Prologue Final Chapter

The evidence was staring right at me, yet I didn't want to believe it. To me, it was never a possibility, it was never something to consider.

Unlike everyone else in the house, she was always so sweet to me, so why would she do that? What was her motivation?

No, that didn't matter because I always believed that even if she was forced, she would never do anything to hurt me, but it was all a lie.

Delusions that I built up in my head based on my feelings, people will really do anything under the right conditions. That was something my mother said to me once.

I wanted to ask her why she did it. I knew there had to be at least one good reason backing up her action; she wouldn't just poison my food. I was sure of that at least, but what did it matter?

Good reason or not, the result would have been the same if I had blindly consumed that meal that night. To me, there was no good or bad reason for killing someone, all that mattered was that the person was dead.

I stood there for a while staring at her and waiting for those questions to come out, but I just couldn't form the words and, without even bothering to try again, I turned around and began to make my way out of the kitchen.

"Ezra, wait, I can…."

She paused for a while there as I slowly stopped to turn to her.

The weight of sadness in her face at that moment was something I had only been able to catch a glimpse of when my mother died.

I could tell she didn't really mean to do it, it was obvious that she was forced to do it, and she heavily regretted it, but just as I said earlier, none of that mattered. Forced or not, she did put cyanide and if I had consumed it, I would have died. Nothing else would have mattered after that.

I was sure she would weep after my demise, so maybe I was doing her a favor here by not dying.

Unable to finish what she wanted to say, I turned away from her and continued moving.

I kept a straight face the whole time, but inside my heart had been smashed into tiny little bits.

'So, this is what heartbreak feels like.' I thought.

I walked past my father who was still eating his meal without paying any attention to him. I refrained from turning to him because if I did, it would have been a mean scornful glare. However, he felt the need to call out to me, which I expected, since I had not touched my food yet, I was returning upstairs.

"You're not going to eat your meal?"

For once, since my mother passed away, he actually tried to sound caring, but that just made my skin crawl. I wanted to turn to him and let loose with all the things that I'd wanted to say to him for a while now, all the hurtful things I wanted to say to him and all the inappropriate gestures I wanted to make in his face, but for now I had to keep them bottled.

"You can have it if you want and if you don't want it, you can let Cecilia have it," I responded as I slowly made my way upstairs.

He didn't say anything else to me after that and just watched as I slowly made my way upstairs.

It didn't take me long to get to my room, and as soon as I did, I crashed down on my bed and buried my face in the pillow.

'I'll always be there for you.'

Those words felt like a fleeting dream to me at that moment.

I felt like crying but for some reason, the tears just wouldn't come out. What am I saying? I've always had trouble crying, even as a child, I've felt like doing it a couple of times, but the tears barely ever come out.

I had my face buried in my pillow for over ten minutes, and just when I started to feel a bit sleepy, I heard a knock on my door.

I ignored it at first because I was sure who it was, but the knock came a second time and a third time.

"What do you want?" I asked, sounding quite irritated.

"Um…. Ezra, could you open the door? I want to talk, please?"

"Whatever you want to say, stand there and say it." I retorted.

She sounded really sad and apologetic. I knew she wanted to explain things to me and apologize, but I just couldn't bring myself to look at her, not after what had just happened.

"I would honestly love it if things could be done that way, but I can't say anything while I'm out here."

"Then leave." I snapped. "It's hard to sleep on an empty stomach, and you're disturbing me."

"Ezra."

I didn't know till the next morning, but she broke down in front of my door at night and ended up falling asleep crouched up beside the door.

I guess I did catch a few sounds of her sobbing, but I didn't really pay any attention to that.

"What are you still doing here?" Those were the first words that escaped from my mouth as soon as I opened my door to find her crouched up there.

She obviously didn't hear that as she was still asleep at the moment, but a few seconds later, she slowly lifted her head while slowly opening her eyes.

"Ezra?" She muttered as soon as she caught sight of me. "Good morning."

I usually responded to that with a bright smile on my face, but things were obviously different this time.

My gaze on her didn't last for more than three seconds before I turned away from her and began to walk away.

"Ezra, wait, I didn't mean to…." She called out to me, sounding a bit desperate.

"I know you didn't mean to," I responded almost immediately.

"Then…."

"But whether you meant to or not doesn't change the fact that the result would have been the same either way," I interjected. "I would be dead and that would be that."

She didn't say anything after that and just watched as I slowly made my way downstairs.

Last night's incident marked the beginning of me not wanting anything to do with the food prepared in that house ever again. The one person I trusted almost sending me to my grave was all the warning I needed.

I didn't need anyone to tell me that my father was the mastermind behind last night's incident, but whatever made him finally decide to throw my life away like it was his decision to make, I wasn't going to let him get the best of me.

Luckily for me, there were a bunch of coconut trees behind the mansion, four to be exact, and all of them happened to have ready-to-eat fruits on them.

Those were going to be my sustenance for the next two weeks and I would end up spending most of my time under them.

My father didn't care that I no longer bothered to join him for any meal. Maybe he thought that my coconut supply would run out very soon, and then I would starve to death just like he wanted.

What am I saying? That was exactly the thought he had in mind.

I would always catch the three ironing surfaces that somehow qualified as maids laughing while looking at me under the coconut trees and, as always, the head maid was indifferent to the situation.

The only person who cared about my well-being was Cecilia. She would always bring me food in the usual basket once my father left for work, and she would take a spoon or a bite in front of me because she was aware that I was still wary of her but none of that made the cut for me.

I had made up my mind to not take food from her ever again as long as she still worked for my father, and I was going to stick to that. It didn't matter whether she tasted the food in front of me to confirm there wasn't any poison, my answer was always going to be no.

She would leave every day to get back to work after putting in a convincing performance to get me to eat some real food as she described it, and although she always smiled before leaving, I could tell she was really heartbroken.

She didn't stop coming after the first day and although my answer was always no, she still kept coming.

She expected things to be easier after my supply of coconuts eventually ran out, but my answer was still no.

When our relationship was still normal, I would always rush at an opportunity to take a bite from a sandwich. Cecilia took a bite, especially at the same spot, but now, I just stared at the sandwich before slowly averting my gaze.

"I told you to leave me alone," I uttered before slowly getting up on my feet. "You're only making more trouble for yourself by showing up here every day."

I returned to my room after that and just sat on my bed with my hand on my stomach which was growling in anger.

I mean, I could understand the guy, it's been a week since my coconut supply finished and all I've been feeding it was water.

Escaping from this so-called home was also not an option, since the fence was really high and was elevated further by an electric fence, the guards in front of the gate were equally hard to get through.

I've tried to escape before, about four years ago, and that didn't end very well for me.

Sitting there thinking about all of that coupled with the level of hunger that was almost driving me insane, I decided.

"I've had enough."

It looked like there was no way out of this for me, but there was one way. It was extreme, but it was the only option I had now.

I couldn't wait till morning, so I decided to do what I had to do that night.

I paid a quick visit to the kitchen before appearing in front of my father's door around 8:30 PM.

"Father, it's me," I said just after knocking on his door.

It took a little while, but he was finally able to respond.

"It's open."

I pushed the door open and walked into the room almost immediately to find him at his desk with his laptop open.

"What do you want? You curse of a son." 

He has always been like this since his wife passed away. He never bothered to conceal the fact that he hated me and that was why I avoided talking to him as much as possible.

"You know, I never bothered to ask this very important question. What makes you think I was the reason your wife died?" I inquired.

I didn't bother to ask then because I didn't want to find out that he was actually telling the truth, but none of that mattered now.

"Wasn't it obvious to you?" He retorted. "What am I saying? Of course, it wasn't. You were here to kill her after all. After she gave birth to you, her health started declining, and she became much weaker. The doctors said nothing was wrong with her, so clearly the only answer would be you, everything started happening after she gave birth to you, it was all your fault, I lost my precious Theresa, and it was all your fault!" He raged slowly, reaching for the drawer on his desk.

"I see, so that's the reason you hate me so much."

"And the fact that you look so much like her makes my stomach churn. It would have been easier if you had been born a female, maybe then….."

"You would have made me your new wife, completely replacing her because it wouldn't make any difference."

I had never felt more disgusted in my life ever before. This man was insane, so he would have tried to do stuff to me if I was a girl just because I looked like his wife, not even considering the fact that he was my father.

"You're truly despicable. The world doesn't have any need for someone like you."

I pulled out the knife I was hiding by my side at that moment and charged straight toward him. I was planning to end everything once and for all. He needed someone to take him out of his misery, and I was glad to do that.

However, just before I could get to him, I heard a gunshot. There was no mistake about that.

I felt an excruciatingly crushing pain in my lower abdomen. I had just been shot by my own father, I guess he was one step ahead of me or so he thought.

A sharp groan escaped from my lips at that moment, but instead of dropping to the floor, I pushed forward one more step to his surprise, and before he could react to that, I sunk the knife in my head deep into his head, forcing out a stream of blood.

"No." He groaned before slowly dropping to the floor.

I only had a few seconds to watch his face get covered in blood and, with a satisfied smile on my face, I dropped to the floor.

A few seconds later, the floor was covered in both our blood, enveloping us in a gruesome bloodbath signifying the end of an underserving oppression. 

I guess Cecilia heard the gunshot because she came rushing into the room a minute later.

"Oh, my God." She gasped as she rushed to my body first.

It was hard to really tell with all the blood covering my face, but I could tell she was crying because her tears were literally dropping on my face, barely washing off the blood covering it.

"Ezra, Ezra, Ezra, what were you thinking?"

I couldn't respond or, rather, I didn't have the strength to do so. I could only listen as her voice gradually began to grow faint.

"Come on, Ezra, you can't do this." She cried in desperation as she slowly shook my body. "What will Lady Theresa say to me?"

'Don't worry, I'll explain everything to her.' I thought with the last bit of consciousness I had.

"I have no regrets." Those were the last words that managed to escape from my lips before I lost consciousness.

And just like that, Ezra Estevao ceased to exist.