CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
MIRABELLA.
Sixteen years ago.
Ten year old Mirabella.
“Mirabella! I hope you’re reading and not playing?!” Mother yells from her lab and I chuckle, peeking my head through the door to the secret passage.
“Can I play a little mamá? I’ve been reading nonstop.”
Mother smiles at me with understanding. “My baby. You have to study hard if you want to become something. You need to develop a sharp mind.”
I pout, giving her my puppy eyes and she chuckles. “Okay then pumpkin, ten minutes.”
“Thank you mamá!” I run back in, pulling out all my toys with an ear to ear grin.
Since I’ve become knowledgeable, I’ve never been to school even for a day but mother says it’s normal that I don’t go to school.
She says that I’m undergoing special training, therefore, I need to always be by her side in the laboratory whilst she works. I sometimes want to make friends just like my sister but mother knows and wants the best for me.
Don’t get me wrong, staying with my mother in her laboratory has to be the coolest thing ever.
I’ve after all learnt a lot of amazing things from my mother here in her laboratory. Like how to dilute some solutions, how to perform CPR, how to commence first aid treatment on a wounded person.
She lets me into her secret room where she keeps all the drugs, she has taken me to an underground warehouse where some very important drugs are being stored and she has taught me how to watch the security cameras.
Speaking of. . .
My eyes land on the screen and I see a man clothed in black approaching the laboratory.
Mother says no one is allowed to come in here except me. Not even my father.
Who’s this man and why’s he coming in here?
“Mamá!”
“sì piccola!”
“There’s a man coming in here! I can see him through the camera!” I scream and she rushes into the secret room almost immediately, panic visible in her features and her eyes widened in terror.
“They’re here,” she mumbles, crouching down with both hands resting on my shoulder as her lips work fast at kissing my cheeks multiple times.
“Do you remember the thing I taught you? The one where you pretend not to remember anything?”
“Yes mamá. Just pretend to fall unconscious and then when you wake up, say that you’re unable to remember and stand strong by your words.”
She nods frantically. “Good girl. Now make sure to stay in here pumpkin. Even if you hear me screaming, remain in here until everyone has left, do you understand?” I nod.
“You still remember how to enter your room through the tunnel?” I nod. “Good. Once everyone is gone, I want you to quietly enter into your room through that tunnel and when your father asks you where you’ve been, I need you to act like you’ve lost your memory. You can do that for me baby, can you not?”
“I can, but what is goi–”
“Shh. . .” Mother looks back with a loud gulp. “Take this back pack and follow the instructions written in the book inside. Don’t make any mistakes baby. Do you understand?”
I nod.
“I love you, my pumpkin. . .” Tears roll down her face.
“I love you mamá.”
Another tear makes its way down her beautiful face. “Ti amo piccola.” she chokes.
A kiss on my cheek.
My body trembles in terror. “Ti amo mamá.”
My mother chokes out a sob when she begins showering my face with kisses.
“Ti amo piccola.”
A kiss.
“Ti amo piccola.”
Another.
“Ti amo piccola.”
Another.
This act of hers continues for a few minutes and that is when I realize that my mother is not about to go out there and have a peaceful conversation with whomever that man might be.
She goes to stand but I grasp her wrist with a gasp, my eyes expressing immense pain. “Don’t leave me, please.”
A lone tear stains my cheek and I sniff. My mother swipes the tear away with her thumb with a gulp and a nod of her head.
“I’ll never leave you, principessa.”
I nod.
She nods and gestures me to let go of her hand. I obey. unwillingly.
“Come back to me. Please.” I plea. Mother nods before frantically running out, locking the secret room and continuing her chemical titrations, pretending as though everything is normal.
The door is pushed open and the man in black walks in, my father following behind.
I don’t hear what’s been said but what seems to be a heated argument ensues amongst three of them until father begins hitting mother.
He knocks her onto the ground, kicking her hard until she’s rolling and screaming for help; I presume.
Father straddles mother, pinning her to the ground as his fists begin ramming into her face repeatedly until she goes limp.
And that’s when everything crumbles.
Father slides out his dagger, plunging it into mother’s throat twice.
I gasp aloud, my hands instantly going over my mouth to muffle my scream as I watch my mother choke on her own blood. Her toes curl, her dress rides up as she struggles between life and death.
Father and whomever the other man is walks out of the room and I run out, immediately falling on my knees by my mother’s side. She looks at me in a questioning manner and I know she wants to scream at me to run.
But I don’t care!
“Don’t b-be st-ub-born pumpkin. . .Go. . .”
Shaking my head frantically, I use the back of my palm to wipe the tears off my face. “No mamá. Let me stay with you.”
Her tired hands slides off her neck, cupping my face and blood gushes out, splashing all over me. My small hands press against the stab wound but the blood isn’t stopping.
She coughs out blood as her body turns pale with her eyes rolling into the back of her head. I scream my sob and she uses her last strength to cover my mouth.
"Mamma! Please don't close your eyes. I'm right here. I'm putting enough pressure on it." I cry out as I tightly hold my palm against my mother’s neck to stop the blood that's gushing out uncontrollably.
Blood splatter all over my face.
My mother moves my hand and nods at me, urging me to let her go. Begging me to let her misery come to an end.
More blood splatter.
I hear footsteps approaching and I’ve never ran as fast as I’m running. I run into the secret room, take out the flash drive connected to the screen, pick up mother’s back pack and crawl my way into my room through the tunnel.
Inside my room, I can hear the chaos outside. Father is looking for me. I hurry into the washroom and begin scrubbing my body harshly, washing my mother’s blood off my skin with trembling hands.
I finish and slip on my pajamas, walking outside with heavy eyes to make it seem like I’ve been asleep all the while but my father doesn’t buy into it.
“Where the fuck have you been?!”
And that’s it.
I clutch my head, screaming and panting harshly, playing out the same drama my mother displayed the day she taught me this trick.
A minute later and I’m passed out on the floor. In my heart, I wish I could disappear from all this chaos and go be with my mother. I just lost my mother and I’m being forced to remember the events that had occurred a moment ago.
I open my eyes to find father’s, Annabella’s and father’s right hand man’s eyes boring into mine in judgment and disbelief.
“Tell me the truth Mirabella, were you in the lab with your mother?”
I furrow my brows in confusion. “What are you talking about? Who’s Mirabella?”