The Price of Trust (Part 4).

Marcus opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. The bed was cold, but it still smelled like Amelia.

Almost three years have passed since she fled from him and took their daughter with her. Three years, but the pain in his heart did not diminish, even when the wounds healed.

Sometimes it seemed to Marcus that that knife was still stuck in his chest, it just became invisible.

The man took notebooks from the table, covered with an already familiar handwriting. In every place where she stopped, Amelia left him her diaries.

She knew he was following her, but he always turned up a little later. Several times he almost found her. Marcus saw a still warm breakfast on the table, children's things, forgotten in a hurry in another rented house or apartment.

From the forgotten things, he understood how his daughter had grown up, what new toys she had, what books she liked. From the torn pieces of paper, he saw that Elena was learning to write letters and, probably, had even learned to read herself.

Late. He found them too late. They had a life in which he no longer existed, and he had only scraps of this life, which he accidentally got, like stubs for a stray dog.

"Did you find her?" Marcus asked the man what was waiting for him outside the house.

"Yes, Master. Your wife is in the north of town. I sent the address to your phone," replied Simon. To his surprise, he was still alive, although he had no doubt that the first thing Marcus would want to do would be to get rid of him when he found out that a close friend had helped his wife escape.

His boss practically did it, but Amelia's farewell letter saved Simon. The man did not know what she wrote to her husband, but that was enough for Marcus to keep his friend alive.

Taubert made it to his destination with ease, ignoring traffic rules and outraged drivers, whom he cut off at full speed.

His soul was restless. It seemed to the man that he was lying under a huge boulder, the weight of which was pressing on his chest harder and harder.

The house, in which his wife was supposed to be, turned out to be unpresentable, which was in no way standing out from the rest.

He practically ran inside but was late again. Instead of Amelia, an unfamiliar woman was lying on the couch, a Chinese-looking woman. And next to the sofa, Polina was sitting on the floor and sobbing loudly.

"Lina, where is she?!" Marcus grabbed the girl by the shoulders and pulled her sharply, but she burst into tears even more and with a trembling hand pointed to the envelope lying on the next table.

Marcus opened the paper, but the lines were being confused in his eyes. This was not another diary of his wife. This was her farewell letter. This time, it was a really farewell letter.

The man ran out into the street, glanced at the motorcyclist that had parked nearby. He pushed the stranger away, jumped on the motorcycle, pulled the gas stick as hard as he could.

He felt her. For the first time in three years, he felt her presence, her emotions. He could follow their trail.

The motorcycle started off with a roar, leaving a black line on the asphalt.

'My dear Marcus, I know that you are very angry right now. Probably even pissed off, but I understand you.'

Cars on the road merged into one shapeless stream, traffic lights turned into dirty blots. The wind whistling in his ears and the hum of car signals were like the rumble of a mad animal.

'Sorry to say goodbye to you like this. But you wouldn't let me go in another way.'

The speedometer was approaching to two hundred kilometers per hour.

'Whatever happens in the future, believe me, that you and Elena are the most important things in my life. We made our choice once. And now we are doing it again.'

The bike crossed the city line and flew onto the high way, Marcus added gas, feeling that time was again ahead of him by a split second.

'I have no right to ask about it, but if you still trust me even a little, do as I wrote in my diaries. This is my last request. Whatever you decide, whatever you do - I believe in you. You are not a monster, Marcus Taubert. You are the best thing which happened in my life. Thank you for everything.'

The car in front sharply turned to the side and, knocking down the fence, flew into the ditch. Marcus pressed the brake pedal and the motorcycle whistled across the asphalt.

The man jumped off the motorcycle and saw a twisted piece of metal about fifty meters away. Black smoke enveloped the car, the flames of fire flashed with greedy tongues, anticipating that they would consume another soul that could not get out of their captivity.

"Amelia!" Horror, fear, anger, rage - he did not understand what emotions captured him. He saw only blood flowing down his wife's face and smoke that was stubbornly blocking her from the man.

There she is. He made it. He only had to make a single move, pull her out, press her to him, feel her in his hands.

Familiar words from an unfamiliar language flew from the woman's lips.

Time stopped.

Marcus knew the sensation. Exactly the same as in the burning hospital many years ago when Lucia died.

"W-what are you doing?! Do not even dare!" he cried out with anguish in his voice, trying to get closer to his wife. His abilities didn't work. The air turned into a viscous slurry, like a swamp, and he drowned in this air, sinking lower and lower.

"Where is Elena?! Amelia, don't you dare! Cancel your damn spell now!" Marcus fell, plunging his fingers deep into the ground. She's close. One step, one more step. Damn it, why is she so far away?!

The flame is getting closer and closer, and she is looking at the man with love and smiling.

"I will not fulfill your request! Let me get you out of there, and you can do what you want! I hate you, do you hear me?! I will always hate you!!! Even when this damn world falls apart into small pieces, even then I will hate you!!! I do not want to see you ever again, just please, let me save you!" Marcus was begging.

"So be it," he heard her whisper, "I love you. See you."

"AMELIA!"

BA-BAM!

The bright flash blinded the man for a moment. The flames flew up like a fiery cloud and rushed at the car with fury. The air swirled like a whirlwind in space.

Stopped time slipped and accelerated to make up for the loss.

Marcus was lying on the ground and shouting, unable to take a step. The fire consumed the car, but it seemed to him that it was devouring his body.

People are afraid of death, but never in his life did he want something so much as to die at the moment. His soul was burning with the flames, leaving only a useless body shell behind. No one needs an immortal shell, devoid of the meaning of life.

When the spell of time faded, and Marcus was finally able to take a step, there was nothing left of the car except the metal frame blackened from the flame.

...

One year later.

The hill to the orphanage of St. Magdalene was covered with green grass. The sun warmed the earth with warmth, giving life to new plants and insects that circled around.

A stylishly dressed man with handsome but empty eyes ascended the steps. In his hand was a gray plush rabbit with long ears and a crookedly sewn leg. The toy looked shabby as if some overly curious child had played with it a lot.

The man entered the gates of the orphanage and saw a girl on the bench. She was looking with interest at the leaf of the tree in her hands and waving with her legs.

"Why do you have a toy? This is a gift?" she asked as the man sat down next to her.

"No, I brought a new friend to your shelter. Do you want to make friends with him?" Marcus handed the baby a plush rabbit.

"What happened to him?" Elena examined the toy, especially the parts that had once been torn off.

"He lost his best friend, one little girl. And he walked a great distance for a long time to find her."

"And did he find her?"

Marcus nodded, "He did, but she doesn't remember the rabbit anymore. And the rabbit is very sad."

Elena stroked the soft ears of the toy and pressed the rabbit to her, "Can I be his new friend? The housemother left with one good man to draw up the documents. And now I will have my own house and my own room. Even two rooms! And there are also many books, a thousand of them! Uncle Lee is very nice, I think the rabbit will like it there."

Marcus looked at his daughter painfully. No matter how much he visited her, no matter how much he tried to restore her memories, Elena did not remember him. She even took every meeting as the first.

Amelia wrote in one of her diaries that she blocked most of the awakening abilities of the child so that the girl would not go crazy with the amount of information that her brain can store.

Their daughter's memory was like a film strip, on which the smallest details of the frame were preserved, as soon as Elena heard or saw something at least once.

If desired, she could restore in her consciousness the entire history of mankind, but for the child's psyche, this would threaten the loss of personality. And along with these blocked abilities, she forgot her parents too.

As if the brain each time erased any detail that could somehow stir up the sealed memory.

"I think the rabbit will be very happy if you become his new friend," Marcus replied and stroked the child's head. He temporarily hid their presence from prying eyes, so that no one would prevent him from talking to his daughter for the last time.

"Are you sure you want to live with this Mr. Lee? You don't know him."

Elena thought for a moment, then nodded, "I'm sure. This is my decision and I will follow it."

Marcus was looking at the child and saw in his daughter a small copy of his wife. The emptiness in his chest choked his breath with a dull pain.

Elena jumped off the bench and smiled at the handsome and sad gentleman. She liked him too. "If you miss the rabbit, come and visit us. We will always be glad."

Marcus nodded and smiled back. He watched as the girl ran to the steps of the orphanage, where another man took her little palm in his hand and sat her down with him in the back seat of an expensive car.

Elena clung to the glass and gave Marcus a quick look before Chen Lee's car disappeared behind the gate.

"Don't worry, my princess. Dad will always be there."

Amelia's prediction came true again. The wheel of fate has begun another circle. It's last circle.