Ryan's POV
This time, I believe her.
I believe every word she says. Everything from the beginning till the end. Even those I had doubts about. Everything is beginning to make sense to me now.
This has served as an answer to the numerous questions and doubts I had about Anita.
I am beginning to put the piece together and the scene before me is making me nauseated.
Quickly, I rush out. Blinded by anger and filled with a rush of adrenaline, all I want to do right now is see that man I have called Father for years so I can punch the living hell out of him for keeping me in the dark and doing this to my mom.
Mom doesn't keep secrets from me. I am sure she did this because of him.
I never had the cause to openly think whether he is really my father or not because of how we grew up. This is because I always take solace in my mother's chest.
He has always been a violent man but I thought he has changed. The last time he hit me was when I was 17 years old and I also raised my hand to retaliate.
The expression on his face was that of pure shock that I could ever do something like that to him. Mother brought me back to my senses, by reminding me of the fact that he is my father and he deserves all the respect.
I defy her that day. I told her to tell him never to raise his hands at me ever again or I won't mind doing the same.
He has never raised his hands on me since that day but we make up for it through argument. We are always opposing each other. His views are always not right to me and vice versa.
I never gave it much thought that this man is not my Father and what he feels for me is pure hatred, not the possessiveness my mother calls it.
Anita.
Now I see it. The way Valerie spelled it out that she is not my sister is as if a blindfold has been lifted off my face for me to see the truth.
Everything has always been in front of me but I was too blinded to see it.
Anita isn't my sister. How come I never thought about our birth dates? Is this why Mother doesn't remember her birthday yet she always remembers mine? Is this why I am closer to mom while she is closer to Dad? Does this mean that he is not my father but hers? How did this happen?
I didn't know about Anita's real age until I stumbled upon her birth certificate while I was taking her to the airport on the day she was to resume college.
How come I never noticed and gave much thoughts to the closeness of her birthday to mine? How come it didn't even cross my mind to check the birth year? Maybe that would have given her out.
Is she really in college?
Last year when I went to Boston, I wanted to visit her in school but she lied that she was on a department excursion. I knew she lied because I saw the Dean the next morning and he said nothing about the excursion. I just thought she lied to me because she went to see her boyfriend or a friend of hers.
I don't even know if she has a boyfriend or not.
Now that I think of it, how can she still be in college at 25? Wasn't she claiming to be 22?
My head spins and I halt.
"Ryan", someone grabs me from behind. Her hands go around my stomach as she hugs me from behind.
I need to do this. I know Valerie won't let me do what I want to.
I take her hands off me before running to my car. I jump into the driver's seat, roaring the car engine to life before driving off.
"Ryan!" she screams my name from my parking lot but I don't intend to let her prevent me from doing what I want to do.
The truth is out now. Anita's pretense is the height of it.
Is she even his daughter? Are they lovers?
Anita and I grew up together so that puts my assumption about them being lovers wrong. Most people call us twins. I thought it was because we were of the same height but now I see it isn't the height but the age.
They must have thought we were the same age.
Maybe not.
I don't even know what else to do. The more I try to think or figure out more about why this is happening, the more confused I become and the more my head keeps spinning as I drive at a high speed.
I need to let it all out tonight.
I cried.
I prayed.
I got married and faked a pregnancy. I did all I could just to make my mother happy in her last days. I never knew it was all a facade.
They wanted her dead so they came up with the idea of cancer while poisoning her slowly. If she died, I wouldn't have thought it was something else other than what she has been diagnosed with.
A tear drops.
A lone tear and also laughter leaves my mouth.
What an excellent way to kill someone!
When Valerie told me that he wasn't my father while she was lying on the hospital bed, I thought she meant my mother cheated on him and that I have a different father. That was my understanding of the statement and it got me mad.
I should have read through the lines.
Valerie wouldn't have gone over to the house that morning if mother didn't call her. She always lets me know whenever she wants to visit my mother.
I should have known.
The truth glares wickedly at me and I hit my fist on the steering, not bothering to reduce my speed.
I want to get there as fast as I can. First to see if the house is back in its full wing and to see that father of mine.
I wonder what he is thinking right now.
After two turns and halts because of my overspeeding, I finally get to the mansion. Roughly, I drive into the gates and jump down. I race for the front door, without bothering to close my car door.
I burst into the house and nauseation hit me again, followed by a wave of nostalgia as I see the very opposite of what I saw when I came here two hours ago to save my mother.
The lights are not turned off. The chandeliers are shining brightly, streaming light to every corner of the house. The artistic paintings are back in their original position.
A maid strolls past me. She halts when she sees me standing by the door with my jaws dropped.
"Mr. Lorenzo?" She peers at me and I see it is the head maid. She is in charge of the affairs of the house and she usually has the key to every room here. She is also in charge of locking all the doors when it is time to sleep.
The bunch of keys is dangling in her hand.
I take two long strides toward her. "Where were you two hours ago?"
I don't want to let the darkness consume me. It tried to consume me the moment I entered but I won't let it.
My hands are shaking. More tears roll down my eyes. Not at the betrayal from my father but for the truth. The truth from Valerie.
What she said was true. I used this against her. I told her the whole house couldn't be empty and my mom couldn't be in the third room. But the same thing happened today.
But right now, it looks like it didn't happen and I was just hallucinating.
I know I am not hallucinating. I saw it all. I noticed the emptiness. No one was around, not a single soul.
She trembles when she sees the deadly look I throw her and she backs away.
Quickly, I grab her by the neck and she falters. "Where were you?"
While backing away and hacking a cough, she replies. "I was away. I just resumed work tonight. I was away."
How can I trust her? If she was away, then who was in charge?
Remembering that I came here for my Dad, I let her go. The police will do their job tomorrow morning with the maids. They must confess what they did and where they went.
I push past her before heading for the stairs. Before I can get up, Father appears in his sleeping silk shirt and pants.
He indicates how surprised he is by spreading his arms out as he asks. "Is everything ok? Why are you here by this time of the night?"
I stand still.
"Are you ok?" he takes another step toward me and I lose it all.
I rush towards him and punch him right on his jaw, making me fall back. I climb over him and begin to punch him several times the more I remember everything he has done to me from childhood and also to my Mother.
He has been so unfair. He treated us wrongly but Mother always defended him and made it look like he was doing his responsibility as a father.
She loved him.
"What the hell have you done to my Mother?" I find myself shouting as I keep punching him and crying out my eyes.
"Ryan", a familiar voice calls from behind, making my hand hang halfway from punching his teeth off. His face is already messy and he isn't trying to defend himself.
I don't need a soothsayer to tell me who it is. But I still turn around slowly to see the maids around, watching with horror and Valerie appears with her hands together, pleading with me.
The fact that she had to go through a tough time when she came here made me furious. She was almost killed by this monster. She had her head wrapped in bandages for weeks. She tried to save my Mother despite her condition.
Out of the blues, I find myself being raised in the air. I look forward instantly, my heart beating twice its normal rate.
"Ryan!" Valerie screams at the top of her voice.
I don't know what she wants me to do. I am up in the air and I can't even see what is taking me up.
The hand holding me releases me instantly as another piercing scream escapes my woman's sweet mouth as I roll down the stairs with my father at the top of the stairs with a look of defeat.
My head hits the stair as I continue to roll down till I get to the landing and Valerie runs to my side.
I want to tell her that I love her so much that it hurts. I want to tell her that I am sorry for not believing in her. I want to apologize for not trusting her. I want to apologize for putting her in danger.
I want to hug and smell her fragrance. I want to hear her shout at me once again for not listening to her when she told me to calm down.
But I can't do any of that.
I can't even hear her anymore. Her mouth keeps moving but I can't hear a word.
This is when it dawns on me that I have to die in place of my Mother because this man won't stop until someone dies.
The darkness from earlier finally envelops my existence.
****
What is going to happen to Ryan?