Sonata of The Shattered | Book I

Begging

20 June 2022

A knock was heard on her apartment door when she was busy in the kitchen preparing for Christine's dinner as she told her that she's coming home late. She's trying her new ggalbi recipe that she studied from her friend, a Korean chef she met back during her trip to South Korea several years ago for work.

The woman quickly took off her apron and put it on the table as she turned her stove off. Her feets walked herself towards the main door only to see the man she tried to hide from standing there with his teary and depressing eyes, something she never saw before in her entire life. Before she could even react, the man knelt to the ground and cried.

He cried in front of her, on her door.

"Clayton, what are you doing here?" asked the lass as she took some steps backward. Then, her head turned to the left and right, checking around so no one would see him this way. "Go home and don't do this here. Stop doing stupid things." Fransesca told her off.

Clayton refused to do so, so the only option that Fransesca could do now was to allow him to go inside her cozy apartment. He could hear the lift showing that it's going to stop on her floor and with her door right in front of it, she doesn't want anyone to see the thing that they could be misunderstood for. Her hands dragged his body inside her house and closed the door soon after.

The only thing that Fransesca could do at the moment was to make him stand and move his ass to the couch in the living room. To see the one that she loved in silence doing things like this does hurt her heart, but she couldn't do anything. In fact, she refused to do so because she knew; she knew that there were secrets she's trying to hide from him.

"Clayton, I really need you to leave. Please. Don't make things harder for me, I'm tired already. I don't want to talk to you or whatever you wished to happen." Fransesca lowered her body as she also knelt in front of him to help him stand, but again, he refused to do so.

"Tell me, Fransesca. Tell me why did you do it? Why did you hide her from me? Tell me why." Clayton cried again and again, begging for her answer as he looked up at her. She could hear the desperation and frustration in his tone and voice. He's shaking so badly as if he's going to break down in emotions pretty soon.

The woman shut her eyes closed as she now knew what's happening. That the secrets she tried to hide all this time from him are going to unravel itself today and no matter how hard she tried to do so, she couldn't. It hurt her deeper, even more as time went by.

"Which one do you actually ask me for?"

Fransesca asked as she opened her eyes again and sighed.

"Why do you hide Christine from me? Why do you hide my daughter from me? I'm clueless over her existence all these years. If only I knew that you're pregnant and you had our child, I'd do everything that I could back then."

The woman couldn't even say a word to answer the man. She stood up and helped him to sit on the sofa. Instead of answering him directly, Fransecsa walked herself towards the kitchen to make two cups of tea and put it on the table in front of him. She then sat next to him and took a sip of her tea. The woman tried her best to stay composed when she actually couldn't. Her heart was beating uncontrollably, as if the feelings inside would explode and destroy her in seconds.

"It's true that Christine is your daughter. You left me that day and I found out that I'm pregnant weeks after. I don't want to contact you with the news because I believe you're very heartbroken because of my decision when I rejected your proposal at that time," Fransesca explained. "I know that I'm wrong but please don't do this to me, Clay. I'm doing what I can do for Christine."