally opened the box. But by then, I was already gone. The woman he locked away was no longer breathing, no longer pleading. Just a cold, silent corpse.

My movie star husband's girlfriend suspected I was the other woman. She confronted me in public, beat me until I lost my child, and even left my face scarred beyond recognition. "You shameless homewrecker! How dare you seduce someone else's man—and even get pregnant?" she screamed in rage. "I'll send you and that child of yours straight to hell today!" And as for my husband, he didn't even spare me a glance. All he cared to say was, "Why did you bother hitting her yourself? Did your hand hurt?" But when he finally discovered that the woman his girlfriend had scarred and caused to miscarry was me, he lost his mind.

My sister, Yvonne Jones, tried to murder the childhood friend of a rich heir in order to seduce him. Yvonne poisoned the woman's drink and pulled out her oxygen tube after she was sent to the hospital. When the rich heir arrived in a rush, Yvonne cried in his arms daintily. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I failed to protect her." I witnessed everything in the ward but didn't say a word about it. In my previous lifetime, I stopped Yvonne from poisoning the woman. I knew the rich heir would never let her get away with it if he found out about it. Yvonne was forced to give up her plan and even praised me for my foresight. However, she ended up poisoning me instead and stabbed me in the heart with her dagger when I got dizzy. "This is your fault! Die! If you hadn't stopped me, Sean Graham would've been mine!" When I opened my eyes next, I had returned to the day of the poisoning.