Gabriel lifted his eyes from his book, gazing out his bedroom window. The sky and the clouds had taken pinkish and orangish hues, becoming a sight to behold. And when his eyes traveled down, he saw the sunset reflecting off the lake surface, glimmering like a thousand lights.
"It has already been three weeks," the teenager sighed, taking off his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. Although days were long, time still went by. "Masha must be worried sick. But it's not like I can do much about it."
All he could do was wait. And lately, Gabriel always spent a few hours per day gazing out the window—it was pretty much one of the only things he could do. But the scenery had lost its charm over the weeks, becoming quite dull in his eyes.
When he left the hospital, his stepmother brought him to their family's villa, far from the town. It was a beautiful area; however, he had grown tired of it.
"It's the perfect place to rest!" Angela had said with a sweet smile. "It's a peaceful area, and we often spent our summer vacation here, so it should also help you regain some of your memories."
Needless to say, she was lying through her teeth. The nonsense she spouted almost made Gabriel sneer; how much more shameless could she get?
He had come only once to this villa, and it was a few years ago in wintertime. By bringing him here, she made sure to isolate him in a place he had rarely visited, reducing the possibility of him awakening a memory because of something familiar in the vicinity, like the things in his bedroom.
Besides, Gabriel knew that his stepmother didn't want him to meet anyone who could influence him, and although Masha had never come to the main house, he could have told her the address. There was also that troublesome childhood friend of his that could pop up at any time. It was another reason why Angela chose to bring him to their villa instead of going back to the main house.
It would be troublesome for her if the teenager crossed paths with any of his acquaintances; she needed to brainwash him before he could meet anyone. This, Gabriel had figured out the moment he stepped out of the car and laid eyes on the villa.
Still, he thanked his stepmother for her concerns and told her that he would rest properly, a timid smile on his lips. For now, he would play along.
Things had been a bit awkward since his small outburst at the hospital, when he protected Misha like a mama bear. The following day, Gabriel had to fabricate a quick lie and told her that no matter whether it was the blonde boy or his little brother Tristan, he couldn't stand the sight of a child being roughed up. He would have reacted the same way if it had been Tristan, and that was all. There was no other meaning to his reaction.
Stepping on his pride and moral principles, Gabriel had to agree with his stepmother, admitting that what Misha had said was revolting. Still, it didn't mean that his elder brother had to use his fists to teach him a lesson. Sure, the boy needed one, but not something so severe. He was only a child! In the worst-case scenario, a spanking was enough!
After discussing it for a long time, Gabriel was more or less able to fool her. But now, he had to be careful with his words and actions and thus didn't dare to do or say anything that would arouse suspicion. As a result, Gabriel obediently stayed at the villa, reading books and gazing out the window all day long.
Although Gabriel had "lost his memory", it didn't mean he had become useless. He wasn't an expert and much less a doctor, but he knew that an amnesic patient could retain basic knowledge and a few skills. Different kinds of memories were stored differently in the brain, and only some would be affected depending on the injury. Still, his knowledge mostly came from fiction, like movies or novels, and Gabriel knew they weren't exactly the best sources. Thankfully, his stepmother was the same and didn't think of deepening her knowledge on the matter. Although losing his memory from childhood to now was a rare occurrence, it didn't mean it couldn't happen.
Alright. Gabriel wasn't completely lying as he didn't quite remember what happened the day he fell down the slope, and even the few previous days were fragmented. It was blurry, and only a few images came to his mind, but they were messy and unclear. The day he woke up, Masha had briefly told him the events, including the raccoon's bite, so he more or less understood what had truly happened.
With an overall idea of how the accident took place, there was no way his stepmother could mislead him. Not like he would have believed a single word that came out of her mouth, but still. It was always better to know the truth, which would allow him to think of counter-attacks.
But what should he do now…?
There was a knock on the door, snapping him out of his thoughts. Gabriel lazily glanced at it before sighing and getting up. He opened the door and came face to face with his stepmother.
"Sweetie, I'm sorry, I have to go out for a while, but I promise that I will be gone for three hours at most. In the meantime, can you take care of your little brother?"
"Sure," Gabriel smiled as he lowered his head, looking at the small child holding his mother's hand. "Be careful on your way out."
"Thank you, I will," Angela smiled before crouching in front of her son, telling him, "Don't cause trouble for your brother, ok?"
Tristan obediently nodded, and she kissed him on his forehead before leaving. Gabriel watched her back as she walked away, his eyes locked on her until she turned a corner, disappearing out of his sight.
'Now is my chance,' he thought.
Since their arrival, Angela had rarely left the house, and when she did, Jake was there to supervise him. However, summer vacation ended a week ago, and his elder brother had to go back to the main house to attend school. Although Gabriel referred to him as "elder brother", Jake was only two months older than him, and they were in the same grade.
Unlike his brothers, Tristan was too young to go to school, and since Gabriel had a lot of free time on his hands, he became his babysitter. After much deliberation, Angela decided not to send her youngest son to kindergarten, wanting to strengthen the bonds between Tristan and Gabriel.
Moreover, Tristan happily told her everything, so it was an excellent way to monitor the teenager when she had to go out. There was nothing wrong with asking her son what he did today, wasn't it?
"So, what do you want to play today?" Gabriel gently asked. "How about hide-and-seek?"
The little boy's eyes seemed to sparkle at these words. Jake never wanted to play with him, saying that he was too old, but Gabriel was different. He would play with him no matter the game, from morning to evening. It made the boy so happy that he forgot how to speak for an instant. So, he could only nod, his little head furiously going up and down.
"Then I will count to one hundred and come to find you," the teenager laughed. "However, you can't hide outside, only in the house. Ok?"
"Ok!"
Before Gabriel could add anything more, the child had already stormed off. The smile on the teenager's face then gradually faded, replaced by a cold expression. However, his voice still sounded warm and gentle. He counted loud enough to be heard throughout the house, and after screaming the last number, he said, "Ready or not, here I come!"
But he didn't immediately rummage through the house. Instead, he walked up to the landline phone in the living room. Until now, he hadn't found the opportunity to contact Masha as he didn't have his cell phone with him; he didn't even know what had happened to it. During the past weeks, his stepmother did not bring up the subject of his cell phone, and he couldn't probe her about it, knowing how paranoid she could get—he didn't want to arouse her suspicion just yet.
However, no one was supervising Gabriel at the moment, and Tristan was hiding somewhere in the house. The teenager knew the child probably didn't hide in the living room, which was an open space without many hiding spots. Still, he took the time to search about, just to make sure. Since he didn't find his little brother in the area, it was thus safe to assume the child wouldn't see him make a call and tattle to his mother afterward.
'Better keep my voice down, though,' he thought. 'Anyway, it's just a small call to put Masha at ease, or I won't ever hear the end of it.'
And to be on the safe side, Gabriel would erase today's call history after reassuring Masha, ensuring his stepmother wouldn't stumble across it. Unless she asked for the phone records from the phone service company, she wouldn't know.
Angela had no reason to ask for it as the only ones currently staying in the villa or visiting it were herself, her sons, and Gabriel. The teenager knew she wasn't wary of him enough to go through the hassle of getting those records, although she did it for the main house and her husband's cell phone—just to make sure he wasn't cheating on her. That woman was overly anxious about a few things, but his father didn't seem to mind and always gave his approval, allowing her to read through his cell phone records at the end of the month.
The couple had a weird dynamic that Gabriel couldn't understand. He also didn't want to understand.
Anyway, his father seldom came to the villa in the past few years, so Gabriel told himself that it should be safe to make that phone call; Angela wouldn't waste her time checking the villa phone records if her husband wasn't using it.
Gabriel shook his head, chasing away his uneasiness. Then, he dialed the phone number he knew by heart, and almost instantly, someone answered. A soft but sullen voice said, "Hello?"
Gabriel seemed to blank out for a second before asking in a low voice, "Hello, Misha. Could I talk to your sister?"
"…"
There was a short silence, and then came a bunch of questions accompanied by a few colorful curses. Someone was angry.
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Chapter revised on 2022-05-19
Edited by Clozed! ♥
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