The telephone booth

Chapter Forty-Four Peter

Chapter Forty-Four
Peter
 
      Peter joined Anna at the same café when Anna's phone rang and she gave her phone to Peter in surprise to talk to a man named Mr. Holland; he said: "If you two work together, the information you get will benefit the three of us."
   "Who are you?"
   "The same person who left that letter on your desk the day you were fired."
   "Are you playing with us?"
   Martin said: "I'll see you soon." Then he hung up.
   Peter came to himself and parked his car next to his dark house. It had been some time since the day those malevolent creatures attacked his home; it was as if he had forgotten part of his past. Truly strange, but Peter's determination led him back to that repulsive house.
   When he entered, he stood in the empty living room, glancing around. Then he walked towards a room where he had packed all his belongings. Peter sat on the floor, his eyes falling on a cardboard box with a poorly written message in his own handwriting: "Definitely burn it." Peter muttered to himself, "What a lunatic!"
   Peter Miller said it as if someone other than himself had written that sentence with such hatred. It was odd; he felt like he was becoming the original Peter Miller again, no longer burdened by the intense loathing he had felt for life and every moment of it. He had distanced himself significantly.
   "If I wrote 'definitely burn it,' there must be interesting and readable things in this box that I should read," Peter thought. He opened the box, revealing intriguing items along with an envelope full of mysterious, spellbound letters that he hadn't opened until that moment. The dates on the envelopes indicated that this letter saga from an anonymous sender had started approximately a few months before he left the orphanage. The first letter was open, and he read:
   "I don't know why I'm writing this letter to you; perhaps because my heart has softened towards you. I know you very well, but you don't know me. Now that's not important; what matters is that I know things about your life that you're unaware of. You harbor resentment towards your parents because you believe they abandoned you at the age of five, but the truth is they loved you. However, I orchestrated a situation where your family would think you were dead, and they entrusted you to an orphanage. I truly enjoyed this deception because I am insane. Curious about who I am? But in this letter, you won't find your answer."
Peter's trembling hands held the unbelievable letter; he might tear it apart from the pressure applied to the paper. All those curses hidden in the corners of his mind were now manifesting themselves with great arrogance; he felt like a madman himself. He thought and finally exclaimed with all his frustration, "Damn lunatic!" He placed the package of hateful letters back Into his bag and tried to stand up from the floor; this time, he succeeded. Peter ran away from that cursed room as fast as he could. His condition wasn't good; as he passed by his parked car on the sidewalk, he was running.
   After a few minutes of running, Peter stopped and sat by the roadside. Taking a deep breath, he said aloud, "It's a lie! Why should I believe that lunatic's words?!" He wiped tears from his wet face with trembling fingers and whispered softly, "I love them; I don't hate them at all. That wicked lunatic unintentionally did something that freed me from a great sorrow. Now I'm so happy that I don't even think about my past; whatever it was, I'll do anything to find them."