Deserving | ✔

Chapter 25

I toss and turn in my bed, unable to rest my body with the comforter. Why does the bed have to feel so alien?

I hear a few whispers in the hallway.

Please. Not again, I whine internally,  worrying about the five goons' reappearance.

But when I hear Tri's voice, I jerk up from my bed and barge into the living room.

Only to find Trisha crying on the shoulders of Daniel.

"What the hell? What are you doing here, Daniel? What did you do to Tri?" I ask and rush towards her to kneel in front of her. I brush away her tears as involuntary ones form in my eyes.

"He didn't do anything, Bhai. It's just, oh my God, it's... You tell him, Danny," she says and buries her face in my chest.

"It's okay, Tri. I'll talk to him. You go sleep it out, okay?" Daniel says, in a surprisingly soft voice. Creep.

She nods and wishes him goodnight before turning to me and planting a kiss on my forehead. "Take care, Bhai," she says and leaves to her room.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"Um," he hesitates.

"Just spit it already!"

"Okay, fine. Can you tell me about your mother, Phillip?" he asks.

The sincerity in his voice when he asked this was too strong. Something is wrong here.

"Why?" 

He scratches the back of his head and mutters, "There's - um... Can you please tell me how she died? It's pretty important."

"Cardiac attack," I say bitterly.

Images of my mother's last words to me flood my head.

"Phillip, sweetie, no matter what happens, never hate God, okay? Or fate. They are two things that would shape you life and you should be grateful for both. Be ready to do anything for your loved ones, Phillip, because nothing is greater in your life than them. Wealth, money, job, career: they are great eye candies. But they won't cry for you at your graveyard during your funeral. Your loved ones will. They will be the ones alongside you no matter what. Promise me that you will put your loved ones before your self."

"I promise, Mom."

Her dreary smile masked her pain elegantly. "That's my boy!" She said, her breathing ragged.

And soon, she stopped breathing. She gave up the struggle. She gave up her stay in the world.

"Phillip?" Daniel's voice brings me back to the present, 18 years after the incident.

"Was she suffering from any particular disease?" he asks.

"Yes. Congestive heart failure. It was passed on genetically to her from her grandmother on the mother's side," I say, unmindful of the reason why he's inquiring all this.

"Phillip? I have something to tell you. It's a... Sensitive issue," he murmurs.

I nod and motion him to continue.

"You... You have a younger sister."

The world blackens a moment and all I could see was my mother's image 18 years ago. Her laugh, her smile, her eyes, her petite figure... Her petite figure.

"Impossible. You're lying. My mother didn't conceive after my birth. Don't lie precariously, you son of a bi-"

"Will you let me complete before you cuss?!" he shouts. "I said you have a sister. I didn't say your mother was pregnant!"