Welcome to My Life
Ciarra
"Oh, by the way, the first day of the foundation's ball is held this Saturday, Ambrose said you should go with me." I glanced at the newlywed couple seated in front of me at the mention of the foundation's ball.
Yula's seated next to his wife, Ambrose, who is munching on some butter cookies while looking at the list of people invited to attend the foundation.
The foundation's ball is a three-day event held every year to celebrate the milestones of Callaway Companies, father's company that I am now handling, by auctioning the artworks of the kids in the orphanage. The first two days will serve as a celebration for the prosperous year as well as showcasing the different arts made by the kids, while the last day would serve as the auction day. There was actually a fourth day to this event, however it will serve as an open house for the orphanage wherein different people can visit and spend time with the kids, joining them in creating art and even teaching a few of them about other forms of art.
Over the years, some married couples from different companies adopted children from the orphanage. Aside from the celebration that would happen because of this event, some companies were invited because they were the ones who adopted from the orphanage and are continuously donating for the welfare of the children. Different business enthusiasts would also be there as the company has expanded all across the globe, from the moment it was founded by our great grandfather.
The orphanage was acquired by our father because of my mom and Yula's past with it. Our mother had Yula years before my parents actually met. He's 5 years older than me. The orphanage was where our mother had him raised, well not actually raised, but he grew up there for some time. When she was pregnant with Yula, her parents disowned her. To have a child out of wedlock is really a taboo thing for their family and knowing the humiliation that they might face in the future, they disowned her.
Mom really didn't have the heart to abort her own child, so she decided to go to the orphanage, which was handled by her aunt that time. Mom's aunt was barren, and she couldn't have a child, so she decided to build an orphanage for the kids. A few years after she gave birth to Yula, she went abroad to look for a job. She doesn't want to leave Yula behind, but her aunt persuaded her to leave him, because if she's busy working, no one would take care of my brother. She was actually fond of Yula and the other children.
So, to cut the story short, after my parents got together, they came back to take Yula with them, got married, and that was when Dad decided to acquire the orphanage for the company's foundation.
At some point in my childhood, I clearly remember also growing up in that same orphanage, as our parents often travel outside the country for conferences and meetings. The three of us, Yula, me and Leon, usually request that we should stay at the orphanage than at home every time our parents would go abroad for a couple of days or weeks.
At the thought of my other brother, my heart started to ache, and a numbing feeling spread throughout my system.
I glanced at Ambrose who was now looking at me intently, the cookie now gone. "Why? Aren't you coming with us?" I asked my brother's wife. Not that I don't want to go with my brother but knowing that Ambrose's family would be there to represent their business made me confused.
She smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry, I can't attend the foundation this year. I have to fly to Italy this week for a client. One of my clients committed suicide and as her lawyer, I have to be there for the distribution of rights of her properties to her relatives."
I glanced at my brother, "Why aren't you coming with her?" I asked because usually when Ambrose leaves the country, my brother would be tailing her like a dog in a second. It was actually shocking for me to know that Ambrose was the same woman I saw at the nightclub with my brother five years ago. Turns out, the reason why my brother dragged me to that place was because of her. They were already in a relationship even before that moment.
Remembering what happened five years ago caused another tremor to my heart.
Stop. Don't go there.
"I asked him not to." Ambrose smiled at me. Her eyes telling me that I already know the reason. I kept silent and nodded my head.
After the dinner, I drove my car out of the estate. The estate where Yula and I grew up in. Our family estate. After their wedding, the both of them decided to live there, since no one was actually living there anymore.
Going back there after so long brought so many memories. I couldn't stand being inside that house anymore that's why after our dinner, I excused myself, telling them that I have work to do, in preparation for the event.
I couldn't bring myself to be at the very same house where the people I love the most left one after the other.
I shook my head at the thought of them and focused on driving. However, my brain seemed to have a mind of its own as I eventually found my car parked outside the cemetery.
Of all places.
Since I didn't have a choice anymore, I sighed and stepped out of the car. I might as well come to visit them.
Walking towards a place that seemed so familiar to me, I can't help but held in my breath as memories after memories of the past flooded me.
I glanced down at the tombstones in front of me.
"H-hey mom, dad." I took a deep breath when I noticed the basket of flowers placed in between them, knowing that my brother probably visited them earlier. I bent down and removed a few dried leaves that flew over their stones.
As much as I try to believe my brother when he says that it wasn't my fault that they died, I can't help but blame myself for their deaths.
Despite the warm air blowing, my heart is filled with a cold void. It was as if I was walking on a frozen lake, afraid that anytime the ice would crack and the water would engulf me whole, leaving nothing but a struggling girl waiting to be frozen to death.
However, that frozen lake immediately cracked, and I came crashing down, being swallowed by the icy water underneath when I glanced at the tomb beside them.
Lyones Alcina Callaway
Loving son and brother.
"If time made a move to separate us, time better make sure to bring us back together again."
I can't help but release the sob that came out as I read the quote written, engraved on the stone. He always say that to Yula and me, every time we would go to school and he was at home. My tears came rushing down my face as I suddenly saw my brother behind my closed lids. My brother, so young, a boy of only 9 years, smiling at me, telling me to forgive myself. To free myself from the shackles of my past. To break free from the sins that claw at me every waking day.
The pain that I felt was blinding. I struggled to swim to the surface of that icy lake, but the lake had a mind of its own, it kept on pushing me down, burying me deeper in its icy wrath. That icy hell somehow turned into a deep, endless void, making me numb from all over.
Taking a deep breath, I placed my palm on his tomb, feeling the crisp stone underneath my skin, I muttered a curt 'I'm sorry' and rushed back towards my car, on the verge of another breakdown.
Time did separate us, but time can never bring us back together again.
