The Truth
1179 Words
- Cathy, I have bad news for you.
- Oh my luck, and I was just about to tell you that I’m pregnant.
- Excellent, very good, now we won’t have to bribe the doctor.
- Tell me, what is the bad news…
- Don’t worry, as you see, the past is gone, and you cannot change it…
- Just tell me what you found out.
- Now I’m afraid for you, and for the baby…
- And you’re not afraid for me from Henry if I don’t know who this Rebecca is?
- Yes, how long will you keep pretending to be the psycho …
- psycho?
- Listen to me, I went to South Road and then to the shelter, I knew almost everything about Rebecca…
- South Road…
- Listen, what I’m going to say is hard for you, but you must know the truth and we must start acting immediately…
- Will you begin?
- South Road is that restaurant we used to get food from, and you often used to meet Henry there.
- Always.
- The restaurant is owned by a strange woman, and some say she is a witch.
- And how did you know? A witch? Are there real witches?
- I don’t know, that’s what I heard, money solves everything, my dear…
- Continue please, is Rebecca the witch?
- Wait, no… That witch targets those with psychological complexes, exploits their weakness at some point to practice her magic as she wishes, makes them imagine they are witches, frightens them, just to amuse herself.
- What is this!! How awful…
- Imagine, she threatens them with death and terrible things if they don’t do what she says…
- Continue…
- And so she doesn’t appear much around, she gives her family’s restaurant for investment…
- And what do I gain…
- Rebecca invested in the restaurant during her whole period of dating Henry… but she couldn’t renew the contract…
- And what did they tell you about Rebecca?
- They told me she invested in the restaurant, her habits are very strange, she goes to bathrooms and takes fallen hair, when the alarm rings she leaves, and she never wanted anyone to know who the investor was… she gave the best salaries just to silence them… and after the contract ended it turned out she was a waitress in a nightclub, and a call girl there…
- Could it be that Henry met her there?
- Do you want to know more?
- You’re amazing, Berna…
- Not me, but your money… I went to the shelter, and although its administration had changed, I managed to access her file, her behavior file, and it turned out she was mentally ill and suffered from bipolar disorder…
- And that’s what made Henry obsessed…
- Maybe, or maybe the witch’s magic…
- I don’t know, my dear, that’s all I found out, is it enough for you?
- I want to know how they met… look… this picture of her looks a lot like me… could it be that he loved me only because I resemble her?
- Maybe…
- Now I can pretend a little until we find a solution…
- Don’t exhaust yourself… you’re pregnant…
- Don’t worry about me…
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Berna helped me a lot… but if my secret is exposed I will die eventually… I must act quickly…
I asked Berna to connect me with a psychiatrist, so I can help myself, and help Henry…
- Listen to me, Mrs. Catherine.
- Call me Rebecca, please…
- Your husband has suffered many traumas… the illness of his first wife… the suicide of his second wife… and Rebecca too, as you told me, though I don’t believe in witchcraft, her mental illness and behavior made your husband attached and obsessed with her, since he lived through different traumas in his life, and began to translate them into obsession…
- What’s the solution, doctor…
- You, Catherine, must be patient for a while, you must help me reach him. We must heal him, he is suffering and cannot deal with his suffering.
- Alright…
- There are missing links in your stories… how did Rebecca disappear, we need to know some other details…
Days passed, and the missing link remained, while the psychiatrist was in a therapy circle with him, after they became friends now, and if he tells him everything he can help me.
I was looking at Henry’s old photos, wishing my child would resemble him, when an old paper fell from among his pictures, and when I opened it, I knew everything. It was a letter from Lucy, my husband loved Rebecca, and Lucy was Rebecca’s friend…
- What a terrible day, what should I do, my husband caused the death of Lucy who was pregnant.
I began to cry, but what good is crying, now I knew everything, my husband is mentally ill, my husband is someone else…
But where is Rebecca? That’s the question I never found the answer to.
- Your husband is improving, Catherine, I finally managed to rid him of his obsession, I told him that his behavior made you lie to him, I don’t deny he was very upset but he is the reason for it.
- I hope you take this paper and read it.
- Oh my God, this is very bad, your husband is suffering, Catherine… do you want us to tell the police?
- No… is it reasonable that a mentally ill person be punished for a crime he didn’t commit with his own hands? I will donate some money to that shelter in Lucy’s name, and if she were alive I would wish she forgave him… poor Lucy…
- You’re right, and the case is more than a decade old…
- I will bury their ashes, both deserve burial, imagine ending up in an attic…
- What about Henry?
- I think the arrival of our baby will change his way of thinking.
- I think he is ready to change his life, he talks about Rebecca as if she were a simple, passing story…
- He will love Rebecca, but in a different way.
- What do you mean?
- Nothing…
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Months later we had our baby girl, and our life returned to normal, a husband who loves and respects me, mentally stable, I respect his past, I respect everyone in him, even Rebecca, I forgave her with all my heart and wish she has healed wherever she is now.
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We decided to go on vacation, we chose to go to a completely new place, our daughter grew and needs to go out a little into nature and away from the noise of cities. We were walking in the street when she ran toward a forty-year-old beggar woman who looked insane, I was very afraid for her…
My husband ran after her…
And I started screaming:
- Rebecca…
And then my daughter and that beggar woman looked at me and said:
- What?
- Writer
