CHAPTER SONG: Autum breeze -- Jacob's Piano (Youtube music).
FAITH.
“Your parents should not have named you Faith. It really gives you false hopes. It blinds you so much you fail to realize there is no such thing as hope. Hope is a lie. It makes you trust so blindly that it hurts you. When has Pedro ever loved you.” I hear her say but I cannot get my eyes off the different pictures.
Pedro’s hands around Thea’s neck in a very passionate manner. Pedro with another woman at an event with so many guests and Thea looking so jealous staring at his hands intertwined in the woman’s own as he looks at her so lovingly. Pedro with another woman at a club I am assuming is his. Pedro—
I cannot keep looking at these pictures, there is more. The more I see, the more I feel my heart clench if that is a perfect description for what is happening in my pained heart right now.
Then the letter—
“You keep staring at the letter. Do not worry, I will read for you. You will not be able to see properly anyway, your sight is blinded with tears.” Her tone sends chills down my spine but she is going to read the letter any way.
“I will get straight to the point of the letter but before then I might as well give you all the dirty details. In other not to jump into silly conclusions after using the home pregnancy test kits and confirmed them positive myself, I decided to go to see an OB-GYN to confirm that I am carrying the second child of your husband.” She drops the bomb on me.
“Second child?” I blurt out in sync with my mind.
“Yes. I and Pedro already had our first child before he married you. His parents would never approve of me as at then. We needed the daughter of a powerful man and you were available and fray. I found you first and set him up with you and you did not disappoint me when your womb could not produce a single child no matter how many times you tried or should I say your womb was not strong enough to resist all the pills he added to your vitamins?” She pauses as I begin to hiccup way too many times.
My body shakes internally as my mind plays through the each and every day I have taken the vitamins he said are good for me and will help improve my already nice skin as well as aid with getting me pregnant. The day the doctor he invited said nothing was wrong with me and all I needed are vitamins and nothing more.
“So easy to pick out. Who else could be a perfect fit for a private wedding other than a celebrity who deactivated all her socials because of multiple hate comments? One who had no family support since she ran away from home and became an advocate for strong independent women only for the world to turn against her and abuse her true feminism campaigns. Even men who were supposed to support her started to call her a sadist. Her stands made no man approach her and those who did only did to bring her down and show the public that her feminism fights were only for the socials and she needs a man to rely on. I knew you would be the very obedient wife, knowing fully well that there is no point trying to be an independent woman. So, what could make a lady like you give another man a chance? Other than a compliment of her disability and too many displays of affection? So, I begged Pedro to come to you. To compliment those eyes of yours and begin talking to you like someone who does not know you at all.
He took his time but he eventually succumbed. I was scared at first that he might have indeed fallen in love with you since you are not ugly and you have all the curves in the right places just as he likes but the fear wore off with time as he feeds me from time to time with how boring you are and how you are more of a housekeeper than a wife.” Each word of her revelation has me shifting in my seat until I am slanted in my seat with my face to the sky.
What am I supposed to do? Where will I start from? What will be the point in bothering to confront him? The pictures say everything. The letter—they cannot all be fake. She knows every detail about how I met Pedro.
I hate me so much.
“Why is it today of all the days you decided to tell me? Why wait three years?” I finally mutter words.
“Did I say there is no such thing as hope earlier? My bad. I meant there is no such thing as hope for you because even as we speak right now. Your fate lies in my hands. My hope was sure. Three years was worth the wait. We needed Pedro’s father dead first. He was the only one protecting you from death. Oh! And did you think Pedro just own clubs? From the movies you watch since you are a housewife, did you think the mafia is just a myth? The man you love is a murderer and he has not killed only one person. He has taken down too many men successfully. He is just like your father whose home you fled from. You know what they say about the mafia?” Her words sink.
Even when you leave, you are still in it.
“No one escapes the mafia.” She adds.
“Why reveal so much when I can hurt you? You are in my home.” My voice cracks but it at least gets my words out.
“You? Hurt someone? You cannot. Even if I give you a pistol, you would rather shoot yourself than kill someone. Poor innocent twenty-eight years old Faith.” She answers and every other thing happens so fast.
Somehow, she is behind me with a knife to my throat.
“I am not stopping you from going on with Pedro. I have never done anything wrong to you. Why do you have to kill me?” My voice comes out calmer as I manage to grasp the fork from the table as quietly as I can.
“Are you insane?” Pedro bellows as he walks in and she presses the knife against my carotid, slitting my skin slightly enough to send pain to me.
“You are going to kill her. You were going to kill her anyway. I knew you would contemplate your decisions.” Thea shrieks like a banshee and Pedro shakes his head for me as he notices the fork in my hand.
Is he trying to protect her because she is pregnant or is he trying to save me from dying the moment I stab the fork into her forcefully.
“Thea—love. Please let go of the knife.” Pedro begs, making me scoff.
Love?
“Pedro, why?” My voice cracks as I feel Thea’s lips on my ear.
“You should know this too.” She whispers, “Even the child in my womb is not his.” She adds and press the knife further into my throat.
My eyes connect with Pedro’s cold ones as he watches her drive the knife into my neck further, spilling more blood than earlier and whether or not I dive this fork into one of her thighs or not, I am going to die. Diving the fork into her thigh, I throw the table knife at Pedro and the force the fork uses to dive into her thigh lets the knife in her hand cut through my neck. Letting all the pain come at me all at once till I am laying on the floor with my hand pressed against my neck as I struggle in the pool of my own blood unable to move.
“P-ped-pe.” I try.
“Thea!” He yells as he steps over my blood to go to her.
My faith and fate have failed me.
Why am I not dying? How long should it take life to slip out of someone in so much pain from a carotid stab?
“We cannot leave her body here. We have to make it like she attempted to kill herself. Like she jumped into the pool.” I hear her tell Pedro and even though they are so close to me, they sound so far.
I can barely see at this point… but at least I can still pray from the depth of my dying soul—
“My father who art in heaven—hallow be thy name—thy kingdom com--- come. Your will should not be done now. Please do not let me die now. I should not die by the hands of sinners. I have lived a saint almost all my life.” I mouth as much as my lips can still part inaudibly.
I feel my body being lifted off the floor and Pedro’s scent engulfs my sense of smell as I am being let down from the rooftop into the pool.