Only Love Knows: The Forgotten Heir

It was a cold and rainy night. Emma sat at the old rusty window of her old, cheap apartment. The room was extremely small and not much lighting, apart from the window. She was looking through her window to the outside world, looking at the passers by, as they went about their business. She heard her stomach roar out in extreme pain, that's right, she haven't eaten anything for the past two days and barely had what could be considered as a meal the days prior. She was so hungry, there was no food in the house, not even a piece of bread or even sugar. Emma tried to fight back the hunger she felt and suddenly, as if her eyes had a mind of their own, they wandered off to the building that sat across her old apartment. A restaurant, no an extremely fancy restaurant, that stood tall and proud in the city. To Emma, this place was paradise, it was the perfect opposite of the place she was in. The restaurant was called Home of kings and just as it name suggest, only the rich and elite of the city wined and dined at this restaurant. It had five star ratings and service. Emma was so hungry that she was temporarily tempted to go to the restaurant and beg them for food, but immediately the thought came, she rebuked it, she could still remember vividly the time when a poor looking pregnant homeless woman sat at the side of the restaurant building, hungry and almost in labor, that didn't stop the restaurant management, they ordered the security men to throw her off the property, saying she would drive away their customers. Those memories were still very fresh in Emma's mind and she was not about to go through the shame and humiliation that the woman went through. She wondered why people were so mean and unkind to their fellow human beings, they were not moved by the sufferings of others. As she thought of this, she began to think about her own sad and miserable life and began to pity herself. Why was she born to just suffer, this has been her life for as long as she could remember. Emma was the daughter of late Mr and Mrs Daniels, they were very poor, so they could not leave riches for Emma, nor secure her future. The only thing that they leave behind for her was debt,loads of debt for her to pay off. Her parents were honest and hardworking people, who were poor but respected for their honesty They were small scale traders who just had a small shade in the city market. The family was surviving on it income, not a lot but it kept them fed twice a day and that was enough for the Daniels family. But one day tragedy struck, the market caught fire, due to bad wiring and sadly, the Daniels family shop was among the shops that got burnt. Everything in their shop was consumed by the fire and sadly, this was just the beginning. The family lost their source of income and had to start looking for other things to do. Suddenly, Emma fell sick, this was strange as she never fallen seriously ill before. Even the native medicine could not do anything for her and she was taking to the hospital. The doctor said various tests and scans had to be ran on her and these procedures cost a lot of money, money that the family did not have anywhere. But they could not just stand still and watch their only child suffer, so they set out to find the money, sold the few things they had, saving the house. They even took a loan from a loaning company to save their child. Eventually they had the money for all the different procedures she had to undergo. The results came out, and strangely they were all fine and normal. Nothing was medically wrong with her. They were directed to a different hospital and after spending all the money they didn't have there and borrowing more as well, it was then that Emma's illness disappeared, not because of any treatment, it just went away by itself. This was strange but they were happy she was fine again. But there were so much debt that had been accumulated over this period and it worried her parents, especially her father who already had a weak heart. The lenders began to come for their money but there was no way for her parents to pay back, they have also become weak and sick from all the troubles they have had to endure. Since they couldn't pay, they were temporarily arrested and later released, they were kept there for three days and Emma was not allowed to see them and was asked to go find the money but how was a ten year old going to find such a huge amount of money, so they were released. But the damage was already done, they were weak, they hadn't eaten anything for three days and soon they passed away, leaving Emma alone and orphan in this wicked world. The house was taking away to pay off some of the loan, while the rest, she was required to pay them off. So she has been working, she hardly has any money left because she was an unskilled labourer and also, these people continued to make her pay her parents debt and she was not even aware of the exact amount her parents owed. Luckily for her, she was given a very cheap accommodation by a kind old woman named Mrs Dorothy. Back to the present day, Emma thought deeply about her life, but she loved her parents and missed them dearly. She wished she was born in a rich family, that her parents were well to do, that she didn't have to struggle and struggle, just to get the bare minimum. As she thought, tears filled her eyes, she really hated her life and hoped for change. She left the window side, went to the foam on the ground that she slept on, lay down, cried, though extremely hungry, she forced herself to bed. The next morning, it was only 3am, when she heard a sharp knock on her door which woke her up partially. The knock came again and soon, she heard her name being called out. "Emily, Emily," the voice called. She was shocked, only her mother called her by that name. She thought was her mother alive, was the past few years of her life a terrible dream??. Eager to confirm, she jumped up and ran to the door, opened it and there stood a middle aged woman who looked very irritated and very cold. She knew this woman, this was Miss Edna, Mrs Dorothy's daughter. Emma was surprised to see her, you see, Mrs Dorothy's children hardly came to see her, they were all too busy with their lives, she knew Miss Edna because she was the only one who stayed in their city. But Miss Edna was not the friendliest person in the world, she wasn't wicked or anything, she just didn't care about anyone but herself. Emma greeted her and asked her to come inside. "Good morning ma, please come inside", Emma said politely. "I'd rather not, I haven't come here for pleasantries, my mother Mrs Dorothy is dead, she died yesterday", Miss Edna said, very coldly, definitely not in the tune of someone who had just lost their loved one, let alone their mother. Miss Edna said and went away. Emma couldn't believe her ears, Mrs Dorothy was gone, the only woman who has shown her kindness in this world when everyone had abandoned her. She cried, why did life had to take away the people with kind hearts. All her hunger pains disappeared, all she felt was sorrow, like when her own parents died. She mourned Mrs Dorothy's death. The burial for Mrs Dorothy was set very fast in fact it was two days from her death. The children throw a party, they didn't seem to care that that mother was gone forever. Emma was not allowed to come to the burial, as they invited their rich friends and politicians to the event. It was a very loud celebration indeed. After the burial was over, two of Mrs Dorothy's children, Miss Edna and Mr Edwin went to Emma's house. They knocked and she answered, they didn't even look like people who were in mourning. They told her that they were evicting her from the house and she had just two days to leave the property, or less. Emma immediately started to beg, she pleaded but her pleads came on deaf ears, their minds were made up. After they left, Emma began to think, why were they in a rush to sell the property?. It hasn't been a week since her death. Then she remembered how Mrs Dorothy's children would always call her on the phone, telling her that they have got good buyers for the house and the buyers were willing to pay big money for it. Mrs Dorothy would always refuse, she had emotional attachment to the property, it had been in her family for years. But now she is death, her children are the ones trying to sell the one thing she loved most in the world. Emma was disgusted by how mean and inconsiderate they were. The next day, Emma packed up the little things she had, she was not going to beg people who could not even respect their mother and not sell her land. She packed up and left. With no place to go, she ended up on the street, to her it was better than begging monsters. She had a pure plan in mind. She was going to stay there, do the jobs she did and eventually save up for a better place. She began to think again, she had always believed in fairy tales as a little child, she always thought of herself as Cinderella, without the fairy godmother, evil step mother and glass slippers. She felt her prince charming would one day come and save her and take her to his castle. Now, she was twenty two years old, no prince, no castle, no love story to even distract her from her problems. The next day, she was on her way to one of her jobs, she was deep in thoughts, as this is what she does a lot, she was so occupied with her thoughts that she didn't notice the big truck rushing towards her and before she knew it, she was on the floor, she had just had a major accident, how did she know this?, She felt nothing, she couldn't move but she felt at peace. She saw a lot of people gather around her looking worried, while others just watched in shock. She couldn't understand what they were saying but she knew they were talking about her, soon she closed her eyes. An ambulance came and she was rushed to a nearby clinic, but she was pronounced dead on arrival. A local church came to claim her body and buried her on the city's graveyard. Was that the end of Emma?. Let's find out..