(Author’s POV)
"Have you lost all manners?" Diana reprimanded Yelena, loud enough, to catch everyone’s attention. The guest, the staff mbers, even the guy playing the piano stopped midway and looked at them.
Yelena could feel her cheeks getting hot; she was thoroughly embarrassed as she settled back in her seat. She then mumbled while stamring, "I just~ .... I just saw Myra. So, that’s why~ ...."
"Tskkk~ .... so, you saw her, and you thought to let go of all the etiquette you have studied up till now. You cannot handle your cutlery properly. Did all that money spent on etiquette classes go to waste? And what will that girl even be here for? Stop making things up," Diana asked with a frown.
"Grandmother, Myra had a dinner appointnt scheduled. That’s why~ ... she is~ ..." Yelena tried to explain, but Diana cut her off, "That girl, does she have such a social standing where she could co to such a fancy place for a dining experience. Stop lying."
Yelena was about to speak when Garry returned, "The call took a bit long. So, what were you both talking about?"
"Nothing, your granddaughter was just crafting a lie to get out of here," Diana said straight forwardly.
Garry’s brows wrinkled at his wife’s words, as Yelena explained, her voice soft, "I swear, I was not lying. Mrs. Amy Garcia, the wife of the Garcia Group of Industries CEO, Sebastian Garcia. She invited Myra for a dinner eting tonight."
"Huhh?" Garry, who was about to pick up his cutlery, paused. His eyes held sothing unusual. He asked, "Ms. Miracle is here, at this restaurant? Invited by Mrs. Amy Garcia? How did she get to know soone like her?"
"Exactly," Diana raised the sa question.
"Ummm~ ... yes, grandpa," Yelena answered clumsily. "She helped Mrs. Garcia with sothing, so Mrs. Garcia wanted to show gratitude and eventually invited her for dinner." Garry was baffled to hear it, his eyes widened. He thought, ’Is it ti now?’ Then, shaking his head, he mumbled, almost inaudibly, "No matter how much soone tries to run away from their fate, they will end up right at its rcy." A deep, tireso sigh escaped his mouth.
"Garry~ .... Garry~ .... What happened? Why are you not eating?" Diana inquired.
"Uhh~ ... nothing," he picked up his fork and knife and resud his usual deanour.
Yelena was getting a bit antsy at this point. Ever since she saw Myra running off, she had been having a rather odd feeling. As she couldn’t leave right now, she decided to send a ssage instead, "Myra, are you done with your dinner eting?
She waited and waited, but there was no reply. She then texted again, "I am at the sa restaurant and saw you going sowhere. Did you leave already?"
Sa old. No answer.
"Myra, why aren’t you replying?"
"Are you still having dinner?"
"Are you busy?"
"Did sothing happen?"
"Myra, reply to ASAP."
She left a trail of ssages, her eyes glued to the phone screen.
"Yelena, what are you busy with? Your al is getting all cold," Garry queried. She quickly placed the phone in her pocket and said, "Nothing."
__________________________
(Myra’s POV)
"Please~ .... Mrs. Garcia~ ...." I pleaded for her to stop. Whatever she wanted to say, she wanted to "announce," I don’t want to hear it. She tried to reach my hand, but I flinched, instinctively and averted my gaze as well. I could feel my eyes stinging and turning moist. I don’t want to be seen like this. Not to her, not to anyone else.
The majestic view of skyscrapers bathed in light, the sumptuous masterpieces, the loving and kind family, everything was making feel suffocated in that mont. I could feel the oxygen getting stuck in my windpipe.
I just wanted to get out of that enclosed space and return ho. That was the only thought running through my mind. I sohow scrambled out of the private room and started darting aimlessly, regardless of how I looked to the passersby.
Luckily, the direction I was heading was the sa as the elevator’s. I pressed the button and hopped in, fat, uncontrollable tears streaming down my cheeks and wetting my face as well as chin by now.
The elevator was spacious and empty, which gave ti to get a hold of my nerves and scattered emotions, ’Myra~ .... calm down. You need to calm down and get a grip on yourself.’ I kept repeating this in my head, but could feel my body tremble.
As I was deep in thought, the elevator door slid open on the sixteenth floor, and in ca a few of the hotel guests. I wiped off my tears quickly and lowered my head, concealing my face with my hair.
The people who entered seed to be a family of three, husband, wife and a little child, a daughter. Standing between her father and mother, the girl was smiling prettily as she spoke, her voice feathery and singsongly, "Mamma~ .... Papa~ .... Sia wants to have cake~ .... a laaaargeeeee~ .... one with a uni~.... uni~ ...." She fumbled innocently.
"Ohk, my princess. It’s your fourth birthday. We will get you a large unicorn cake, hmm," her mother gave her a radiant smile and replied. By that girl’s reaction, I could tell she was over the moon, tapping her feet, doing a silly dance with her small body.
The scene made choke. The tears I sohow managed to get a hold of flooded out again as I sobbed. At the fragile age of four, when kids enjoy their mother’s embrace and their father’s doting. I was getting beaten up daily, sotis hourly, without any reason.
At such a delicate age, where children were getting treats and cakes and everything they wanted, I was rotting in that orphanage, eating stale food, and sotis that wasn’t even given. Then I had to steal from the trash can for the leftovers.
The grueso flashback of my tattered childhood clogged my mind intensely. The thought of abandonnt, which I have been insecure about all my life, ca crashing down on .
My sniffling must have caught the little girl’s attention as she turned around and cooed softly, "Ma’am~ .... why aal~ you~ .... crying?"
To Be Continued . . . . . . . .
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