The Haunted’s Kiss of Regret and Repentance

“Speak, Shyne! Your father is going to be furious when he hears about this!”

I opened my mouth to try and speak, but the sound of a car rushing inside the house made me freeze again. It was hot outside, but the sound and sight of my father’s car made me believe I was in the middle of a snow storm because of the cold that I was feeling at the moment.

“It’s your father…” my mom said in a worried tone. She tried to position herself in a way that she somehow shielded me from my father’s view as the both of us took small steps backwards.

I looked at the car that stopped in front of us a few meters away, and without missing a beat, my father got out of the car and his eyes were furious as he held my terrified gaze. He matched towards me, and all I could do was close my eyes as I panicked.

“NO! Wait!” My mom pushed me aside as she was the one who was hit on her shoulder by my father’s slap. I fell to the ground and looked up as I saw my parents look eye-to-eye.

“Get out of the way Lyna!” The head of the De Leon family’s voice boomed as I quickly stood up on my two feet, and instantly, my dad’s eyes shifted to me.

“You!” my dad said in an infuriated voice, “what kind of hell did you bring upon this family?! Why am I seeing this stupid news?! I thought you said that all of this will not affect the family in any way?! Now I see that his pathetic woman even wrote a suicide note with you name on it?!” He screamed, and I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“D-dad, I can explain this,” I said in a somewhat steady tone, “that woman has been trying to harass me since I was in the mall. Whoever posted that news is someone who made up the story in order to get the fifteen minutes of fame from making that up. I swear, dad, none of that is true. I didn’t fight with her because we were fighting about a stupid boy. She tried to harrass me and I fought back, but I would never even thought that she would try to commit suicide and even write a note about me and her cousin. I swear, dad…please believe me. Please, dad….” He looked at me, and I knew he still wasn’t convinced. He pulled my mother aside, and she was looking at me in a worried way as my dad slowly walked in front of me.

“You are being a disgrace, Shyne,” he said calmly and slapped me hard across my face. My mom gasped, and I did my best to stop myself from falling to the ground again like a damsel in distress, “you bring shame to the family because of this!” He threw the paper to my face as I was trying to straighten my bent knee and stand up straight. I felt the blood drip from my mouth as my lower lip was cut open by the impact.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

“That’s enough!” My mother pushed my dad hard, and slapped him across the face. I saw my father’s shocked face, and for the first time in my life, I felt glad at what my mother did.

“I’ll handle our daughter, and you handle the press,” she said firmly as she held my father’s gaze. He was too shocked to react, so my mother grabbed me by my arm and dragged me inside. I looked back, and my dad still had that dumb facial expression that showed he would never expect my mother to do that to him outside of their bedroom.

I just followed my mother inside, and she brought me straight to my room as each staff member that we passed by looked at me with worried expressions. None of the people we passed by tried to ask what happened. They all knew better than to go against the matriarch of the family. She had an infuriated expression on her face that even I knew I shouldn’t cross. So, I just followed.

“You should have never even bothered to fight back and just called the security that day at the mall,” I hissed as the ointment my mom was applying to my lip stung, “this is what you get for being too reckless with your emotions, Shyne. I knew your father had a tendency to do this to you sooner or later, especially since I noticed for the past few years that you’ve been too rebellious, but I never expected that he’d do it like this.” she looked at my lip and checked my entire face if I was alright.

“Shyne, listen to me,” my mom held my hands, and I saw her eyes become glossy, and I gave her a confused expression, “as a mother, I would never want you to be harmed, no matter how furious I am. I may say things to you that are below the belt, but just understand that I also make mistakes. So forgive me if I have been too harsh on you.” She took a deep breath, but I just sat on the bed with her with a confused expression.

“When I saw how mad your father was, I realized that pretending for the family is enough. I may be tormented by the responsibilities of this family, but I have no one else to blame. I chose this life, and I will embrace my situation. However,” she looked at me with sad eyes that are still a bit glossy from her emotions, “neither you, nor your brother and sister, chose this life. Your father and I chose this for ourselves, and you were just unfortunate enough to be a part of the family.”

I looked at our hands that were holding each other. I took a deep breath and gave a smile to my mom. I felt the heavy presence inside of my room, but somehow, I also felt warmth that I couldn’t explain.

“Mom…” I began, “I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done. For every mistake that I made, and for blaming you and our family for the choices that I made,” I looked at her with sad eyes, “I’m also one to blame, because I chose the paths that I took in the past. No one forced me, and I realize that I’ve been making those mistakes and have been blaming you guys for years. I’m so sorry mom.”

My mother hugged me, and the both of us released forgiveness to one another. I felt the warm feeling grow as our mother and daughter bond was healing. I knew that this situation would tint my name as the heir to the family, but I really don’t care. All I cared about now was fixing my relationship with my mom and siblings. I can try and fix my relationship with my dad later, because he’s more difficult than my mother. I also plan on just focusing my time and energy in the church, and praying to God that someday, the shadows that torment me would go away.

After today, there may be a good chance that I’d lose my right to be the heir of the family, but I don’t really mind. Anita made a mistake of letting the fight between us spar this kind of issue, but I didn’t hold a grudge against her, especially since she’s in a coma. I understand her emotional outburst, but that doesn’t mean I forgive her already. She is still ruining whatever relationship I was able to build with my dad, and now I’m back to square one.

My mother just rubbed my back and I felt tears threaten to fall. I thought about my family, and as much as I want to maintain my position as heir because of my right, I knew I would still choose peace over position if I was given a chance to choose. Afterall, this would also be divided to my brother and sister and I knew that the three of us could make it work. The only problem was my dad.

I looked at the nightstand, and I had goosebumps as I saw another shadow behind me. I closed my eyes and hugged my mother tighter as fear slowly crept inside of me. I was afraid that the moment I opened my eyes again, my mother would be gone, and all of this would be a dream.

“Shyne,” a deep voice called me and I froze as I looked at the man in front of me while I hugged my mom.