Cupboard Love

C H A P T E R 32

IGNORANCE WAS BLISS

RUEN

I was on my way to meet Amelia in her parents' house when Sabrina called me to come and see Ria. I took a sharp turn and drove back in the opposite direction. I made a quick call to tell her that I will not make it to dinner. She was disappointed but she told me to call her when I am on my way home.

Home?

I wonder where that would be after this month.

Will these roads still lead me home to you?

I guess I'll never know for now.

Simon opened the door for me when I got there. After telling me that Ria was waiting in the library, he left. I knocked on the wooden panel door before I entered.

Before I sat, I could see that Ria's face was livid.

"What were you thinking?" She threw a tablet on my lap. It was playing a video where Jeric and I were singing.

"I don't see anything wrong with this." I put the tablet back on the table.

"Nothing wrong?" She threw the tablet against the wall. "You shouldn't have been in that video in the first place!" Ria was screaming mad.

Where's Sarah?

The last time she was this angry was when she caught me playing with her violin, I was eight. She beat my hand raw before Sarah came to stop her. Then the day after that, Sarah packed my bags and sent me off to live with her father.

Funny, when I first stood in this very room, my hand was wrapped in bandage too.

"How many times have I told you not to attract attention to yourself?" She threw a glass that shattered the window. "Live as if you don't exist! Keep your head down!" Another glass ornament was sent flying across the room.

The door opened and Sabrina came rushing in. "Mom, that's enough. You're making yourself ill."

"She wasn't supposed to be there! She shouldn't have!" Ria repeated over and over.

"I am so sorry I never should have shown that to you." She held her mother and turned to me. "Sorry, Ruen."

So, that's how Ria knew.

"Live as if you don't exist. Keep your head down. Do not attract attention." I looked at the woman before me. "Why, Ria?" I stood up.

"Because I told you so!" She freed herself from Sabrina's hold and came at me like a madwoman. Her nails sunk into my skin as she held me by my shoulders.

"Mom, please calm down." Sabrina tried to pry her mother's hand off me.

"Why so?" She shoved me away from her so roughly I was not able to maintain my balance that I fell on the floor. My wounds reopened as I tried to break my fall with my hands.
I watched as blood seeped through the bandage.

"You should have never been born at all!"

"Ria!" Sarah came rushing to her wife.
I stood up as Sarah finally managed to make Ria sit on the chair I vacated.

"She doesn't mean it, Ruen. She's just under a lot of stress." Sabrina said.
"Take her outside, Sab." Sarah turned to me. "Just give us a minute."

Sabrina tried to take a hold of my elbow and help me out but I shook her hand off me. "Why do you hate me so much, Ria?"

"Ruen, please!" Sarah begged me out.
"Just leave."

"If you hate me this much, why let me live?" I took a step closer to where Ria sat. "You should have just killed me then."