Bab 24: A Tale of Deception
On the phone with her friend, Mrs. Thargata was more concerned about her broken fingernail than what happened to their young son. What has happened has happened, a simple traffic accident, she kept thinking.
She told her friend about Ru, "Honey, the driver told the police that Rui threw himself into the road. It's true, I believe it. Rui was on psychiatric medication and he was taking the pills on his own. God knows how many times I told him not to do that."
As she wandered around the room on the mansion's first floor, she saw her beloved husband playing golf from the window overlooking the backyard.
"We'll still sue for damages, of course, money is money. Of course, I mean, the kid was schizophrenic. You don't know, that's the boy who once mistook Vaelan for the devil at the orphanage and seriously injured him with scissors. I didn't want him anyway. There was a blonde little girl instead, tiny. You should have seen how cute she was. But we had to take Rui because of Vaelan's insistence. Luckily he died without causing us any trouble. May he rest in peace."
It was sunny outside. The first flowers of spring were in bloom. Mrs. Thargata waved to her husband in this beautiful weather, but her eye fell again on her broken nail. At that moment, she became depressed and her face fell. Should she have gotten porcelain nails? But Mrs. Thargata was always in favor of natural beauty.
"Oh, well, whatever, dear," she said to her friend who was nagging on the other end of the phone. She strolled over to the makeup desk and plopped down on the beanbag. She studied her reflection in the mirror. Did she have a few wrinkles or what? No, it was too early for Botox.
"Honey, it doesn't matter if you can't come. We've already taken care of the funeral. We did everything for our little boy. It was quite a magnificent funeral. Needless to say, most of the business people and celebrities in our city were there. Poor boy, I'm sure he wasn't so loved when he was alive. But on the one hand, this was a story that ended well. Because he was saved, and we were saved."
Mrs. Thargata's attention momentarily shifted to the rapidly forming clouds in the sky. She recalled that today's weather forecast hadn't predicted any rain. Unfortunately, these untimely clouds had suddenly obscured the beautiful sun. This situation had slightly disrupted the ideal temperature of her room. As Mrs. Thargata stood up to close the window, she was still on the phone.
"Vaelan is a little upset, but of course, he will get over it," she said, her eyes suddenly filled with a bright blue glow.
Time seemed to slow down in Mrs. Thargata's eyes. The gathering clouds hung suspended in the middle of the sky. As the clouds moved, the air crackled with electricity, producing small flashes and sizzles.
Then Mr. Thargata raised his golf club. At that moment, time seemed to slow down even more, and every movement became a painful eternity.
Mrs. Thargata's heart beat like a war drum in her chest, her voice echoed in her ears. Her eyes remained fixed on her husband, who stood like a statue with his golf club raised in the air.
She could feel the tension in the atmosphere, thick and suffocating as if the very air around them was holding its breath in anticipation.
"What the hell?" was all Mrs. Thargata could say. The phone had fallen out of her hand. She was unable to move, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene that was unfolding in front of her. It was as if an invisible force held her in place.
Mr. Thargata swung the golf club. Suddenly, a blinding flash of lightning lit up the sky. The crackling energy surged through the air, drawn like a magnet to the metal shaft of the golf club.
In an instant, Mr. Thargata was struck by lightning. His body was racked with pain as the intense heat flooded his system, forcing a scream of agony from his lips.
Mrs. Thargata watched in horror as her husband's form became engulfed in a brilliant halo of light, his silhouette outlined against the electric blue sky. For a fleeting moment, time seemed to freeze once more, trapping her in a nightmare of crackling energy and unbearable suspense.
Then, as swiftly as it had come, the lightning vanished, leaving behind only the smoldering remnants of Mr. Thargata's golf club and a charred, lifeless figure where he once stood.
The air was heavy with the scent of ozone and burnt flesh as Mrs. Thargata staggered forward, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Oh my God!" was all Ms. Thargata could say. Her words hung in the air, a mixture of shock, relief, and something darker simmering beneath the surface.
"Are you finally dead?" she asked. An evil smile curled her lips as she looked at the charred remains of her husband's corpse.
"Yes, finally," she whispered, the words tinged with satisfaction.
However, it didn't take long for her to get upset; she soon learned that the great inheritance she was expecting was divided into many pieces. Although Mrs.Thargata could guess that her late husband had affairs with many women, she had just learned that he had fathered twenty-five children.
"Shit! He was a bastard! He betrayed me," she kept shouting.
She did this at the funeral too. Therefore, for the first time, the Thargata family could not meet the expectations of their valued guests.
It was raining pretty hard, and the cemetery was already starting to get muddy. Mrs. Thargata and the other Mrs. Thargatas -once official and never official other wives- screamed, cursed, and sometimes fought. The children weren't sad either. Four children were happy about their father's death. Vaelan stood in front of them.
Vaelan was neutral towards his father. Lately, for some reason, he did not like him. He put it down to puberty, but he couldn't explain why he felt this way. It was obvious that Vaelan was jealous of Mr.Thargata, but he wasn't sure if it was because of his inappropriate feelings for his stepmother.
When the coffin was placed in the grave, the rain slowed a bit. The mourners whispered among themselves. Vaelan no longer tolerates the lies and the fake tears. He quietly left his stepmother's side and walked to the other grave, which occupied a small space in the family cemetery.
As Vaelan approached the grave of his brother, Lirui Thargata, he felt a sense of solemnity wash over him. The rain, though it was only a light drizzle now, seemed to match the mood of the cemetery, which was pretty somber. Vaelan paused, taking in the sight of the freshly dug earth and the simple gravestone that marked his brother's final resting place.
With a heavy heart, Vaelan knelt beside the grave, his hands resting gently on the damp earth. He was overcome with memories of his brother.
"I miss you, Rui," he said quietly, his voice barely audible over the sound of the wind. "I wish you were here with me. Things are a mess now and I don't know what to do."
Ru was sitting on one of the high branches of a tree near the grave, looking at him blankly.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Ru asked, and then threw a pine cone at Vaelan, hitting him in the head.
Even though the pine cone hit his head, Vaelan didn't react and kept crying.
Ru waved at him and even called out, "What's wrong, why are you crying?"
"It's because my sisters are dead," Vaelan said, slowly lifting his head and locking his red eyes on Ru.
Hadiah
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