Chapter 2

It helps that Geraldine’s family is rich. They could afford treatment for her condition. Now that she’s discharged from the hospital, Geraldine is living alone with her father since her mom died while giving birth to her younger sister, Jessica. Jessica died in January this year. Her body was found rotting under a cliff thirty minutes away from their home. Nobody knew how she died. Autopsy report showed that she died from a strong blow on her head that caused a concussion. Officers assumed that the strong blow happened when she hit her head on a huge rock when she fell from that cliff. But that doesn’t match with Geraldine’s claims. Geraldine was forcing everyone to believe that their friend, Carla Torres, was responsible for her sister’s death. Carla was known as the queen bee in their school. They’re all seventeen year old Junior students when this happened, except for Jessica who was only fifteen at the time. Geraldine said that Carla was mad at Jessica when her ex-boyfriend, Jason, James’s twin brother, became Jessica’s boyfriend on New Year’s Eve. Geraldine told the police that she saw Carla push her sister down the cliff but Carla had a strong alibi because when the incident happened, Carla was proven to be out of the country, at a family gathering. Meanwhile, it was also proven that Geraldine was with James that day and they were never near the cliff. Although there weren’t CCTV cameras to show who Jessica was with during the incident, the city police ruled out the case as an accident.

It was painful for Geraldine’s father to send his daughter to a psychiatric facility because that would mean that he would be left alone in his huge house while he grieves for his daughter’s death. It was hard for all of their friends as well because Jessica was the funny sister. Geraldine, ever since, was the serious and quiet type of person. She wasn’t fond of talking too much, sharing stories, or even just having random conversations with friends. She only got into Carla’s friend group when she became James’s girlfriend. James and Jason, on the other hand, were Carla’s best friends since kindergarten. Jason became Carla’s boyfriend when they graduated from middle school. But when Jason met Jessica, they instantly became close friends and Jason started being cold to Carla. It was because, behind Carla’s back, Jason was secretly falling in love with Jessica. Even though Jessica knew that Carla and Jason are dating, she still entertained Jason because she also had feelings for him as well. Carla started noticing but decided not to do anything about it until Jason broke up with her on Christmas day last year. And that’s when things started to become worse for both Geraldine and Jessica. Carla started bullying them at school and announcing to everyone that Jessica was a whore for stealing her boyfriend.

Jessica’s body was found on January 27, and doctors said that it has already gone into putrefaction and that she had been dead approximately two weeks before she was found. Several generations of maggots were found in her body and some have begun to fully grow. A large volume of fluids drained from her body and had already seeped through the soil. The embalmer refused Jessica’s body so the hospital had Mr. Matthews sign a consent form for cremation. Jessica’s ashes were put inside an expensive jar and is still displayed in their living room on the altar. Every night, Mr. Matthews hugs the jar while he sleeps after losing so much tears from crying because that’s the only time that he’s able to cry since he has work during the day.

When James found out that Geraldine was about to be put in a psychiatric ward, he had no choice but to support the decision because he thought that that would be the best thing to do for his girlfriend. Days after Jessica’s wake, Geraldine started blabbering about stuff and then her mood became unstable - a minute she’s happy and then several minutes later she’d go into hysterics. She would throw stuff around the house, break things, hurt herself, and even hurt others. There was a time when she accidentally hit James with a glass frame when he was forcing her to eat and it cut through the left most side of his forehead. Up until now, you could see the scar because the cut was so deep that it had to be stitched.

It was a painful scene to watch when it was time to send Geraldine away. The staff from the mental facility came to their house and had no choice but to tie Geraldine up as she was frantically screaming and kicking everyone that came into her way. James cried when he saw what was happening but he couldn’t do anything. He watched as nurses in their white uniforms put Geraldine in a car with force because when they tried to be gentle, they just couldn’t match her strength.

James vowed to himself that now that Geraldine is out of the hospital, he would make sure that she won’t be going back there. He would do everything that he can to make sure that Geraldine is going to be ok and that she would move on from her sister’s death. Geraldine’s father already accepted that he lost one daughter but, like James, Mr. Matthews promised himself that he won’t let anything bad happen to his only living daughter. That’s why when Geraldine was released from the psychiatric hospital, her father began to follow any request that she would make. Even going back and forth to Japan just to get his daughter’s favorite steak.

“That was a lovely breakfast” Geraldine said after she finished her fourth glass of wine.

“Go and take a rest.” James said. “I’ll just wash the dishes then I’ll follow you to your room.”

Geraldine got out of her chair and went straight up to her bedroom. This is the first time she’ll be able to share a bed with James after she got out of the hospital. She took a bath to remove all her stress from this morning’s drama while waiting for James to finish his chores.