KARMA: FALLING FOR MY ENEMY'S SON

12. MONUMENT OF THE PAINFUL PAST

She's gonna forever say “I got this” even with tears in her eyes…

An hour later, the car pulled up outside the psychiatric hospital. I looked out the window at the once beautiful building now run down with paint peeling off the walls. My eyes burned with tears as once again memories from my past threatened to come forth. Mom loved this place, she loved doing good by everyone… found peace in helping others but in the end that didn't matter because only selfish people get to live longer.

Sniffling, I looked down at the screen of my phone and wiped the tears from under my eyes with the tips of my fingers before getting out of the car. I took a couple of deep breaths in to steady my heart that was already fighting to spring out of my ribcage and slowly made my way up the pavement toward the entrance. I got this, one step at a time and I finally made it. Walking through the sensor glass doors, a middle aged woman in a doctor's uniform, presumably the hospital's new manager approached me, and for some reason I found her very familiar.

"Miss Sanchez, welcome… I'm Dr Suarez" she introduced herself, stopping a few feet in front of me and held out her hand for mine.

"Thank you" I said, accepting her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. All the while keeping my lips stretched into a polite smile. Releasing my hand, she led me to a set of chairs on the far end of the lobby and gestured for me to take a seat in one of the chairs before doing so herself. Seconds later, a teenage girl approached our table with a glass of water and sat it in front of me. Mumbling a small thank you, I took the glass in my hand. Slowly brought it up to my mouth and took a sip of the cold water before putting it back down on the table.

"So what brings Miss Sanchez to our small hospital??" Dr Suarez asked.

"Oh, I wasn't busy today so I decided to come and take a look around the hospital" I said with a shrug. Clicking her tongue, she face palmed herself for asking such an obvious question.

"Of course, I had almost forgotten… I spoke to your father earlier about the project and he told me you were the one who suggested to help our hospital.." it wasn't a question but I nodded anyway "...thank you" she said, placing her wrinkled hand over mine and suggested with a smile "How about I show you around" I nodded, removing my from under hers and stood up.

We left the lobby and she led me down an empty hallway. We spent the next hour going through every floor and hallway in the building. The tour ended in what used to be a beautiful garden but now just an open space with patches of grass here and there, the plants were either dead already or in the process of dying. I stopped in front of a water fountain in the middle of the yard. It was made up of three angels; one of them seemingly the mother while the other two looked like teenagers. The mother had her hands wrapped around their shoulders in a group hug while the two were balancing a black granite plate on her lap with their hands.

Something was written on it. Looking past the water, my eyes squinted into slits trying to make out what the white letters said… In loving memory of Celia Cordero and her children Angela and Angelo Cordero. My legs buckled under my weight, suddenly feeling weak at the end of the message and I stumbled back. I slowly moved my eyes from the plate back up to the angels' faces and a gasp escaped my lips. Only then realising the similarities, the woman did look like my mother and the teenage boy like my twin brother Angelo but where was Estella?? Why wasn't her statue and name here with ours??

I'm given little to no time to ponder over the matter when Dr Suarez stopped next to me. She put her hand on my shoulder and asked "Are you okay??"

Quickly composing myself, I nodded and asked "Who are they??" To shift her attention from me. She turned around and let out a sad heavy sigh when her eyes stopped on the statues.

"That's Celia… my best friend and her two babies. She's the founder of OUR organisation" she started and took a deep breath in before continuing "...her house suddenly caught fire years ago and unfortunately they didn't make it out in time. The police were able to find hers and her son's ashes from the debris but they couldn't find her daughter's..." she took in another deep breath and shook her head before saying with a smile this time "...anyway, after they died… I decided to put this here as a monument for everyone to remember them by. She loved flowers and I thought, what better place than in the middle of a garden she worked so hard to maintain?? I just didn't think I'd fail her so much..."

She stopped talking when we suddenly heard a child's sobbing. We looked at each, questioning looks on our faces as we tried to listen to where the sound could be coming from and slowly walked around the statues and our suspicion was right. A little girl around five years of age was sitting on the ground with both her legs hiked up and her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them closer to her chest as she cried. I was about to approach her when my phone buzzed with a call. Looking down at its screen, I smiled at the caller ID and let Dr Suarez do it instead. She kneeled down in front of her and started talking to her just as I moved a little further from them to receive the call.

"Hey Gia"

"Hey Eva, I need your help..." she said, not surprising there. She was always up to something.

Rolling my eyes, I enquired "What is it this time??"

"Can you please come to the flower-shop?? I need to go deliver some flowers and I don't want to leave the shop unattended" Georgia said, her words followed by the sound of something heavy falling in the background and her cursing.

"Yeah sure" I agreed, making my way back to Dr Suarez and the little girl. Moving my phone away from my ear, I was about to end the call when Georgia yelled "Oh before you hang up… please grab me a latte on your way here" she made yet another request, she must thank the gods that she's my friend.

"See you in a few minutes" I told her before finally ending the call and shoved my phone back in my purse.

Stopping next to the two, Dr Suarez looked up at me and asked "You're leaving??" I nodded.

"A friend needs my help" she also nodded and waved a nurse over to take care of the little girl before walking me around the building to my car. We stopped next to my driver and shook hands.

“It was nice finally meeting you miss Sanchez and thank you for visiting"

"The pleasure was all mine, Dr Suarez. My father and I will keep in contact" I told her, letting go of her hand and Ivan opened the door for me. He waited until I was safely seated inside before closing it and jumped back in behind the wheel.

“Where to miss Sanchez??” He asked, turning the car's ignition back on.

“To Conan Florists but before that, make a stop at a coffee shop nearby” I informed him, leaning back in my seat like any rich bratt would as he drove out of the hospital's driveway back to the city. Only God and Dr Sanchez knew how hard it was for me to get where I was now.