BETRAYAL

2

"I never asked him to do those things for us, and I'm not the one who accepted those things. It was you, you and father. We were living just fine before him, we managed all those years, we were happy!!" Winnie argued back.

"Speak for yourself!! Do you know how sad I was when I met with other wives and they started bragging about their expensive jewelry their husbands got for them on their birthdays or the trip across the world they took with their husbands on their anniversary or when they started bragging about their sons who are abroad!! Do you know how many times your Dad's business almost went bankrupt? And what about your brother Lucas, don't you know that it was his dream to study abroad??" she reasoned. How can her own child not understand how she felt!!

"So, are you happy now that you can brag about your son who is studying abroad? The son who never even calls you!! Or about your husband who is never home since his business started blooming, does he even remember your anniversaries nowadays??" she cockily replied.

"Y-you!! What was I thinking!?" she muttered angrily, clearly hurt from the words Winnie said but she was not someone to easily give in, "From tomorrow you're not allowed to go out!! The only way you can go out of this house is if you're going to the altar."

"What!!?? You can't do that!!", Winnie's mouth dropped. There's no way she is serious.

"Watch me!!" she smirked evilly.

"Are you even my real mother?? What kind of a mother does this!!" Winnie argued.

"The mother who wants what's best for her children," she argued back.

"I'm a grown up woman, I know what's best for me!!" Winnie scoffed.

"No, You cleary don't. We wouldn't have been having this conversation if you did!!" she retorted.

"I have to go to work!!" she reasoned, knowing that's her ticket out.

"Then get married as soon as possible!" she told her.

Winnie clenched her teeth angrily, "You're impossible!"

"Where did you think you inherited that from!?" she smirked before angrily march out of the room, slamming the door behind her. How could she do that to me!! How could she say those words to me?? Those hurtful words? She needed a drink to cool her off.

Winnie flinched as her mother angrily slammed the door, she turned back to look at the window as she released a big sigh, when did they reach that point!!?

Winnie and her mother used to be very close, they were everyone's mother-daughter relationship goals. They used to tell each other's everything, do everything together. And her father used to be there for them. But nothing had been the same ever since Michael's death, ever since Calvin forcefully walked in her life!! That was the time she needed her mother's most, she needed someone to tell her it is alright, everything will be alright and not someone to force her into marrying someone else!

* * *

Calvin was still sad when he approached the gate of his mansion. He sighed and honked the horns as he reached the gate.

Calvin noticed a man standing outside the gate at the dark looking down at his shoes, his clothes were old and worn out.

Calvin stretched his neck to see who it was when the man looked up after hearing the sound of the car horns, he slowly started approaching the car and Calvin immediately knew who it was even in a dim light he was at. He has lost a lot of weight was the first thing he noticed as he locked eyes with him.

Haroon, it is his best friend Haroon. Or should he say was. There his childhood and teenage-hood best friend was standing looking small and tired. He remembered the million times he kept telling him to stop looking weak and small, and that people only pick on people who looks weaker than them. He remembered over the a hundred times him and Mike had to defend him.

Haroon was the youngest among them three, Calvin and Mike were just few months apart, with Calvin being the oldest. Haroon was a year younger than them but they treated him as if he was five or ten years younger than them, they always looked out for him. And Haroon being thin and 5'8 tall while they were at 6' didn't help his case. Maybe it is their fault he is used to being so weak, he never had time to toughen up with them beside him.

Calvin looked at the gate and noticed that it was already long opened, he looked at Haroon one last time before he started the car and drove past him to his mansion. The door was locked right after. He sighed and got out of his car and walked into his house. What a long day!

*     *       *       *       *

Haroon stood there for like 30 minutes, staring at the gate that was long closed. He then turned back and started walking away. He didn't know what to do. He knew he had to do something but courage was what he didn't have. The guilt was eating him away day by day. He wished Michael was still there. If only he could turn back time!!

*******************************************

~20 years ago~

Michael and Calvin ran to their school playground and started searching for Haroon. They looked behind the slide and found him sitting there alone. His eyes puffy from crying.

"Hey Haroon what are you doing here alone?" Michael asked in a quiet voice as he sat beside him.

"Because nobody wants to play with me," Haroon said, his lips trembling.

"What do you mean nobody!! We want to play with you!" Calvin shouted at him.

"Yes, Cal is right. We want to play with you, you're our friend."

"The other kids said you're only hanging with me because you pity me, that I'm not cool like you and nobody really wants to be my friend."

"Stop being stupid, why would we hang with you out of pity!" Calvin said angrily. Haroon flinched.

"Yes Haroon. Why would we pity you anyway. You're cool! You even have that spider-man shirt! Only cool kids have those." Michael told him.

"Really?" Haroon asked Michael, his eyes widening, a big smile on his chubby face.

"Yes really. If anyone tell you you're not cool, tell them that." Michael assured him.

"Okay," Haroon grinned. "Yay, I'm cool!"

"And we are not just your friend, we are your best friend. Even the other kids don't have two best friends. So next time they tell you you don't have friends tell them you even have two best friends." Michael told him.

Calvin added, "And tell them next time they try to bully you we are going to beat them up."

Haroon nodded, the grin on his face getting bigger.

Michael reached out and wiped the remaining tears out of his face. "There! now you look even more cool."

"And next time don't you dare cry! That is why they continue to bully you, look them in the eyes and tell them....actually no, you stay with us all the time. Okay?" Calvin told him.

"Yes," Haroon answered in a cheerful voice before he woke up and sprinted to the playground singing "I have two best friends! I have two best friends!"

Calvin and Michael laughed at his silliness before they started chasing him, both laughing loudly.