Chapter 24: Chapter 24

The presence of the twins and Axel was too much for me.

“Now I have to go,” I said, regaining some of the anger that had taken hold of me when I saw the man who claimed to be my father.

“Sussan, wait,” I heard Axel say behind me, but his voice was already a whisper. At that moment, I was determined to go to my room and lock myself in.

I hurried back to my room, not wanting to see or hear anyone, not Axel, Lia, or the twins. No one.

And I would have succeeded if it weren’t for that voice inside my head that started drilling into me.

“Hey, listen, I know you can hear me.”

I closed the door to my room and threw myself onto the bed.

“No, I can’t hear you. It’s crazy to do so.”

“Come on, I know you can do it no matter how much you deny it. Listen to me.”

“I’m telling you to leave. I’m not going to fall into your trap because I’m not willing to admit that I’m crazy. Hearing voices is crazy.”

I covered myself with the blankets and prayed to be able to sleep again. Axel’s appearance, followed by that of the twins at the door of the house, was already too much for me to be troubled by that strange voice confirming the madness that was starting to afflict me.

“You have to listen to me. Whether you like it or not. You have to.”

“I told you to shut up. It’s crazy to listen to these voices.”

“Crazy, yes, but also werewolf-like.”

“Yes, I know. I’m crazy. Are you happy now? Now leave. Goodbye.”

While I tried to fall asleep, I heard them outside. The walls of the house were not very thick, and even though I didn’t want to, I could hear them.

“You left. I can’t take care of her now.”

“She’s my daughter too, I know.”

I had never tried so hard to fall asleep. I didn’t want to know anything or anyone anymore. My life had been turned upside down in just a few hours. Now I didn’t want to think about any of that. I just wanted to rest and hopefully, when I woke up, realize that it had all been a very ugly and strange nightmare.

My prayers were answered, and when I least expected it, I woke up after a long sleep. As I woke up, I saw darkness beginning to fall in the corners of the room. I had managed to sleep the entire day.

I heard someone opening the door to my room, and a strong and unpleasant smell of rancid perfume pierced my nose. I shook myself, and as I lifted the blankets, I could see that Lia had entered. It was the first time she had done so since we had known each other.

I didn’t answer. I saw her in such a subdued attitude, even submissive and filled with pain, that I considered any caution on my part to be exaggerated.

Lia sat on the edge of my bed. Despite the darkness, some light still filtered through the cracks in the blinds, and I could see her face. It was filled with sorrow and seemed like she had been crying. I felt sorry for her. It had been a day of too many surprises, and the fact that Lia was sitting there, in that attitude, was reason enough to surprise me.

“Your father has already left, a while ago,” she said when she discovered me awake.

“Axel,” I said. “His name is Axel. Why has he come back?”

Lia said nothing. She just looked at me, and I saw the sparkle in her blue eyes contrasting with the light filtering through the window. It was the first time I saw how beautiful her eyes were, and I even sensed some tenderness in them. When she reached out her hand to stroke my face, I didn’t resist. I didn’t feel capable of doing so, and I was surprised to realize that I felt no pain. Now I needed to see my appearance because I had the feeling that the marks from the beatings had disappeared.

“It’s not my place to tell you why he has returned,” Lia said. “I just ask that you listen to him.”

“I don’t have to. I won’t listen to him or to you,” I replied.

I noticed the pain that my last words caused Lia, but they were no less true because they were painful.

“I know, and I admit that I deserve it, but you should listen to him,” Lia said.

“That won’t happen. I don’t owe him anything, not even that.”

Lia looked down.

“You have his strength.”

I don’t know if what she said was true or not, but I didn’t care. What mattered to me now was to follow the plan I had to leave on Friday. If Axel had left the same way he had arrived, it was possible to evade him and prevent him from ruining my plans, but then I had to hurry.

“I have my own strength,” I said.

“Maybe you’re right, and you don’t owe him anything,” Lia said after a long sigh, “but at least listen to what he has to say. Don’t do it for him, because what you say is true, but you should do it for yourself.”

I didn’t know what to think at that moment because Lia’s words could be just a trick to give Axel a chance for reconciliation, and she was acting as an intermediary, surely because there was a promise or financial favor involved.

Lia got up and left the room.

I waited silently for a few minutes until it was completely dark. Only then did I dare to get up and go to the bathroom. I was surprised by what I saw when I looked at myself in the mirror.

There was no trace left of the beatings I had received. It was as if Chloe had never hit me.

“Do you see now? You owe it to me,” said that strange voice in my head. It had returned.

“I don’t owe you anything, and it’s better that you leave again, once more. I won’t accept my madness.”

“Then, if it wasn’t me, what caused it? Tell me.”

I didn’t have an answer for that, but just hearing that voice made me even think that I had never been beaten and that the events of the past few days had been created by my mind, just like that voice that now claimed to have healed my wounds.

I returned to my room and chewed on a granola bar while meditating on what had happened. I trusted that once I left that town, everything would disappear, including the voice, although I didn’t rule out getting checked by a psychologist.

After a few hours, the twins, Axel and Lia, had vanished from my mind, and I was finalizing the details of my escape, such as the route I would take, the time I should board the bus, and the costs I would have to assume when I heard someone approaching the door of my bedroom.

There was a knock, and before I could respond, Axel peeked his head in.

He was dressed differently. Still formal, but his suit was now light gray.

Who changes their suit during the day? I wondered, surprised when I saw him.

He looked at me with his clear eyes devoid of any negative feelings.

“Can I talk to you for a minute, Sussan?”

I looked at his face attentively, illuminated by the single light bulb in the room. It was devoid of any emotion, just like in the morning. It seemed that was his ordinary appearance.

“Alright,” I replied, despite what I had told Lia just a few hours ago.

As he entered the room, I saw his gaze wander over my few belongings. His eyes roamed over the deteriorated wall.

“Where are your things?” he asked with a voice that seemed concerned.

That infuriated me. How could he pretend to care about me after so many years of being gone?

“Those are my things,” I said firmly, “and you should tend to your own matters, not mine.”

Axel looked at me, raising one of his eyebrows.

“You have your mother’s temperament, I can see that.”

“Say what you want,” I replied, “but I’m nothing like Lia.”

I noticed that it was a bit difficult for me to breathe, and I attributed it to the events of that morning. The anger I had experienced, Axel’s presence in my room. I couldn’t let myself be controlled by my emotions, or I might fail.

“Whether you’re your mother’s or not, I see that you have a strong temperament,” he said.

“What do you want, Axel? Spit it out,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“You don’t have to call me Axel. You can call me whatever you want, but not Axel.”

“I’ll call you whatever I want, and Axel is fine. Now tell me why you’ve come and stop changing the subject.”

I noticed he became uncomfortable, and I wanted to laugh at that moment, not because the situation seemed funny to me, but because I myself was also feeling it and was forcefully suppressing a burst of nervous laughter. Why hadn’t he stayed where he was? What had he come for now, after seventeen years? To complicate things for me?

“I don’t have a simple way to say it, so I’ll just say it,” I looked at him with a raised eyebrow, fearing what would come out of his mouth. “You have to come live with me.”

I had to press my lips together to keep my mouth from hanging open like a fool. What was this about moving in with him? Was he serious? Now, after abandoning me for almost two decades, he came into my life and claimed me as if I were his possession that he had merely forgotten and could now just come and reclaim?

“That’s not going to happen,” I responded harshly, without any emotion escaping my lips, while keeping my eyes on him.

Axel opened his mouth to say something, and I cut him off.

“No,” I insisted.

“You have to let me speak, Sussan,” Axel said with a stern look framed by his thick black eyebrows.

I didn’t say anything, and he took advantage of my silence to continue.

“My wife and I have bought a house in the town,” he said, now somewhat calmer. “You wouldn’t have to leave, you could keep the school, your friends, everything you’ve already built in these few days here. There are many things you need to know about our family, and I would like to tell you.”

I didn’t say anything, not because I didn’t have a whirlwind of things to say, but because in that moment I saw Axel in a different light, one I hadn’t seen before, bigger, even intimidating. I felt captivated by that and wanted to hear whatever he had to propose to me.