Revenge cost me Everything

Chapter 4: The Longest Night

Kayda’s POV

An hour later, my dad arrived with my mom.

I had never seen my mother like that before.

Dad carried her through the front door just after midnight.

Her hair was unusually scattered.

The smell of alcohol reached me before they did.

“Mom?”

She slowly lifted her head.

For a second, she smiled when she saw me.

“My beautiful girl.”

Her words were slurred.

I rushed over and wrapped my arms around her.

“Mom, what happened?”

She stroked my hair with trembling fingers.

“I’m sorry.”

The words were barely a whisper.

“So…soo sorry.”

My chest tightened.

“Why are you apologizing?”

She looked at me.

Kissed my hands as tears rolled silently down her cheeks.

Dad helped her sit on the couch.

“I’ll get some water,” he said quietly.

As soon as he went to the kitchen.

Mom reached for my hand.

“Kayda.”

“I’m here.”

“No matter what happens, remember that I love you.”

“I love you too Mom”

She smiled.

“You’ve always been the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I knelt in front of her.

“Mom, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me”

She nodded slowly.

“Oh my baby”, she pat my head slowly.

Dad returned with a glass of water.

He handed it to her, but her hand shook so badly that he had to help her drink.

“I’m calling the family doctor.” He said.

“No.”

Mom gently pushed the glass away.

“I just want to sleep.”

“Isabella”

“I’m tired.”

She looked exhausted.

Not physically.

But emotionally.

The kind of exhaustion that no amount of sleep could fix.

Dad helped her upstairs.

I stood at the bottom of the staircase, watching dad take her to the bedroom.

For the first time in my life.

Our house didn’t feel like home.

I barely slept.

Everytime I closed my eyes, I remembered the argument.

The tears.

The look on Mom’s face.

I kept hoping I’d wake up and discover it was all a terrible dream.

It was morning.

For a moment, everything felt normal.

Then I remembered.

I quickly got dressed and hurried downstairs.

The house was unusually quiet.

Too quiet.

“Dad?”

No answer.

“Mom?”

Still nothing.

I walked towards the kitchen.

“Dad?”, just then a loud sound came from the kitchen.

I froze.

“Dad?”

He answered.

“Kayda!”

There was fear in it.

Real fear.

I ran as fast as I could.

The moment I reached the kitchen.

My heart stopped.

Mom was lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.

A knife pierced through her stomach.

Dad was kneeling beside her, his hands trembling as he tried to stop the bleeding.

“Call an ambulance!”, he shouted.

I couldn’t move.

Everything around me became a blur.

“Dad?”

My voice shook.

“Please!”

His desperate cry pulled me back.

I grabbed my phone with trembling hands and dialed for emergency help.

“Emergency services, what’s your emergency?”

I struggled to speak through my tears.

“My…my mom…”

I looked towards the kitchen floor,unable to stop crying.

“Please hurry.”

The operator spoke calmly, asking questions I could barely answer.

Within minutes, the distant sound of sirens filled the morning air.

Paramedics rushed into the house carrying emergency equipments.

They immediately surrounded my mother.

One checked her pulse.

Another spoke quickly into a radio.

Dad stepped back, tears streaming down his cheeks.

He looked completely helpless.

I had never seen my father cry so helplessly.

Not once.

One of the paramedics looked up.

“We are taking her to the hospital now.”

Dad nodded repeatedly.

“Please, save her.”

I climbed into the ambulance beside him unable to take my eyes off Mom.

She looked so peaceful.

Too peaceful.

I reached for her hand.

It felt cold.

“Mom.”, I whispered.

“Please wake up”

There was no answer.

The ambulance was at full speed.

Every second felt like an hour.

I closed my eyes and silently prayed.

“Please, let mom be okay.”

The ambulance doors burst open the moment we arrived at the hospital.

Doctors and nurses rushed towards us with a stretcher.

“Move aside!”

They shouted as the wheeled Mom through the emergency room doors.

I tried to follow, but a nurse gently stopped me.

“I’m sorry young lady, you have to wait here”

“Dad.”

I turned to him, hoping he would know what to do.

But he looked just as lost as I felt.

He stood, staring at the doors that had just closed behind Mom.

For the first time.

My father looked afraid.

He slowly sat on one of the waiting room chairs and buried his face in his hands.

“I should have stopped her.”, he whispered.

“I should have known she wasn’t okay”

His voice fainting.

“I failed her.”

I sat beside him, but neither of us knew what to say.

The waiting room felt unbearably quiet.

Everytime the emergency room doors opened, my heart leaped into my throat.

Everytime they closed again, I felt disappointed.

“Please let her be alright”

“Please let us have another chance”

A nurse approached us with two cups of water.

“You both should drink something.”

We didn’t reach for them.

After setting the cups on the table, she gave us a sympathetic look before walking away.

“When your mom and I met in the university..”

Dad finally broke the silence.

“We didn’t have anything.”

I looked at him.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

“She believed in me when no one else did”

His eyes filled with tears again.

“Everything I have today.”

“Our company.”

“Our home.”

“Our life.”

“We built it together.”

He lowered his head.

“And somehow, I forgot how precious she was to me.”

I wanted to be angry.

Part of me was.

But another part simply wanted my mom to walk through those hospital doors and tell us everything would be okay.

A doctor walked towards us.

His expression was serious.

Dad stood so quickly that his chair tipped over before him”

“Doctor.”

“How is my wife?”

The doctor looked from Dad to me.

“She’s in a coma, but she’s out of danger.”

I held my breath.

“We’ve managed to stabilize her for the moment.”

I breathed out

“But..”

That single word made my heart sink again.

“The next twenty four hours will be very important.”

“Can we go see her.”, Dad asked.

The doctor nodded.

“One at a time”

Dad looked at me.

“You should go first.”

I blinked.

“Me?”

“Yes princess.”

“She’d want to see you.”

My legs felt weak as I followed the nurse down the hallway.

She stopped outside a room.

“You can go in.”

I slowly pushed the door open.

Mom was laying peacefully in the hospital bed.

Her eyes were closed.

I walked to her side and gently held her hand.

“Mom.”

My voice trembled.

“I’m here”

Tears blurred my vision.

“We were supposed to talk today.”

I squeezed her hand.

“So please, wake up.”

“I still need you.”

For a long moment, nothing happened.

Then.

I felt the faintest pressure against my fingers.

I looked up, filled with hope.

“Mom?”

Before she could open her eyes, the heart monitor suddenly began beeping faster.

Nurses rushed into the room.

“Young lady, please step outside!”

I stumbled backwards as they surrounded her bed.

The door closed in front of me.

Dad came to me.

“What's wrong?”

“I don't know Dad”, my expression saddened.

I stood in the hallway, rubbing both palms together.

Inside the room, voices rose in urgency.

I couldn’t make out the words.

Only the sound of the monitor.

And then.

Everything went silent.

After about thirty minutes, the doctor stepped outside.

His face told me the answer before he even spoke.

Dad rushed towards the doctor.

“Doctor, my wife”

The doctor lowered his head.

“We did everything we could”

My ears rang.

I couldn't hear another word.

It felt like the world had stopped.

“No!” Dad shouted.

I stood there unable to cry.

My mother was gone.

The only person I had looked up to.

My only source of strength was gone.

Three days later, we buried her.

People I barely knew offered condolences, telling me to stay strong.

But how could I be strong?

They weren't the ones burying their mother.

The only person who made our house feel like home was buried beneath the ground.

That night, the mansion was quieter than it had ever been.

I walked into Mom's bedroom and picked up a bottle of perfume she always loved.

It still smelled like her.

I closed my eyes and put it towards my chest.

“I miss you, Mom”, I whispered.

A knock interrupted me.

“Kayda?”

It was Dad.

“Can we talk?”

I opened the door.

He looked at me with red, swollen eyes.

“There's something I have to tell you.”

I frowned.

“What is it?”

He took a slow, uneasy breath.

“Vanessa and the boys…”

He hesitated.

“…are moving into the mansion.”

My heart sank.

I stared at him, unable to believe what I'd just heard.