UNFORTUNATE CONSEQUENECE

CHAPTER 14 | MISUNDRSTANDING BETWEEN ANDREW & ANGELA

A few days later:

Angela was in the hospital & Andrew was at Angela’s house. He was wandering around the house. Suddenly it occurred to him that he should take a look around the attic. So he disappeared from Angela’s room and went straight to the attic. The attic was completely dark. Andrew turned on the light switch with his eye gesture. The attic was filled with many boxes and old things. While wandering around, Andrew found a box with ‘Angela’s childhood’ written on it. He understood that the box contained all of Angela’s childhood memories.

“This seems interesting! Let’s see what childhood memories of my sweet Angela are hidden inside the box!”

Andrew opened the box. First, he saw toys like Barbie & teddy bears on the top. He smiled at seeing Angela’s toys. Andrew put the toys to one side. Then inside the box he saw some beautiful clothes from Angela’s childhood. He picked them up one by one.

“How cute they are!”

Then Andrew looked inside the box again and saw a big old album at the bottom of the box. He brought out the album. The album was very old, the album cover was made of leather. Andrew opened the album. Andrew first saw a wedding photo of a couple, and the man in the photo Andrew recognized. He was Angela’s father. But the woman standing next to her was not Angela’s mother but someone else. Andrew guessed who she was.

“Got it! This is Angela’s stepmother! Her father’s first wife.”

After turning the first page of the album, Andrew saw a little boy standing with Angela’s father and stepmother. It was Bill when he was a kid. Andrew was a bit confused.

“Who is this boy? Is this boy Angela’s father’s first child? But Angela never told me that she had a step-brother.”

Andrew flipped through the pages of the album to see more photos. But as he turned a page at the end, Andrew was completely shocked. It was a picture of the adult Bill. After all these years, Andrew had a great shock when he saw the face of the murderer of himself and his family, especially seeing pictures of his killer with Angela’s family members. The light started to go on & off in the attic. A gust of wind was blowing, due to which all the things kept inside the attic started to move. Andrew understood that Bill was one of Angela’s family members, possibly her step-brother, which was why they had the same last name.

“Angela is my murderer’s relative? So did she already know that her step-brother Bill was my murderer?”

“Angela had not yet told me that she had a half-brother. Why did she hide from me that she has a stepbrother? Does that mean she was trying to save her brother from me? If it’s not, then what’s the reason for hiding the truth?”

Andrew misunderstood Angela. He thought Angela knew about the whole incident before & she was trying to save her brother from him. He didn’t know that far from saving Bill from him, Angela was determined to get revenge on Bill for putting Andrew and his entire family to death. But alas! Andrew began to hate Angela. Andrew was furious with Angela. All the love and beautiful moments with Angela seemed flam to him. He felt that Angela had only put up a fake drama of love for him for so long, everything Angela had done was a flam. Andrew decided that he would forget Angela, forget that he loved Angela. Angela is nothing to him but the sister of his and his family's murderer & he vowed that before leaving, he would teach the murderous doctor’s sister a lesson. So, Andrew began to wait for Angela.

A few hours later:

Angela completed her shift. She was coming home, it was almost evening. Angela was thinking about spending some time with Andrew after such a busy day, but later did she know, she was about to find out the most painful thing in her life. On the way, she went to a grocery store to buy some groceries. When Angela reached home, she found that the whole house was dark, not a single light was on. Angela was a little surprised because normally the light in the living room of her house was always on. She called Andrew but she didn’t hear any responses. She was tensed.

“Why is my house so dark? Where did Andrew go? Why is he not responding?”

Angela had thousands of questions in her mind. Angela couldn’t figure out what to do. She couldn’t make a decision whether to go inside alone or with Andrew. Later Angela thought that she should not be so timid, she would go inside alone. After, when Angela took a few steps forward, the living room light suddenly turned on but the light was very low. She saw that someone like Andrew was sitting on the couch.

“Andrew is that you?” Angela asked.

The humanoid figure began to move. Angela slowly began to back away. She thought a thief had entered the house. But Angela’s misconception was quickly dispelled. Angela was totally unprepared for what she saw when the humanoid figure came a little closer to the light. That human figure was Andrew, but instead of being happy, Angela was very scared when she saw Andrew because of his scary look.

“Andrew dear, what happened to you? Why do you look like that?”

Before she could say anything, Andrew suddenly grabbed Angela’s throat & began to choke her. He pushed Angela against the wall. Tears were pouring from Angela’s eyes. Seeing Angela’s tears, Andrew felt a little bit bad for Angela, and let her go. Angela was coughing. She was looking at Andrew with her teary eyes. She was devastated.

“Andrew, why are you doing this to me? What happened to you?”

“You really want to know what happened? OK, let me show you!”

Andrew grabbed Angela’s hand and began to drag her on the way to the attic. After entering the attic, Andrew threw the album in front of Angela. Angela wondered how Andrew found the album. Andrew took out Bill's photo from the album and held it in front of Angela.

“Who is he? What is his relationship with you and how did his picture come to this album? Angela will answer me completely honestly. I will not tolerate any more lies!”

Angela was stuttering. She was so scared of Andrew because she understood that Andrew was extremely angry with her.

“He… he is my stepbrother. Bill… Bill Mulgannon…

Angela began to cry. She realized that Andrew knew everything. She also realized that Andrew had already started hating her.

“Only stepbrother? Huh? Why didn’t you say that he is my murderer, the murderer of my family? A lot of concern for dear brother, isn’t it? If I kill him to take revenge on him. Am I right?”

“What??? No! Not at all! It’s not what you are thinking, Andrew. Why should I worry about him? He is my stepbrother, not my own. And even if he was my own brother, I would never have forgiven him for what he did!”

“Oh really! Then why didn’t you tell me about your stepbrother earlier? Why did you hide that he was my murderer? Enough of your lies Angela! I’m not falling for your fake drama!”

“You have played with me for so long Angela, your love was a fake! If you really loved me, then you couldn’t hide such a big truth from me!”

“No! That’s not true! My love for you is pure!”

“No!!! It’s not! Can you explain to me why you didn’t tell me about your stepbrother? You can't. Even if you could, I'd not believe any of your words!”

“Yes, I didn’t tell you about him because I didn’t want to talk about him, he is a nightmare to me! When I think about him, I become restless, everything about his face, his speech seems terrible to me!”

“And why do you feel like that?” Andrew asked.

“Because he is the reason for my mental disorder. Andrew, I know I told you that my mental disorder was caused by conflict between my parents. But not really, my mental disorder was caused by Bill. He made me mentally insane.”

Angela became so emotional. She began to cry even more, her eyes were red from crying. She started to tell Andrew about her painful past.

“You see, Bill hasn't stood me at all since I was born. Because firstly, I was his stepmother’s child. Secondly, after I was born, my dad was more caring towards me and my mom than Bill and his mom, so they couldn’t tolerate that. Plus, If Bill was my father's only child, he would have written all the properties in his name. But that didn't happen. That was another reason that Bill hates me.”

“As I grew older, Bill gradually began to express his hatred towards me. I think I was 5 years old then, both my parents were out at work. And at that time, Bill found me alone and disturbed me in various ways, scared me. Then he started to bully me very badly. Even worse, he began to hit me for no reason. If I made a slightest mistake, he scolded me a lot and gave me a very hard punishment.

“I couldn’t even tell my parents because Bill threatened me that it wouldn’t be good for me if I told anyone. I was scared, so I didn’t tell anyone about his torture. I slowly became a mentally sick person while enduring his unbearable torture.

“I remember, I locked myself in a room for about 3 years. I was afraid of people, only my mother looked after me. But after all of that happened to me, Bill didn't stop disturbing me. At one point, unable to bear it anymore, I told my mother what Bill had done to me for so long. After hearing everything, my mother took me to Texas, where I recovered after 5 long years of treatment. But she still has the rash which gives me occasional panic attacks.”

“I haven’t had any contact with Bill in years. I had no idea what he had done to you and your family. My mother and I were in Texas at the time. When you told me his name, then I realized it was him. Trust me dear, I don’t have any intention of saving him from you! This is a big misunderstanding.”

Andrew reverted from his scary form to his normal form. Angela was sitting on the floor crying. Andrew was very confused, not knowing what to do. Andrew was stuck with a strange puzzle. After hearing about Angela’s painful life, Andrew felt sympathy for her, but he couldn’t trust Angela completely. Because even though Angela and Bill have the same father’s blood, children of the same family. Andrew couldn’t accept that the son of the family had pushed his mother to death without treatment, causing her and all her siblings to commit suicide. Angela also belongs to the same family. So, despite his sympathy for Angela, Andrew consoles himself by saying that Angela is a relative to his murderer Bill, so he can’t show any sympathy for her anyway. Andrew said to Angela,

“I can not trust you anymore, Angela! Besides, you couldn't give me any rational reason why you kept Bill's identity from me. Along with that, you never told me the whole story of your life, you hid that too. So there is no chance to trust you!!”

“Please Andrew, you have to trust me! I’m telling you this is a very big misunderstanding, please!!”

“Then tell me why did you hide the truth???” Andrew screamed.

“Tell me. If you hated him for what he had done to you, why would you care if I knew about him or if I took revenge on him? Explain me!!”

Angela didn’t know what to say. Everything was messed up. How would she explain to Andrew why she hid the truth from him? Angela wanted to get revenge on Bill for driving Andrew and his entire family to death, but Angela was hesitant to tell Andrew. But later Angela decided that she would keep quiet, not tell Andrew anything about revenge. Angela thought that Andrew might be a little angry for a while, he would be back to normal again, but Angela didn’t know that the situation was about to get worse. Angela’s decision to remain silent was the biggest mistake, causing Andrew to misunderstand her even more.

“Huh! That’s what I thought!! You have nothing to explain. You know what, Angela, I can’t do this anymore!”

Angela stood up after hearing Andrew's words. “What?? What do you mean?”

“I mean, I have to be free, I can’t be with you anymore like a soul like this!”

“No!! No you didn’t mean it! Tell me you’re joking!”

“Do I look like I’m joking with you?? I’m serious Angela!”

“Andrew, baby, please don’t do this to me. I… I’m so sorry for hiding the truth from you. I swear our love! It’ll never happen again. Please just… just don’t say that you can’t!”

“No Angela! I really can’t! Look, I committed suicide but Bill is my mother’s murderer. He is responsible for my mother’s death. And you are a member of her family, so it is never possible for me to love a relative of my mother’s murderer. Even though loving you is far away, I don’t want to spend another minute with you! Forget me Angela! Think that what happened between us was just a bad dream!”

“Nooooo!!! Baby…” Angela was totally devastated.

Andrew slowly moved away from Angela. Andrew's anger did not break that day after seeing Angela burst into tears. Andrew was firm in his decision. Angela lay on the floor crying in grief, reaching out to call Andrew, but it was too late. Andrew disappeared in front of Angela’s eyes. Angela began to sob with her head down. Angela lost the most precious thing in the world that day, her love Andrew, whom she loved more than herself. Everything was over in an instant. Angela felt very unlucky, her whole life was often filled with sorrow. After passing such a hard time in the past, when she finally achieved her own happiness, her life was again covered with a dark cloud of sorrows. She was feeling very alone. She couldn’t believe that Andrew gave up on her, gave up on their love. Ever since Angela was born, her half-brother Bill had been a curse to her. At first, Angela was emotionally disturbed. Andrew’s mother died without treatment, causing Andrew and his siblings to commit suicide, & finally, Andrew left Angela because of him. Bill Mulgannon was responsible for everything. Angela’s heart was bursting with pain. She was gasping for breath, seeing everything around him in a blur. Before she realized anything, everything went dark.

Angela couldn't tell how long she had been unconscious & fell on the floor. Without Andrew, Angela felt like a living corpse. She left the attic and went to her room. Everything seemed empty to her, she was missing Andrew so much. She began to feel alone. Meanwhile, she called her mom.

“Hello, honey! How are you? I was thinking about calling you.”

“Hello, mom. I… I’m okay. What about you?” Angela was sobbing.

“Hey, honey! Are you OK?? Why does your voice sound like you’re crying! Is everything okay??”

“Yeah mom, I’m totally fine. It’s just I had so many patients to do their treatment today & because of that I’m really tired!”

“Are you sure, Angela? Are you hiding something from me?”

“No mom! I’m really very tired. I was missing you so much so I called you.”

“I miss you too, baby. You please take care of yourself. I’m always worried about you. You are tired. Take some rest now, OK?”

“Ok mon, I’ll. Take care of yourself too. I love you mom, I love you so much.” Tears came out of Angela’s eyes silently.

“I love you too, my honey. Goodnight!”

“Goodnight, mom…”

After talking to her mother, Angela began to cry again. It seemed that she would finish all her tears that day. She had a strange feeling that it was her last co9nversation with her mother, and that she would never be able to talk to her again. On the side table next to Angela’s bed was a picture of her mother with her, clutching it to her chest. Angela cried & after some time she fell asleep.