Chapter 09

―Why did you do that? ―A dismayed woman asked. ―Why did you have to leave the way your sister did?!

The sun was covered by several clouds, thus staining the sky grayish tones. At that lonely funeral, there was a person: a heartbroken mother who wiped the tears from her face with a tissue.

What was the reason for her incessant pain? Well, it was pretty simple. Her daughters were lying beneath those headstones and not with her, leaving her in a vast solitude. How could a being with unfortunate luck like hers exist? It was not possible, but there was that only mother, lamenting that her daughters had left permanently.

Dealing with the damage left by the youngest daughter's sudden journey was challenging, even for Sofia, the eldest daughter who committed the heinous act of suicide. It had become a habit for both of them to spend sleepless nights, while the crying soaked the pillowcases and they recalled the spitting image of a laughing girl running through the corridors of the home.

Then there was Sofia. No one understood the reason for her choice, because she basically had it all: an exuberant amount of money kept in her bank accounts, an apartment in the best part of the town, and a reputation as a confident woman committed to her work and with society. So, Why had she decided to lose everything that she had accomplished over long years and fade away as if nothing made sense?

But maybe it would have it all the sense of the entire world if that woman decided to open her envelope in her hand, which contained a letter signed by Sofia Belsunce herself. Nevertheless, she could not, she did not have the necessary strength to know once and for all the truths that hid her first daughter from her for years. Did they break her heart? Did she get fired? Did she find out she was pregnant? Those were the questions that hovered in the head of that lonely mother to understand why Sofía's action, without ever reading that piece of paper that she was holding in her wrinkled hands.

―Was I a bad mother all this time? ―The lady wondered, looking up at the sky.

Memories of that fateful Friday came to her mind when she lost her youngest daughter. Emma and she were leaving that building where the concert that the minor had waited for so long was held. She remembered how Emma begged her months before she bought her the ticket to see that Asian group of which she was a loyal fan. What was their name? It did not even matter that now when she had lost her two daughters. When they headed home to the car, her daughter began to feel ill. Really bad.

―Mom, my chest hurts. ―Emma told to the lady that was on the side of her seat in the vehicle. ―Mom, it burns me a lot.

―It must be from the cold drink you had a little while ago. I told you not to put so many ice cubes in it, but you added like five or six-

Suddenly, her daughter did not respond and that surprised her mother who turned her face towards her. Her daughter was not moving ―and she looked like she was not breathing either.

―Emma? ―She moved the young woman who was passed out in the passenger seat, thinking that with just that movement she would bring her back to life, but it was not like that. ―Damn! Hold on, I'll take you to a hospital.

Driving at blinding speed she headed for the nearest hospital from that building. She surely had already broken with a thousand and one traffic rules, but she did not care. Not when they had already reached the destination.

―A doctor, please! ―A frightened mother yelled. ―What are you looking at me, miss? My daughter is dying and not responding, do something at once!

Several nurses and doctors arrived after her screams and snatched her daughter from her arms to place her on a stretcher and disappear through the corridors of the hospital. The mother just hoped that death would not take her daughter away too. Because she could not leave, right? No, she could not leave her with a great emptiness in her heart there, sitting on that celestial bench. She could not bear it, Emma was still young, she had a life ahead of her and she could not just die.

Suddenly, a thought invaded her mind: Sofia, her other daughter, did not know that the youngest of the family was in a hospital after collapsing in the car. She pulled her cell phone out as fast as her hands would allow it and she unlocked it. She dialed her oldest daughter's number and waited for her to answer. One beep. Two beeps. Three beeps. On the fourth beep, she heard her daughter's voice.

―Hello, Mom? ―She heard herself from the other line.

―I'm in the hospital, honey. Emma had a seizure and passed out in the car. I don't know what happened to her, but you must come quickly. ―She said through tears.

The young woman did not respond to the news. She just fell silent and trembled, although her mother had not noticed that fact.

―Please come. ―The mother pleaded with a broken voice. But Sofía did not answer and hung up the call.

Thirty minutes later, a twenty-year-old girl walked through the main door of the hospital and searched with her eyes for the person who had located her earlier. When she found her, Sofía ran to hug her mother and she released all the tears that she had been accumulating inside her being. The simple fact that her sister was gone from her forever made her blood run cold since she heard the news that her mother gave her. Emma could not leave her, not when she needed her too much, not when she knew that without her, those horrible voices would haunt her without giving her any respite.

A few more minutes passed, but that little family felt like long and painful hours, where spasms were the only sound their mouths made when a doctor approached them.

―Relatives of Emma Belsunce? ―She asked and immediately two people got up.

―We… we are.

―I have bad news for you, ladies. ―The one in the white coat sighed.

Hearing that, chills ran down their spine and negative thoughts flooded their minds. But they had faith that it was nothing of what they imagined, that maybe Emma just needed to stay longer in the hospital, but she was still alive, she was still breathing, right?

―Is she fine? ―Sofía asked.

―Unfortunately not. ―The doctor replied as if everything were normal. Of course, your sister is in a hospital is something of every day. ―Miss Emma could not survive.

The news hit them like a bucket of cold water.

―No. ―Sofia sighed. ―There must be some solution, doctor.

―I'm sorry, lady. But we can not do anything else, she went into a heart attack.

After that, the suffering and irreparable pain invaded the space formed by those four walls where the family resided. The years passed and the mother thought that everything had been forgotten and overcome, but she was wrong again. This time, her last daughter had decided to experience the same thing that had happened to her sister. This was terribly devastating for that mother.

―Why did they leave me? Why did they abandon me?

That last question would then be etched in her mind forever. It would be until the day she decided to open the envelope that her daughter wrote to her the day she left.