𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐬

Chapter 4

"Oscar!" Someone yelled from behind. I turned around and see Matilda calling me and quickly running towards me. I looked at her friends who were behind her, staring at me and whispering things to each other. Matilda crashes into me, panting and says, "I've been calling you for like 3 minutes now!". She puts her hands on her knees and tries to catch her breath. I immediately apologise and ask her what the problem was. She grabbed my left hand, opened my palm and put a folded piece of paper in it. She leaned in a bit closer and whispered, "Read it as soon as you get free. Not in public though. There's a reason why I gave you a letter instead of texting you". I raised an eyebrow and Matilda just smiled and left. Realising that this was an important piece of paper, I put it in a little pocket on my shirt. I didn't read in public as she had demanded. During History period, I asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom and read the paper there. It read,

Dear Oscar,
I have a lot to tell you. I have never told anyone this, so I know I can trust you with this. I can't write much, so I'll meet you at the beach to continue the rest. This is my entire life story, the one that I've been longing to tell someone about.
Let me begin with my family background. My father, David McCarthy and my mom Mavis McCarthy got married when they were around 18. My father and my mom eloped when they were young and got married. With very little money and no support from his nor her family, my father decided to get involved with politics. He came from a wealthy family and was very well educated. Many people knew him, so it wasn't hard for him to succeed and earn millions in a short time. After a couple of years in politics, he built a business. The McCarthy Empire. He "left" politics for his business but everyone knows that once you actually get into politics, you can't fully get out. Then they had me. My father was the most loving parent I could've asked for. He would help me with my homeworks, take me to trips with mom, and pamper me with all love that he could give. But as I grew up, he slowly started to drift away from me.
He became this cruel businessman who everyone is afraid of. My mother was also afraid of him, that's why she left him. I wanted to leave with her but he got custody over me. It wasn't that shocking, but it was heartbreaking. I remember me standing next to my dad and watching my mother leave. She turned back to look at me once, and then got in the car. She didn't even say goodbye, and she didn't even wave at me. At that time I hated my mother but now I understand that whatever she did was to save her own skin. But still it hurts me that she never tried to see me since that day.
Now me and my father never eat together, go anywhere and we have never had a bonding moment. We talk like once a week and that usually is two words. But recently, before I started talking to you, he asked to have lunch with me. He sat me down and told me tha-

I suddenly came back to reality and checked the time from my phone. I've already spent 8 minutes in the bathroom reading this. I quickly folded the paper and put it in my pocket as I dashed out of the bathroom. I decided that I'll read the rest after meeting Matilda, because I can't risk this again in other subject classes.

I went home, exhausted. They taught many topics and I had no idea what half of them were. My head ached and my entire body was hurting. I decided to take a nap hoping that the pain will subside a bit by the time I woke up. I looked at the clock before going to sleep. I still had 2 hours left to meet Matilda. I closed my eyes and went into a deep sleep.
I had a very unusual dream. I stood alone on an empty hill. There were only grass and dried leaves on the hill, no animals no person there. The sky was completely dark and no moon or stars were in sight. I stood there looking at nothing for about 5 to 10 seconds. Something started glowing from far away near the end of the hill. I walked towards the glowing light slowly. When I reached the bright white light, there was a glass rose. It had sparkles and small pink tinted diamonds inside each petal. It seemed as if the flower was growing from the growing out of the soil. It was absolutely gorgeous and looked as if it was an object only an enchantress could make. But soon the glowing white light started to dim. The pink diamonds were turning brown and the entire flower was slowly dying. I stood still not doing anything except watching as the petals slowly fell, one by one. Finally when there was only one petal left, and I tried to grab the flower. But before I could grab it, the petal fell, and the entire glow fell out. I watched as the last petal fell and shattered into pieces. I woke up from that weird dream to the sound of something ringing. I sat myself down on my bed and took a couple seconds to understand what I just saw. I then searched for the device that was ringing non stop since I woke up. I found my phone next to me and answered it.

"Hello?"
"Is this Oscar Brown?"
"Who is this?"
"Good-day sir. I'm calling on behalf of CCI Hospital. We found your number on our patient Mrs. Helen Brown's emergency contact list. I have some unfortunate news for you sir."

Matilda's POV:

(An hour ago)

I sat myself down at the dressing table and brushed my hair. I could not stop thinking about my letter to Oscar. I have so much to tell and there's so much time left till we meet. This is so important and he is the only one who could help me, save me. I can't work alone. Noone will help me except him. Everyone else puts my father before me. They'll listen to him. Noone will listen to me. Noone will help me. Except him. Oscar, please don't let me down.
My father is currently upstairs at a meeting. Security guards are everywhere and noone will let me go out. They all fear him and they all will obey him. I closed my eyes and prayed to God that he would have mercy on me. Save me from this wretched man. All he is, is evil. My father won't believe me. "Oh dear Lord, save me. Oscar, please trust me"

Oscar's POV:

I ran to the hospital at lightning speed. Connor was at a party so I couldn't possibly wait till he comes. By the time I reached the hospital, my legs were aching badly and my head was spinning. I went to the reception and asked where my mother was. One of the receptionists took me to a room, where my mother was lying on a hospital bed with wires connected her. I walked in and sat beside mother and stroke her head. She opened her eyes, looked at me and smiled. The receptionist left me with her and went. I wanted to ask so many questions, but I knew mother was too weak to reply. I asked her if she wanted food though, and she shook her head no. She took my hand and held it tightly. She wanted me to stay with her.
A couple minutes later, a doctor and a nurse walked in. The doctor smiled at me and asked if he could talk to me outside. Then he looked at the nurse and told her to stay with mother. I got up, let go of mother's hand and went to speak with the doctor.

"How is she?"
"I would love to say that she is alright, but unfortunately that wouldn't be true."

The doctor then told me all about mom's condition and how she is slowly getting worse. She needs a surgery to remove tumors in her body, but we don't have the money for it.

"When will we need to do the surgery?"
"As soon as possible. I recommend tomorrow itself"

I took sometime to process what was going on and how I could get so much money at a small amount of time. "I could ask for a loan from Connor. I'll pay it all back before the end of the year" I thought to myself. I called Connor and asked him for help. He agreed to help and left the party to come over to the hospital immediately. He asked his dad for the amount and explained the situation to him. Meanwhile I was filling all the forms necessary for the operation. I felt really grateful for having Connor as a friend. I wish I could pay back to him one day.
I spent an hour at the hospital. Connor came and gave me the entire amount in cash. They said that the operation would start tomorrow and gave me all the details about it. I sat with mom in the room and wrote all the notes about the surgery on my phone. Just when I thought everything was going well, I suddenly saw the time. 5:20. Shit! I forgot to inform Matilda about me not being able to come! I stood her up!

My mom was sleeping, so I asked Connor if I could borrow his car to go to the beach. I'm an hour late but I hope she is still there. I should've texted her and told her what had happened! I reached there in 5:30 and ran to see if she was still there. This was the worst day of my life. This was the incident that ended Oscar Brown. This is when that dream I had became a reality, but in the form of a nightmare.