Revelation
Revelation
"We lived together for many years. We ate from the same bowl. I fucked up, I admit. And I was ready to pay up the debt, I just needed more time. But you cannot do this." Mary said, obviously trying to guilt trip Mia.
Mia continued to stare at her in disbelief. It was simply too hard for her to believe this.
"Are you... insane?" Mia finally asked when she found her voice. "I deserve an apology! I fucking deserve it!"
"You and mother almost ruined my life and this is what you say!?" At this point, Mia had tears in her eyes. It was tears of regret for staying in the same house with them and hoping a day would come where things would turn out well but she had been hoping for the impossible.
"And I apologize for it! But how can you say you are going to leave us for a man you just met when? A month ago or two months back? Mia... you are our family." Mary tried to kneel on the bed while tears began to drop from her eyes.
"What did I do to deserve this?" Mia yelled. She almost slapped Mary but had to hold back.
"Why are you both treating me like this? Is this how you treat your family? Put yourself in my shoes and tell me how you would have felt had you been treated the way you and mother treated me."
"And whose fault was it?" Mary asked. "What were you expecting? To be treated like a princess?"
Mia would have been worried about Mary's mental health because one minute she looked guilty and the next, she looked like she was ready for a fight. But she had more things to worry about. Why was Mary blaming her?
"Fault? It is my fault you both treated me like an animal?" Mia asked with a scoff.
"All you ever did was bring bad luck to the family while you progressed. Didn't you notice? Whenever something good happened to you, something bad always happened at home. Do you think it was easy keeping you around despite all that? But no, we didn't throw you out because you are our family."
The door suddenly opened and Linda ran inside.
"Stop it Mary! Enough you two!!"
Behind her, Mia could see Leo talking to two nurses outside the room before Leo also entered inside and sent her an apologetic look. Maybe it had been a bad idea bringing her here in the first place.
"No mum, she has to know that this whole thing is her fault. Think about every bad thing that's been happening in our family until the moment dad's business crashed and he disappeared. It always happened when good things happened to you."
"Enough!" Linda yelled at Mary and covered her daughter's mouth with her hand but Mary pushed her hand away immediately.
"Despite everything, we still saw you as our family."
"What good thing has ever happened to me?" Mia asked in a quiet voice filled with disbelief.
"Mia.." Leo called her from the side softly but she didn't turn around.
Mia suddenly remembered the period Mary first disappeared. Linda had accused her that it was her fault. Had she also thought that Mary's disappearance was because she received a scholarship?
"Mia... you don't have to listen to her and all the gibberish she is saying. You are our family no matter what."
Mia looked at the mother-daughter duo with tears in her eyes before a dry humourless laugh left her lips. She kept on laughing until tears streamed down her face.
"You make it sound like you are doing me a favor by being a member of this family. Tell me, what have you both done for me? What have you done for the past 23 years for me? Tell me!!!" She raised her voice, startling them.
"Leo has done more for me than you both have ever done in this past 23 years and you try to make it seem like you are doing me a favour?"
"Yes! We are doing you a favor! Had father not cheated on mother with his slut of a secretary to have you, our life would have been perfect—"
"Mary!" Linda gasped and her eyes went very wide.
Now, that was it. Maybe Leo was supposed to be surprised, but he wasn't. Any normal person would have guessed that this people weren't her real family. He could hear the distant voices of doctors and nurses approaching the room so he went outside reluctantly to speak with them. The noise from the room was probably making them worried.
"How... who... who told you that..?" The pale faced Linda asked Mary.
"I heard it. You and dad quarreled a lot and one time, it came out of your mouth." Mary said without remorse before removing the IV from her hand to leave the bed.
She stood in front of Mia who was staring blankly with her face as white as a sheet. The color had drained from her whole body completely.
"Now you know we are doing you a favour. If your mother hadn't died when she gave birth to you, you would have been with her now but mum took you in and treated you like her own despite what the priest told her about you being born with badluck. I know everything!"
She jabbed a finger at Mia's shoulder and said in a quiet voice just for the both of them to hear, "So now you have a rich boyfriend and want to leave just like that? That won't happen." She shook her head. "You have to pay us back."
"Stop it. Mia, do not listen to her. She is saying nonsense. You are my daughter." She hit her chest and said with passion. "Do not listen to her!"
"Enough with the pretence mum! It was you who told me to stay away from her if I didn't want my life to get ruined.." Mary confessed as she began to scratch her arm and neck with her fingernails violently.
"There is no need covering things up, she has to know. But what is she going to do about it? Beat me up again or ask her rich boyfriend to get us arrested? Oh! We also received a lot of your admission and scholarship letters on your behalf and burned it. Too bad I couldn't lay my hand on the last one. Where the hell is this stuff?" Mary asked as she began to search her mother's bag for something.
When Leo returned inside, he met Mia still standing in the same spot while staring blankly into space.
He was about to go pull her when she suddenly snapped to her senses and turned to look at Linda.
"Is it true?"