CHAPTER 3: A memory to remember
2209 Words
Chapter 3
5 years ago...
"I--I" When she was about to open her mouth and speak, she received a tight slap that left a red mark on her face from her father's hands.
"Insolence! Don't you think I don't know you changed your last name to your mother's?!" His father exploded with rage. "You are such an ungrateful daughter!"
It was her mother's dying wish, for her to use the last name Gale rather than Salvatore. She didn't know why, but it seems that it was the right choice for her now that her father had remarried another woman.
She was well aware of her father's character change, her words make no sense to his beliefs, in his eyes, Nichole was the reason for Clarissa's death (Nichole's mother.) Because of her, her father lost the woman he loved most. She once trembles like a frightened rabbit in her father's hands, but not now, that she has transformed into a completely different person, she shows a different, cold side. She did not retaliate or oppose him. She thinks that it was right that her father blamed her, it was her fault and she doesn't deny it.
If she never leaves her mother's side no matter how many times her mother has told her to leave, she might be the person who died in that car instead of her mother. If she hadn't left her there to run for help maybe she's still alive. She intensely prayed to all the gods to save her mother, but no one seems to be listening. Little did she know it would be the last time she would see her mother and the worst in her last moment.
"Go! And never come back, if you dislike me much for being your father. Let me tell you, I don't need a daughter like you! Jane was so much better than you even though she is not my real daughter she treats me like her father, you are such a shame to this family so just go!" Her father pointed out the door.
"Yes, I will leave dad." She answered with a low voice and bowed to him without any emotion leaving his room.
She closed the door silently and took a deep breath as she saw the woman's lips form a smug smile before her eyes standing in front of her with a cup of tea in her hands. She was obviously mocking her, but she walked right past her as if she didn't see her.
"Hey, am I invisible?" The woman said coldly and.
Without looking at her, Nichole answered while moving forward. "Yes, you are."
The woman grasped her wrist to stop her. "Can't you show respect to your mother?"
Nichole goggled at her threw her hand off and patted her own sleeves
An ironic smile appeared on Nichole's face. "Mother? Who? You?" She asks sarcastically.
"Who else could be?" The woman stood proud.
She cast a scornful look at the woman in front of her and continued. "You are not my mother and you never will be. Even if you are my father's second wife, she will not be replaced in my father's heart and mine." She walked closer to her and whisper. "So stop acting like an innocent and loving wife and mother when you really are not. That wasn't even your place to do."
Her face instantly turned red with anger. "YOU?!"
"What?" She asks innocently.
Belle (Nichole's stepmother) tries to keep her composure and change the subject. "What happened to you, Nichole? You're not the same sweet, nice person I knew anymore, if your mom was alive, I'm sure she'll worry about you like what I do." She said in a soft voice.
She rolled her eyes in thought and sighed.
'Here she goes again. Acting all innocent and kind.'
"You know how, I hate when someone asks what happened to old sweet me Belle, but since you ask about it, then let me tell you the truth." She stared at her for a moment and continued. "Well, a crazy b***h like you killed it. You killed the innocent in me and I will never forget that." Nichole's eyes burst with cruelty and she smiled coldly.
Belle is starting to get pissed at her. "Really? Did I do that to you? As I remembered, you were the one who did it to yourself, you killed your mother." She said directly to her when she saw Nichole's face turn pale. She began to smile, she knows that she hit the Jackpot by upbringing, her mother's death which torment Nichole deep inside.
"I hide a lot more than I show, so if you think you know me. You should think again, Belle. I am not the same girl you imagined." She said before leaving.
"As if I care! I've always tried to understand you, but I can't really stand a silly b***h like you, so leave! Leave this house and were settled, Nichole."
"Haha, you will never understand me, Aunt Belle, you have no place to interfere with my decision, let alone deal with me."
After that, Nichole went straight back to her room to pack her things. She was not allowed to take the things she had bought with her father's money, so she just took out her clothes and secret money which she saved for two years with her mother.
Holding it down make her remember the memories of her deceased mother, she doesn't have any plans neither a place to go, all she wants is to escape from here, to them. She wanted to start her life over again, not as the daughter of a wealthy businessman, but to be herself, she felt she had lost her other half along with her mother. She wants to find herself again, the meaning of her life. Even that means she will leave the life she used to be.
While she was busy cleaning her room, she heard a knock on her door and it was Jane, her stepmother's loving daughter. Nichole stopped cleaning and frowned. "What are you doing here?" She asks, she sees no reason for her to come to her room late this night when they are not even close to each other.
"I-I'm j-just here to check you out. Sister." She said with her mink brown eyes laid on the floor.
'Is there anything interesting on the floor?' "Are you here to see if I have already left or not? Don't worry, I'll leave right away when I finish cleaning this room."
She explained. "N-no, no. That's not what I mean.." She immediately shook her head and accidentally met Nichole's eyes.
Nichole couldn't help but stare at her, it is true that she is nothing compared to her, she's innocent beautiful while she's the worst trouble to her father opposite of her.
It's a good thing she wasn't like her mother.
"So what's the reason you came here?" She asked and sat down beside her bed to listen.
Jane walked over to her once, "D-have you really decided to go?"
'Is she worried about me?'
"It was the father's order, I should obey." She said as she looked to the window. "Are you worried about me?"
Jane couldn't speak for a second. "I will continue to support you, sister!" She said instead of answering Nichole's question.
It was the first time anyone had called her "sister". Somehow something tickles her heart when Jane calls her like that.
She got up from her seat and grabbed all her things ready to leave. "Then I'll support you to Jane." She said before giving her a genuine smile.
"Are you not mad at me sister?" She asks, keeping her head down and her eyes on the ground.
She looks at her puzzled and asks. "Why should I be mad at you? Did you do anything that should make me mad?"
Jane lifts her face. "T-That's because I told dad you changed your surname."
Nichole hides her surprise from her, at first she finds it strange when her father found out about her change of surname, since her mother died, her father rarely cares about her. She hid it well, not to mention the fact that she even spoke to their dean about it in school.
She can't blame Jane for such little things that have already been done. "It's alright. I know I can't hide it from him forever." She said.
Jane was surprised at Nichole's sudden change, she expected to be angry, but she just said it like it wasn't a big deal to her.
She gnashing her teeth in anger. "T-dan ... I" Nichole interrupted.
"I should go on now, please take care of my father on my behalf." She said.
"Of course I will, sister." She uttered, she was hiding her excitement.
"Thank you," Nichole spoke and left after he never set foot in that house or confronted them.
End...
"Queen! Queen! yoohoo." Sky lifts and waves her hand at Nichole's empty face.
"What?" Nichole asked, turning to Sky with an exasperated expression.
"The others keep calling you out, but since you've arrived you been spacing out. Care to tell us what happened?" Sky said with a worried angelic face.
She sighs. "Nothing, I'm just tired... Too tired... From everything. "Sky sat down next to her and ordered the others to leave for a moment.
"Did something bad happen?" Recalling the scene that happened to the penthouse earlier, heat flooded her cheeks. Something inside of her urge her to let it all out, she ended telling everything to Sky.
"Why do bad things keep happening to me, Sky?" She shed tears and continued. "Why do I have to go through all this s**t? I, I no longer know myself anymore, nor how it all begins ... I only loathed my father for abandoning me and my mom, I didn't do anything against him because I want Carma to f*****g to punish him, but why do I feel that I'm the one being punished?"
Sky lifted up her hands and pulled Nichole into her arms. Ever since Sky first met Nichole and joined the organization. She has already become as close and precious as a sister in her heart, seeing her suffer while she can do nothing to erase the pain in her eyes, it haunts her inside.
"Do you regret it?"
"What?"
"I said, do you regret believing him?" Sky repeated.
She was quiet for a long moment. Sky opened her mouth to tell her to forget she asked, but finally, Nichole spoke. "I, I don't know..."Nichole murmured in Sky embrace. "I don't know, I don't remember what I supposed to regret, with all the smiles he brought me... I never thought he could cause me so many tears. I used to think of him as somebody who will never hurt me... I guess it was my fault, for trusting a wrong person."
She gently touched and rubbed her hair. "Then cry it all out, Queen. Until your heart becomes allright. We will let them pay you tenfold of hurting you when the right time comes when your ready to be yourself."
Nichole hugs her. "Your so warm, Sky.."
"Of course, I'm still alive you know." She joke to ease the tension.
"Am I really a bad person to be punished like this?"
"Perhaps you have committed unforgivable crimes in your past life or have you been cursed by someone?" Sky laughs at her own joke.
and Nichole glared at her. "I'm serious. Sky."
She laughed. "Sorry, I just want to lift your mood."
"Thanks... Thanks a lot, Sky."
"It's nothing, we will always have each other back. Queen." She said and she smiles genuinely at her. "So, what our plan?"
Nichole stares at her confused. "What plan?"
Sky rolled her eyes and sigh. "C'mon, you must be kidding me! Our strategy?! Our plan to punish that bastard! Don't tell me you still believe in that carma s**t?"
She chuckles. "No, no. That's not what I mean, can you give me a little bit of time to think? I'm not opposing your plan Sky."
"Yes! Then. Should we kill him along with your fake b***h stepsister? wait, no. Death is an easy deal, we should torture them, Queen." Sky said in a serious tone that makes Nichole laugh hard at her, she even forgot that she was just crying earlier, she glad that Sky was always there for her.
Their conversation stops when suddenly a group of men in the hood enter and both look at them.
"Greetings, to the higher Queen and to the guardian of Dark Sky." They bow their head to give respect.
"What are the exécuteur silencieux doing here?" Nichole asks coldly with full authority in her voice. The woman crying earlier become a completely different person now, she must not show any weakness nor tears of pain in other eyes, she must never give them a reason to think that she is a weak Queen, or else death will be her end.
(Exécuteur silencieux Silent Executor)
"We are here, by the order of Magnus Magister. To bring you to him, my Queen.."
(Magnus Magister - Great Master a person with a higher position)
- Writer
