"Angelou, my dear! What a pleasant surprise!"
"Hi Mom. Can I come in?"
"What kind of a question is that? Of course you can. Come, come inside."
"It feels good to be back. Where's Dad?"
"This is still your home, Angelou. You can come here as often as you please. You are always welcome here. Your father's at the company, attending to some internal matters before we could start operating again. Where's Gabriel? Is he with you?"
At the sound of his name, all the heaviness I was desperately trying to hide for the past weeks blurted out and I couldn't control my emotions. Agonizing tears rolled down on my cheeks involuntarily. My mother instantly looked alarmed at the sight of me, quickly holding my hand for comfort as she led me to the living room.
"Can I stay here for a few days, Mom? Just a couple of days. I just need some space to breathe. It's suffocating there."
"Why? What's the matter? Did something go wrong?"
'Everything is wrong, Mom. All of these were wrong. I am in a mess, a total distress, and I shouldn't be going through all this stuff in the first place.'
"I don't know, Mom. I feel so mentally and emotionally battered. I feel my whole world is collapsing right before my eyes, and I can't do anything to prevent it from happening."
"Oh Angelou. Hush now, my dear."
"I just wish I could be a child all over again, Mom. If I could just go back in time, I would stay there forever and will not dare to grow up. That I would cry to you because my knees got bruised from playing and you will embrace me tightly, like you always do, then all the pain will simply melt away."
"You've just been married for a week, Angelou. It's normal for newly married couples to adjust with their new lifestyles and with their spouses. Things will be better soon, believe me. Once you've adjusted with Gabriel and see the better picture of your status, then everything will be alright."
"I don't think that will happen, Mom. I don't think I could get along with him. We are two totally opposite individuals. We always clash, even in small things, since day one. If it wasn't because of the company…"
"We deeply apologize for putting you in this awkward situation, my dear. But we had no choice. Your father and I had to make a decision and be in agreement with your godfather. We needed the Levine's, so our company can get back to business. If I could be in your place, you know I would do it myself, but I can't. We needed them to start again. I hope you understand where we are coming from. We did this not just for ourselves, but for you as well, to secure you a much better future."
With that, the main reason why I went here resurfaced in my head. I don't want to believe what Gabriel said the other day, insisting about the ten million he said that was also part of the agreement. Aside from the fact that I haven't read anything in the contract stating that my family would receive a certain amount after I married him, I know he was just making things up to further degrade me and my family. Arrogant people like him always look for ways to boost their egos and self-esteems.
"Now that you've mentioned it, I need to clarify things with regards to the agreement. Gabriel insists on something I know never existed. He claims something that wasn't even part of the contract I've signed in."
"What is it?" She fixed her position and gazed at me, giving me all the attention and waited for me to continue.
"He was claiming that you and Dad accumulated ten million from his father as part of the agreement. He said that the minute I signed the marriage contract and the minute we were declared as a couple, that huge sum of money had been transferred to Dad's account. He's fucking crazy, right? That's how obnoxious he is, Mom. That's how egoistic the man I married was."
"Angelou... Let me explain" She interrupted, but the fury I am feeling for Gabriel made me talk endlessly.
"He wanted me to believe that aside from the partnership our company will have from them, that they will also give you guys ten million. Ten million! What a freaking liar! Did he think I would easily believe his foolish lies? No parent would do such a thing, unless they didn't love their offspring that much for them to do such a horrible act. He's a lying dick face! Imagine, ten million? No parent in a right state of mind would sell their daughters in exchange for a certain kind of amount. That's so ridiculously untrue! He is full of lies!"
The minute my gaze landed on hers to see her reaction about what I said, all the laughter inside of me completely dispersed. The look on her face made my body freeze and numb as well as my mind at a steady pace. She looks like a burglar caught in the act of stealing someone's treasury. Guilt, sadness and shame were all evident in her as she stared at me with tears at bay. I felt like I got submerged in a zero degree ocean.
"I'm sorry, Angelou. We are terribly sorry."
I am back at my new shelter but I still can't willed myself to believe everything that was slapped into my face hours ago. All along, I thought visiting the place I always called home would somehow ease the heaviness I felt inside. That my parents' presence would somehow lighten the burden I am carrying and would somehow give me the peace of mind I craved of having for days.
But I was wrong, I was damn wrong. What my mother revealed to me, did not only add to the angst I am feeling, but it fueled a much bigger and angrier furnace on my already scorching state.
"I see you've discovered the truth already. Judging by the way you look now, I see you've reconfirmed what I just said. I told you I'm not lying. I didn't know you weren't aware of that matter. What might be your parents' reason for not disclosing to you about the money involved?"
'Can I deal with the situations one at a time? How can fate be so cruel to me? I haven't even breathed out the torment of my new discovery, yet here comes another pain in the ass knocking at my doorstep. Oh God! What have I done wrong in my past life that I must bear all this wretchedness in one blow? Have I been so bad in my past life that I have to suffer this much now?'
"Stay the fuck away from me, Gabriel!"
"Hahaha! You should have taken heed of my words when I told you not to go there. Now what? You should be listening to me from now on, Angelou. I am your husband so I know what's good for you."
I stopped my pace, summoning all that was left in me to control my emotions and not to burst into tears in front of this man, before turning around and looking him straight in the eye. His face shows no concern, the total opposite of what he just said.
'You piece of shit! You were also one of the reasons why I am in this shit hole! You and your stupid wealth can all rot in hell!'
Instead of consoling his other half as to what a loving husband should be doing to their wives when seeing them in agony and despair, here he stands in front of me laughing and teasing me even more.
"Don't you have anything meaningful to do with your time? Because if you don't, then stop wasting mine and stay the hell away from me! I don't want to see any of you! I hate all of you for ruining my life!" I shouted at the top of my lungs then ran as fast as I could towards my room and locked myself in.
'I've never been this worst in my entire life. If there's a deeper word than worst, then that's what I am feeling now. I can't explain why all of these have to happen to me. Why me? I've been good to others and I always think of their welfare first before thinking of myself. So why am I so bad with luck? Why did the people whom I thought would defend me and be with me through the toughest times of my life, hurt me this much? First, Lucy betrayed me and continues to betray me by showing herself here on a daily basis, and then now my parents? I never imagined they could do this to me. I did everything for them, to the extent of putting myself in this caged situation with this conceited man just for them. I've pleased them all my life. I hate to sound like an ingrate, but how can they do this to me? How did they manage to do such an ill thing to me? However they want to sugar-coat it, for it to look reasonable and rational, the fact remains that I've been sold for ten million by my own parents behind my back! What could be more degrading than that?'