Chapter 16: Memories

The bright morning sun rose, blessing every living being with its light.

The Adolpho mansion bustled with maids running up and down, making decorations and preparing food that waters one's mouth just from the smell.

Today is the special day on which their second young lady will be getting married to the richest man in the world, the man whom everyone speaks of his scarred face behind a gray mask. A cruel and despicable man who sees his fellow humans as nothing. Annoy him, and you're dead. Well, it's a court marriage per his request, but that doesn't stop it from being a big celebration.

Standing in front of the window in the attic, Leia fluttered her eyes as she gazed at the sun in the sky. A half-smile formed on her lips, and tiny drops of tears fell from her eyes. Why was she even crying? Her life, though, has never been pleasant, so this is not new to her. She wiped away the tears and turned her head to stare at Amy, who stood beside her.

Amy sighed and bit her lower lip, a glum expression on her face. She understood how Leia was feeling. A wedding is supposed to be the happiest day of one's life, not the saddest. The worst thing about Leia's case was that she was being sold for material gain. It felt as though she was an object that could be traded for anything.

Amy took a deep breath and placed her hand on Leia's shoulder. "You know... Maybe he is not as cruel or despicable as people say... Besides, no one has seen his real face." She patted Leia and smiled at her. "Don't cry, please."

Leia removed her hand from her shoulder and walked to the entrance with an expressionless face. She opened the door and glanced at Amy with an arched brow.

Amy blinked her eyes and walked after her. They walked through the hallway, passing different rooms on their way downstairs. However, Leia suddenly stopped on her track and gazed at a pink-colored door.

Her eyes flickered, and her face became cynical. She turned her head and glanced at Amy, who stood beside her. "I want to be alone." Amy nodded at her with a half-smile on her face and walked away.

A deep breath escaped Leia's mouth, and she pushed the door open. She slowly slipped her slender body into the room and shut the door behind her. Her eyes glanced around the room, and a half-pessimistic smile made its way to her lips.

This was her mother's room, which she had asked her father to attach to hers with only a door separating them in the center, so she could run to her mum whenever she had bad dreams at night or felt scared.

Leia let out a sigh and walked over to the bed. She sat down and glanced at a white mini-table beside the bed, which had photographs placed on it.

She picked up one of the photographs of her and her mother when she was 12. She blew on the glass and wiped off the dust on it to make the photo clearer. A soft, sad chuckle escaped her mouth as she stared at her exposed fallen teeth that made her look so silly in the photo.

Leia glanced at the bed and caressed it with her hand. This was where her mother would always play with her, tickling her till her tummy felt like it would burst from too much laughter. This bed was also where she would always lie and have her mum read her a bedtime story about the princess and the knight.

She chuckled and stood up from the bed. She walked into her room and switched on the light. Her eyes glanced around, and a warm smile formed on her lips. White and black had always been her favorite colors, so she had asked for her room to be painted white and for a few things in it to be black. She will pretty much miss this room.

Leia walked out and shut the door. She proceeded to leave her mother's room, but her eyes fell on the door that reminded her of a memory she hated to remember.

She slowly walked towards the door as her lashes gradually became wet from tears welling up in her eyes. She placed her hand on the doorknob and pushed the latch. Her eyes fell on the sink, where she always brushed her teeth very early in the morning with her mum.

When she was 18, this sink was also the same sink in which her mother vomited a lot of blood when her sickness started becoming worse. She had cried then and patted her mother on the back, hoping it would help release the pain.

But due to the high amount of blood that her mum vomited, she suddenly fell to the floor and fainted. Scared, Leia ran to her father and pleaded with him to take her mother to the hospital, but he disagreed and ignored both her and her mother.

Seeing that her father didn't care, she ran back to the bathroom and took her mother to the hospital by herself. The doctors told her that her mum was fine after some treatments were carried out on her. However, after some months, things suddenly went from good to bad and her father, who never cared one bit, suddenly cared... requesting different doctors to operate on her.

She had felt uncomfortable and suspicious then and wanted to find out why her father suddenly cared, but...

Leia snapped back to reality and stared at her hands, which were bloody as a result of her fingers that pierced into her palm. Tiny drops of tears fell from her eyes and onto her palm. She sniffed and wiped them from her eyes.

She let out a soft sigh and walked to the closet. She grabbed her school bag and began to pack the things important to her into it, especially the photograph. Her eyes glanced around the room one last time when she was done, and walked out, locking the door behind her.