The Enigma Of Deceptive Love

Chapter 12: Vengeance

Thanks to the witnesses of Ma's hit-and-run, investigations were held.
I did not hesitate to let the cops know that Alex was the reason Ma ran, they talked to him for a while, but, he exited the room with a bar of chocolate in his hand.
Pa came out after the interrogation, looking more devastated than ever, after the interrogation.

To this day, I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that Pa had caused the accident.

"Alicia, I need you to tell me exactly what happened that day."

And I did. I told him about the prank Alex played. I told him how Ma ran because of Alex. I told him how she stopped because of Alex, and about the black car that hit her.

He inquired more about the car. It all happened within seconds, that I couldn't register anything except the colour.
Forced to think more about the car, I started contemplating on whether the colour I saw was indeed black or not.

One of the uniformed ladies gave me a candy, kissed my forehead, and told me to go to Pa.
That night Pa came home earlier than usual.
We waited for him in order to have dinner, and as Ma wasn't here I had to clean the dishes and set the table, because Pa was busy telling the officers that he didn't really want the investigation to be rushed, as he didn't want to be called into the station when he's busy gambling Ma's money away.

Ma never had to deal with finances, ever. And that was one of the reasons why Pa could easily take advantage of her. She grew up in a pretty poor neighbourhood with fucked up parents.

Ma was pretty and they knew it.

From the sugar coated version of her life that she'd told us, she'd work night shifts at a hotel.
Her life was pretty simple, apparently.
At around 6-7pm, the hotel would start getting clients.

The clients would either be rich old men, or drunk men wanting to know directions, and accidentally stumbling onto beautiful women wearing tight clothes accentuating their bodies.

One such man happened to be daddy dearest. "After having you, Vanessa completely lost the spark and charm that I had instilled in her." He's say, with pride and mockery.

Pa wasn't the asshole he ultimately became, back then.
In fact, from the photos of Ma and Pa, he looked like a good looking, well-mannered and elegant bloke.
I totally get what Ma saw in him, despite of his tiny drinking problem, it never seemed to make him violent or irrational back then.
Neither was Ma all cooped up and hidden behind the doors unless it was necessary that she gets out.

Hell, she even used to go to bars and drink with Pas' friends. (Given that he was with them at all times)
Ma was anything but innocent back then.

Inevitably, Pa would get tired of the new woman and move onto a new one. I genuinely wonder what kind of a sick minded woman would want a forty something year old, unhinged male with a dead wife.

That was the problem with Pa, regardless of him being a dickhead, he still managed to carry himself with such confidence and narcissism that made him oblivious to his surroundings.
Something that really seemed to attract women to his emotionally unavailable self.
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Naturally, his request of letting the police turn the blind eye towards the case, was considered to be "him trying to delay getting caught", and Pa was brought in for questioning, yet again.
Later, when the officers were brought to light on the treatment Ma had been receiving in the house, they let Pa off the radar and concluded that he was a man favouring his needs.

Around two days later, the officers came to our house and explained the situation -

The CCTV cameras were wiped out, no witnesses - or at least the ones that saw where the car had come from or gone to - which means, no leads.