Chapter 11:
That night, while Jessica was taking bubble baths and giggling about gala dresses, I had spent hours nursing the man to health, while feeding the starving stray kittens with an eyedropper.
And Xander had never once seen the face of that angel clearly.
Upon asking around the estate he found out that the eldest child was a person who was cruel and loved to bully her younger sister while the younger sister was a kind fairy.
He then assumed his savior was Jessica!!
Xander staggered to the wall and braced his hands against it, gesping.X
I had told no one about that incident.
No one!
protect his fairy not knowing that
And the next day he had broken his engagement to the eldest vicious‘ Valcruz daughter and vowed to p he was a sinner!
I carried all that with me. Alone. And when he’d first met me three years ago, when I walked into the estate wrapped in lace and red lips and unreadable eyes, he had looked at me and thought:
“Spoiled. Cold. Manipulative unlike Jessica.
Xander felt his heart dying at that moment, the weight of immense guilt felt like he was being burned alive..
Dr. Shen reached for a wom folder thick, yellowed with time and dropped it in front of him.
“Just see what damage you have done.”
Xander opened the first page, barely able to hold onl
[PATIENT: ATHENA VALCRUZ]
[AGE 7:2
After witnessing her mother collapse during a violent episode, Athena became mute.
She would sit outside the locked bedroom door for hours, whispering lullabies to the woman inside. Her fingers bled from scratching at the door, trying to open it.]
Xander stared at the image clipped beside the page–Athena, seven years old, curled in a hospital bed, hands bandaged. [AGE 10:8
She asked to leam plano after hearing her mother’s cassette.
Frederick Valcruz’s response:8
“Music is for daughters with dowries. Not burdens I never asked for.”
Athena practiced on a broken keyboard discarded by Jessica, pressing keys that made no sound, imagining them into music.] Age 12:8
Jessica’s birthday. Chandeliers, White horses. Two hundred guests,
That same day, Athena knocked over a vase while delivering a tray.
Punishment: Three days in the attic without food.
The maid found her humming “Happy Birthday” to herself in the dark.
JAGE 15:1
She wrote an essay about grief, Won first place in an international competition. Jessica submitted it under her own name. Result
Athena was disqualified for plagiarism.l
Official winner: Jessica Valcruz |
Athena tore her certificate into pieces. She never wrote again.
Age 16%
She applied for a scholarship abroad in order to escape the abusive household
Result Rejected for academic dishonesty.
Anonymous complaint filed that day by Jessica Valeruz who copied and submitted Athena’s certifications in her namel Athena’s passport was confiscated and her father screamed that “A girl like her should be grateful we gave her food.“] Age 20:8
Diagnosis: Chronic depressive disorder. Emotional suppression. Self–harming behavior.8
Therapist note:
I asked Athena about dreams, she said “I don’t make them anymore. They break too easily:“1
Xander could no longer hold back the tears.
They slid down his face silently as the room spun.
“She never told me,” he whispered.X
10:02 AM c
Dr. Shen smiled. “Would you have believed her if she had told you? Or you would have blamed her?” Xander’s entire being was ripped apart.
Did he believe in me when I cried that Jessica bullied me?!
De he believe in me when I confessed my love after that one night where he slept with me?!
Did he take care of me when we spent the night together? No…
He dragged me out of the room without even asking if he was rough or if I was hurt.!!
Xander clutched the folder as tears dropped his eyes, a pain like thousands of knives stabbing covered his heart as he gasped for breath. “Athena! Athena!!!!!
