Broken Bonds

Chapter 28

Reine Parker

(Look who's back!!!)

"1..2..3.. and smile!" the photographer gave us a sign to show us that the picture was now taken. A chorus of 'thank you' were heard from us as the photographer passed us a few copies of the pictures that we had just taken.

"I can't believe this is already the end of the torturous 4 years!" Amber exclaimed, as she ripped off the graduation cap from her head. 

"Same girl, it feels as though we had just entered the school like what, yesterday? I can still hear Prof. Smith's annoying voice in my head." Theresa rolled her eyes dramatically, as she examined the photo that we have just taken. 

I chuckled at their words, as I sighed,"After we leave this hell, we're gonna enter another torturous hell for the next 6 months for our internship. Brace yourselves for it." Amber and Theresa groaned in annoyance in sync, just as I spotted my favourite people approaching us.

"Roman! Damian!" I waved my hands at the both of them, as they moved through the huge crowd of students who were scattered all over the place, taking tons of pictures to commemorate their graduation. 

Roman stepped in front of me and presented a large bouquet of flowers in front of me and grinned widely,"Happy graduation, sis." He ruffled my hair in an annoying manner, to which Damian did the same. I swatted their hands away and glared at them both while trying to smooth my unkempt hair down. 

Amber and Theresa smiled briefly and greeted them both before moving away to take pictures with their families. They were always on tip toes whenever they see Roman and Damian. I mean who would not be, after seeing two big ass scary men in full black as though they were out to kill someone and attend their funeral.

"All done here? We can get ready to go home and head out for dinner tonight." Roman asked, as he pulled down his sunglasses away from his face. I shook my head at his question and a wide beam formed on my face as I looked around.

Spotting someone, I immediately turned to them and ordered,"Stay here for a while, I will be back." I sprinted towards the person and tapped gently on their shoulders and asked,"Hi, sorry to disturb. Can you help us take some pictures?" The girl nodded quickly as I passed her my phone and I immediately grabbed Roman. 

"We are only done after we take some quick pictures. And Damian, don't you dare sneak away. It's my graduation day, so get your ass back here and smile at the camera." Damian groaned in annoyance as he was dragged to my side. 

We managed to snap a few decent pictures before the rest turned out to be ridiculous as hell because Roman decided to be a little bitch and messed up my already messy hair during the photo taking. And of course his best buddy joined in the fun. Who would have expected two scary looking men to be such pranksters?

After a while, we were finally done with the photo taking and thanked the girl before she handed back my phone to me. Scrolling through the multiple pictures taken, I made a mental note to myself to get some of them printed out and frame them up in my room. 

After collecting everything of mine, we made it out of the school and was on our way back home.   As I removed the gown, the necklace which was hanging on my neck fell onto the gown after it got tangled with the zip. Tossing the gown at one side, I immediately bent down and picked up the necklace slowly. The clasp of the chain broke but thank God that the pendant remained fine. 

I heaved a sigh of relief as I carefully removed the broken chain and moved towards my vanity table and searched around for a spare chain. Fortunately, there was a spare chain lying around amongst my other accessories. I then slid the pendant onto the new chain and clasp it around my neck again. 

Feeling the small pendant around my fingers, I stared at the reflection of myself through the mirror. It has been 4 years already, and it was only 3 years ago when I finally got back all my memories after the incident. 

When I first came around and found myself in an unfamiliar environment, I realised that I could not remember anything from the past, much less my own name. Roman filled me in on what actually happened but nothing managed to ring a bell in my head with whatever he told me. He was so patient with me that he even accompanied to many of the therapy sessions and quietly sat through everything with me. 

We may not be blood related but in my heart, he was already my family, along with Damian, who appeared to be closed off at the start of our meeting but he was actually a big softy on the inside. They were my family whom I treasured dearly, and nothing could change that. 

When I first informed Roman that I had gotten back all of my memories, he asked if I wanted to go back to them, where my biological family were. Although I do miss some of them, but I could not find the words to tell him that I want to return to them. Do I want to return? I was not sure. 

But soon after, the nightmares which I had previously came back a few days after I had recovered my memories. The many sleepless nights got me thinking whether returning to them would be a right choice. However, I was scared. Scared to return and having to see the same reactions from them. Scared of being all alone once more. Scared of having to fear of the nightmares by myself again. 

That was when I decided, to stay away from my past and start afresh. To fight for the happiness that I deserve, instead of fighting for attention from the people whom I've once called brothers. 

I know that it was a selfish decision, because she was still there. 

It was a cruel yet necessary decision made, but I wanted to live for myself this time. Just myself. 

updated! for those of you who were wondering when will I introduce Avery back into the story again, here it is! but now she is back with a new identity so WOOHOO I live for drama!

for those of you who had seen the very first characters list which I had already edited, yes I've decided to change the name as I think Reine sounds better HEHEHHE (previously I had named her Eliza because I wanted to keep that name since it was a name that Ariana had used for her but I feel like it didn't sound so well with her last name so yep, I've changed it and kept Eliza as her second name)

Happy reading! -27/9/2022