Fate Escape

CHAPTER 17

Linda Suares

2001

It was just another routine day. Normally, Tom and I were supposed to meet up and do something today, but he called me yesterday, canceling our plans due to some business. Tom and I had a great relationship. He loved me deeply, never contradicted me, and could never bring himself to hurt me. That evening was the time my life changed completely.

Around ten o'clock in the evening, a phone call came. The caller was Tom's cousin, Stend. He informed me that Tom had a fatal accident around half past eight while returning home. Stend was a very soulless and emotionless person, which is why they chose him to deliver this news to me. Initially, I thought he was playing a cruel joke on me. I yelled at him, thinking he was joking. I believed there was no possibility of what he said being true. Stend simply said he was sorry, and when I grasped the reality of the situation, chaos erupted in the house. I screamed and wailed, shaking the entire house. Everyone came to me, asking in fear what had happened. I couldn't say anything; amid my sobbing, I could only utter Tom's name.

I spent a terribly difficult week, utterly shattered. During this time, Tom's funeral took place. I had cried so much that tears seemed to have run dry. I didn't know what to do. People kept giving me absurd advice, suggesting things like looking ahead and not dwelling on the past. But one day, an unexpected event occurred.

Two weeks had passed since Tom's death, and I had almost returned to my normal routine. Then, one day, my friend Caroline, whom I disliked but who was always part of our friend group, called me. She said she wanted to meet and insisted that what she had to say was important. Despite telling her I wasn't in the mood to meet, she emphasized the significance of what she had to share and asked me to listen if I had any self-respect. Her words added an air of mystery to everything. Overcome by curiosity, I decided to meet her.

She gave me the address of her house and asked me to come there. I quickly prepared and went to the given address. It was a four-bedroom duplex with a spacious garden. As I got out of the car, she was watching the surroundings from her terrace. When she saw that I had arrived, she came down to the entrance to greet me. We went from the wide entrance to the living room. She asked if I wanted something to drink, but I declined. Finally, she got to the point when she sat down.

"Linda, I brought you here because, to be honest, I don't know where and how to start. But I want you to know that I was deceived too. I was also a victim. And out of respect for myself... I can't keep this secret any longer. He told me that you were unhappy, that you started the relationship just because your families wanted it. In fact, he convinced me that you had an unwritten agreement between you, and that's why you pretended to be a couple," she said. I couldn't quite make sense of what she was saying. My mind grasped the situation more or less, but my heart struggled to believe it.

Furiously, I roared, "What nonsense are you talking about? I don't understand what you're trying to say. If you have something to say, say it clearly." Caroline jumped in fear. Both of us had already risen to our feet due to the intensity of the situation. She struggled to speak, finally grabbing my arm as if she had an enlightenment moment, saying, "It's better for you to see." She led me upstairs to the bedroom, saying we should go to the upper floor. We entered, and as I looked around the room, everything was laid bare. There were very intimate photos of Tom and Caroline taken at different times on both sides of the double bed, on the desk, and on different walls of the room. My stomach was churning. What was the meaning of all this? I couldn't understand. My heart screamed in pain as if everything were playing before my eyes like a movie reel.

"All those times Tom suddenly canceled our meetings, his constant defense of Caroline in our friend group, his indifference to what I said about Caroline. Caroline crying in agony almost fainting at Tom's funeral. How foolish I was. How did I not realize I was being deceived?" "He was with me that night. He made up a lie and came to me." She took something out of the drawer. I wasn't looking at her anymore; my gaze was fixed on the ground. "We were going to have a baby. But from the moment I told him, he didn't want the baby. He said he didn't feel ready to be a father. He asked me to have an abortion. That was when I realized I was deceived. But I still did what he said. I had my baby, our baby, aborted." She showed me an ultrasound picture. "That night, I suddenly told him I wanted to meet. He had to come, even if he didn't want to because he was eager to find out if I had the abortion. He came. I gave him the good news. And do you know what he said to me? We are too young for a baby; we'll have one, or even two, when we get married. If I wanted, we could even have three babies. Shamelessly, he continued to pretend he loved me. I cut to the chase and told him I didn't want to be with him anymore, that I wanted to break up. He thought the reason I wanted to break up was you and said I would leave you soon. He never understood that the real reason was the innocent baby, a part of both of us, that he took from me. We argued a lot, and he couldn't accept that we broke up. He said it wasn't over, jumped into his car, and left. On the way back home..." Caroline, now struggling, gave up trying to hold back her sobs and began crying intermittently. "It was too late for me to understand these things. Actually, I realized you were also a victim when I saw you at the funeral, devastated by grief. I thought you deserved to learn the truth. I am, I am very sorry."