The Dead Crime (Draft)

Chapter#5

"What do you think I should do?" She asked the tree, "would mom never trust me again?"
Her heart broke down as that look in her mother's eyes kept bothering her. She sighed tiredly and spoke,

"Maybe everything will get better when I wake up tomorrow?" She took a deep breath and looked above at the branches.

'aren't you frustrated that you only have this tree to talk to when you're feeling shit?' an inner voice spoke to her. She felt the voice deepen in her mind. 'you have no one.' it spoke again.

"No...that's not true. They love me too. I just made a mistake, all I need is to apologize."

She went inside and pulled the Aid box out of the kitchen cabinet. She put it on the table when her eyes caught a view of the living room. Diana had seated Emily in her lap and they both were laughing. Emily seemed totally fine and enjoying playing with her mom. An essence of loneliness passed through her, she stood motionless looking at them trying to make Diana notice her. But she was too absorbed that she didn't care looking up or even remembering about Camille's hurt knee. 'They never cared Camille, since Emily came into this house, no one cared about you.' the inner voice whispered in her heart. Her knee didn't even hurt her anymore...it was the loneliness that started aching her.
Her birthdays became more dull and Emily's started becoming more and more bright. When they started going to school, Diana loved to listen to Emily's 5 hour school stories but when Camille would do that she always had excuses tied up her sleeve; "Not right now dear, I'm a little busy." "Later dear. I have to do the laundry." "Let's eat first dear, after that."
And then she won't listen to her at all....Her words had throbbed her heart like knives.

Days passed and then years passed. Camille started feeling that her relation with Diana had weakened. Both her parents only cared too much about Emily and didn't even look at her. It was too vivid to be ignored and thought of as some bad dream. It had started to build a hole in her already weak heart....
Emily was just as much loved at school as she was loved at home. Her class fellows all liked her and were very good friends with her. But it wasn't same for Camille; when she started going to school she was a very quiet kid. She couldn't fit in with the other students and always stayed in a corner. Her class fellows called dumb and made fun of her. They would make faces whenever Camille came near.

"What is her name?" Ceila, one of the new transfer students once asked.

"Oh Camille? What will you even do by knowing her name, She's a class junk." Sam had answered. She was the class representative and the main source of rumours that happened at school. At that time they were in 3rd grade, she had started another rumour in school that Camille was an adopted child and that his real father was a begger. Sam liked assuming false things and spreading them to make an interesting everyday story. She had once seen Camille with Diana and when she observed that they didn't resemble at all but her little sister looked exact like her mom, she had made up this new rumour.
After this rumour had become wild, every place became hell for Camille. The children started to bully her by throwing trash and money over her calling her begger and other names. In the afternoon when Diana came to pick them up from school, Camille was sitting on the bench, her face was down. She was all dirty and her clothes were wet. Beside her Emily was standing, who ran towards her mother and gave her a big hug. Diana kissed her on the forehead, then moved to Camille,

"Dear, what happened to your clothes. Oh my god, look how dirty they are." She  said.

Camille almost had tears in her eyes, she looked up at Diana and sobbed,

"Mom...why do we not look alike?"

"What do you mean we don't look alike?"

"Children say you're not my real mom."

Before Diana could say anything, Emily came in between stretching her hand in front of her mom's eyes,

"Mom!! Look my teacher gave me a star."

"Wow, good job Emily." She kissed her again on the cheeks and then suddenly noticed Camille staring at her,

"Dear, stop thinking useless things. We're going home. You need to take a shower." She held Emily's bag and walked forward, asking her how her day at school went. The next day when she went to school, her seat and desk was spoiled with paints and liquids. During the lunch break the kids threw milk cartons and banana peels over her. They kept bullying her and this kept on going for a week. Everyday Diana would scold her for spoiling her uniform and punish her by making her wash it herself...

The following day when they all were having breakfast together, Kevin left first as he had to reach the office early due to some work. While Diana and the two sisters were having breakfast, Camille mustered up her courage and said,

"Mom, I want to change schools."

"Why so? Is there any problem?" She questioned.

"Mom...the other children-"

"Mom, can I have more rice?" Emily interrupted her, placing her empty bowl in front of Diana.

"Should I put some in your lunch box?"

Emily nodded. Diana scooped a huge spoon of rice and put it in Emily's lunch box. She handed it to her looking at the time.

"Emily, your teacher told me to send you to school early. Let's go then." She held her school bag and hung it over her shoulders.

Camille clenched her teeth trying not to let her tears roll down.

"Camille, Aren't you coming?" Diana asked.

"You didn't even listen to me..." She fumed.

"We're not changing schools. Now hurry up, your sister will get late."

Camille felt Diana's words as cold wind pricking through her chest. Her loneliness and sadness had started to take a sudden turn towards enviousness. But then suddenly her inner voice spoke to her once again, 'What if she really ain't your real mother? What if your parents lied to you? She doesn't even look a bit like you.'

This time hearing her inner voice threw her in deep doubt. She got see the truth ahead of her and wanted to dig it into further depth.
'if Diana really isn't my mom...then who is?' this thought suddenly crossed her mind making her more curious.