The soup sat on the tray, steaming gently, even though Mira still couldn’t find the appetite needed to eat it.
Callis didn’t answer the question right away. She first smoothed the blanket near Mira’s leg in calm movents before she finally looked up with serious eyes.
"Because I can see you, Lorena. I can see that you’re good, that you didn’t do any of those things the public is accusing you of. I want to believe that. I choose to believe that."
Mira’s throat suddenly went tight. It was rare for anyone in this horrible house to speak to her like she was human too. Like they understood her.
Callis continued as her voice started to take a more serious turn, like she was about to share so sort of state top secret that should be private.
"But frankly speaking, I don’t understand why you don’t understand why everyone hates you. And this ti I’m not talking about the public, that’s just speculations that are uncalled for. I’m talking about everyone in this house, cos I feel like it’s sothing even you should know already."
At this, Mira pushed herself up slightly even when her muscles were protesting against the movent.
She would be lying if she said she hadn’t already looked up Lorena so much in the past few days, especially since what Lucas had said to her the other night. Yet she found nothing related to that accusation; instead, what she had found was speculations that Lorena does not rember any of her childhood mories up till thirteen.
But even if it was just so random internet post no one even read that much, she felt like it could co handy in a ti like this.
"I know you think I’m just pretending like I don’t understand it. But I... I really don’t. You might not know this, but I can’t rember anything that happened to before I was thirteen. It’s like a locked mory I can’t access."
"Oh, that’s true? I read that sowhere about you but didn’t think it was true. If so, that makes a lot of sense then." Callis said softly.
But her tone turned serious again, "Are you saying you don’t rember falsely accusing Lucas publicly a few years ago too? You said he... hurt you. That he forced himself on you."
Mira sighed. She knew that already. Lucas said that to her already, and even though she had no way of confirming if it was true or not, it looked like everyone confirms that it was.
Callis leaned slightly closer as her voice dropped to a whisper, like they were sharing dangerous secrets. "I don’t know if you had your reasons, but it had such a toll on him."
Mira’s heart was starting to pound so hard that she was sure Callis could hear it.
Could Lorena really have done that though?
"I..." she started then stopped. What could she possibly say? How do you even defend against accusations that she didn’t make?
But Callis wasn’t done. Her voice went a bit colder, even though she still managed to maintain that strange friend-like quality that made Mira want to trust her despite everything.
"And that wasn’t even the worst of the things that happened, Lorena." She paused as if letting it sink. "Your father... he also did terrible things. Horrible things to people in this house. Things that I saw with my own two eyes."
Mira’s train of thought halted at this part. "What? What did he do? Tell everything."
The man who raised Lorena? Gregory Sanders who doted on his daughter and was even seen as the greatest philanthropist while he was alive?
The sa man who’s still being so much revered even after his death?
That seed so impossible.
Callis shook her head as a sad smile donned her lips. "I can’t say everything. I just can’t, it’s too much for . But you need to know that these horrible things involve taking lives. He destroyed families. He left scars on people in this estate, scars that can never heal."
She then leaned in just a bit. "The people here, they rember it all, Lorena. They resent the Sanders na and see his face whenever they look at you."
Mira sank back into the pillows as she felt like all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room.
The Sanders? Gregory Sanders took lives? What?
He had a spotless record! Heck, he didn’t even steal!
He helped the poor a lot and always stood for the truth.
It is literally why his daughter beca the nation’s golden baby imdiately after she debuted in the first place!
And now I’m being told he took a life? Wait, not even one life but lives? As in, more than one?
What the actual hell?
Mira felt like she had just been told that the sky was yellow.
The thought made her feel sick all over again as she pressed a hand to her mouth to fight the urge to vomit. "I... I never imagined... that Gregory Sab- uhm... I an... my father... could be capable of anything like that. Ever."
The words kept coming out broken, as if they were cutting her throat just to find their way out.
The man in the few photos she had seen in the Sanders mansion had looked... Normal.
Everything was worse than she had ever imagined. So much worse!
"You might find it hard to believe what I just told you, nobody would believe so easily especially when it’s their father, but that’s just the honest truth, Lorena. And I’ve only scratched the surface." Callis murmured.
"How..." Mira’s voice was starting to tremble. "Then I have absolutely no chance to make anyone like ? Nothing... nothing at all can make them like ... even I wouldn’t. I can’t pacify anyone..."
The word pacify tasted bitter and selfish on her tongue, but she didn’t know what else to call it. She had thought this would end with her finding out things that would make her plan how to survive and coexist with these people for so ti, but she now knew it was impossible.
Callis’s expression softened. "You actually can, Lorena. You just have to prove yourself, to tell them you’re just you and not your father. That what you did to Lucas in the past too was a mistake. And I can help you. You just have to trust , and just for now. Cos no one else likes you in this place, at least not yet."
Trust. Yet another new concept for Mira. She had trusted so people before and look what it did to her.
Plus, she had now been alone for a while now that it was looking odd. Yet Callis was offering her sothing very precious, so sort of help in a world that was determined to destroy her.
Still, questions would not leave Mira’s mind.
Why was Callis different? What made her willing to help her when everyone else wanted to see her burn?
"Do you think..." Mira’s voice dropped to barely above a whisper, like speaking the words too loudly might make them co true. "That’s why he married ? Is he planning sothing? Does he... want to suffer... for all I did to him sohow?"
The questions had been eating at her since the wedding, growing like cancerous thoughts in the back of her mind. Lucas didn’t love her, that much was very obvious.
But what did he want? Revenge? So twisted form of justice? Was she going to be so sort of pet or livestock he’s breeding until the very day he’s able to kill it?
Callis tilted her head again as she studied Mira with those all knowing eyes of hers. There was sothing almost predatory about the way she did it yet she also managed to look protective with it, almost like a wolf deciding whether soone was prey or pack.
"Honestly, I don’t know and you are allowed to think whatever you want... but one thing is certain. Here, trust is a currency. You need a friend, and I’m offering my hand and that’s all that matters, at least for now."
For now. The words carried very deep aning, even Mira could sense that.
It ant nothing in this place was permanent, not even kindness. But it was definitely still more than what anyone else was offering her anyways so she’ll take it.
Mira’s heartbeat accelerated again, fear and sothing that might have been hope warring in her chest. She was vulnerable here, completely at the rcy of people who had every reason to want her destroyed. But she had Callis. For now.
She lay back down, staring at the ceiling where shadows danced in the lamplight. Her mind was racing, trying to process everything Callis had told her, trying to fit these new pieces into the broken puzzle of her life.
"So... for now, only her. Only Callis." The words were more to herself than to her companion, a mantra she could hold onto in the darkness.
Callis smiled faintly, that sa mysterious expression that seed to hold a thousand secrets. "Exactly. So just watch carefully... everything here has layers. Don’t trust anyone else. But ."
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