Only Wisdom Awakened
Chapter 269: Shimmering In The Dark
My name is Anna Marchetti.
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Or at leastā¦
Thatās what I would like to say.
This nightmare of life has never treated me rightā¦ not even onceā¦ even the only people I thought I could trust, ended up stabbing me in the back.
It first started when I was littleā¦ I still remember vividly what I saw, heard, and felt that dayā¦
A little girl was hiding behind a door.
Just a single ray of light illuminated her face unevenly, cutting right through her left eye.
She looked at the dining room through the little fissure that was created by the slightly agape wooden door.
There, a middle-aged woman and a man about the same age were hugging each other.
The woman was sobbing as her fingers sunk deep into the manās wool sweater.
She held him tight between her arms, and he did the same.
It took a bit more than a few seconds for the woman to calm down and for the man to askā¦
"Another nightmare?"
He was slightly taller than her, so in order to reply, the woman raised her face and laid her neck on the manās chest:
"Yesā¦ it was justā¦ another nightmare"
"Was it the same as the other times?"
Ashamed and terrified, the woman sunk her face into the manās chest once again:
"Yes, heā¦ he grabbed my wrists, he tied my anklesā¦ andā¦ and-"
The man raised his hand and caressed the top of the womanās head, pitying her as he stared at the floor in deep thought.
"Iām sorry, Iā¦ am sorry"
The woman continuously repeated those words as she squeezed the man.
"What would you have to be sorry for?"
"I am sorry for burdening you with my problems, I know you already have enoughā¦"
"What problems could I possibly have that are important even a thousandth of how you feel?"
"I am sorry for everythingā¦ I am really sorry for everythingā¦"
"Are you still thinking about that time?ā¦"
"I-"
"When you came to meā¦ It was my choice to support youā¦ it was my choice to raise her as our ownā¦ you donāt have to say sorryā¦ if anything, it is me who is sorryā¦
For having failed to keep you safe at that time.
They both tightened their hug as a deep sense of remorse enveloped the two, but none of them knewā¦ how much pain they had involuntarily caused another member of their familyā¦
The little girl returned to bed, her eyes didnāt shine as brightly as earlier, and she looked sadā¦ depressed.
She stared at the ceiling, as she contained the tears that continuously tried to fall out of her eyes.
Hans felt all those emotionsā¦ sadness, loneliness, the feelingā¦ of not belonging there.
Eventually, that child grewā¦
She looked like she was about twelve, maybe a bit younger, maybe a bit older.
ā¦
At the time, my mother had already gone down the path of a lawyer, and to justify her extreme righteousness, she had decided to publish an article about what she had sufferedā¦
Everyoneā¦ everyone knewā¦ at schoolā¦ where I used to do gymnasticsā¦
People joked about me, they started because it was funny, and as we grew, their tongues sharpened, and they started insulting me with the sole purpose of hurting me.
Those seven years of my lifeā¦ were unbearable.
Luckily, even if Mother was too occupied telling everyone I was the child of a molester, my father always managed to cut out a few minutes for me every dayā¦
His schedule was even busier than Momās but he always managed to talk to me for a few minutes, maybe even joke with me, or sometimes help me out with my exams.
He was the only reasonā¦ I managed to live through all those things.
Maybe it was out of pity, maybe he felt bad for what my mother was doingā¦ but I didnāt care, for me, my father was the best.
Just the fact that he had raised someone elseās child as his own, loving her as much as he would with a normal child, stood as proof of his angelic personalityā¦ but he had one problemā¦
He was too obsessed with my mother.
My first few years working were difficult, but with my sad backstory, I managed to convince a few agencies to take me in.
My position was obtained solely out of pity others felt towards meā¦
Did I feel bad about it? Never.
It was all flowing smoothly, life had finally regained a bit of light for me.
I had even met someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life withā¦
And so had my sisterā¦
āMomā¦ dadā¦ā
Hans speechlessly watched the scenes unfolding before his eyesā¦
āThey wereā¦ so differentā
He couldnāt help but think.
His motherās face didnāt have any wrinkles, and his fatherās hair was way darkerā¦ even the way they moved and joked with each other was differentā¦
Astonished and feeling melancholic, Hans observed the scene till the end, when his aunt and her boyfriend left his motherās house.
He couldnāt understandā¦ sure his aunt loathed his grandma, but what had happened? What in the world changed her so much? What made her becomeā¦ the crimson lady.
He hoped it wasnāt what he was thinking about, but unfortunately, his worries came true.
A beautiful woman was sitting in an office, she was watching some documents with a pair of glasses, as she wrote down something in the notebook beside her.
At that moment, the old-style phone on her desk began ringing.
She waited a few seconds before picking up as she still had to finish reading one line, but she eventually reached out to it and picked up the wired phone.
She brought the device to her ear as she leisurely gazed at the things she had written on the notebook.
"Anna Maglini, how may I help you?"
She introduced herself and acted politely, since that was also the phone she used for work, and that call might have been from a client.
Usually, it annoyed her when a client called her, and she always hoped to get a call from someone else, so that she could run away from some of her piled-up work, but that dayā¦ Anna would have given everything she could to receive a call from a client instead.
"Iām searching for Anna Lumi, is this the right number?"
Even if bothered by the surname, she went on and replied:
"Yes, youāre calling the right person, what do I owe the pleasure?"
She knitted her eyebrows as she feared it might have been a stupid call from someone she knew who wanted to make fun of her.
"Miss Lumi, I am sorry to convey the news, but something tragic happened to your mother this morning"
She couldnāt care less about thatā¦ whatever happened, she was pretty sure her mother deserved it.
"This morning, local time nine thirty-five, the car your mother was driving was caught up in a terrorist attackā¦ we are sorryā¦ we couldnāt retrieve her body because of the burning flames"
As she heard that, her knitted brows immediately relaxed and her annoyed face was left with an expression of shock.
Hans could feel itā¦ it was a terrible sensation as if he was about to vomit his own soulā¦ her heart began thumping faster, as her body overheatedā¦
After just fifteen seconds, sweat covered her forehead and her back as she closed her eyes.
Trying her best not to cry, the woman timidly asked one question:
"Was-was someone else in the car with her?"
"Uhā¦ yes missā¦
another person was in the car at the time, he was in the driverās seat, and he also unfortunately did not survive the crashā¦"
Her heart was thumping even faster as she repeatedly told herself it was fineā¦
Her mother was an important person who lived a dangerous life, she often used to get driven around by some securityā¦
"Wait a second, I will check right nowā¦
here it isā¦.
It states that his name wasā¦
Gianfranco Maglini"
Her heart almost stoppedā¦ she felt her breath slipping out of her body as she heated up.
It wasnāt realā¦
How could it be real?
What kind ofā¦ bullshit was that?.
ā¦
It wasnāt real, that was the only thought that resounded in my mindā¦ and yetā¦ my body had already reacted to the fact, my stomach began aching and my head felt like it was about to split apartā¦
I didnāt want to hear it, I didnāt want to think about itā¦
When was the last time I spoke with my father? When did I last laugh with him? I was so absorbed in the new life I had found that I had forgotten about the one and only person who had supported me for my whole life, even when I was at my lowestā¦
Tears slid off the womanās cheek and drenched the floor as she let out a dying whisper :
"Noā¦."
"Miss? Miss is everything okay?ā¦"
The woman fell to the ground unconscious, loosening her grip on the phone and letting it fall just beside her.
A loud thump echoed in the microphone before a voice from the other side of the call began trying to reach out to her, panicking:
"Miss?! Miss is everything alright?! Miss, please reply!
Miss!!"