Chapter 7

She had not been able to jettison the thoughts hung in her head since the confrontation with boys few years ago. It had made her tired. Every time she tried to move ahead of her confusion something from the past would draw her back. She had grown up with the stigma of being a criminal's daughter. Though people may not have said it openly but she had felt it in their demeanor. She had felt it to the core and had never healed from the hurt. She lay on her bed piercing her gaze in the roof as if grabbling for the truth from the pile of lies. "He was a doctor. What could have he possibly done?" She whispered to herself and suddenly felt alone. She did not have any relative not at least someone she knew of. The only person besides her mother that she remembered was her grandfather. He died few years back. "Why don't we have any relative? Or is it because I never got a chance to meet any one of them." She instantly got up from her bed. The thought of knowing someone may have fixed something in her broken life.

"Only if I had known a single relative it would have made it easier for me to dig the past. But who?" She thought. "I have never seen anyone meeting us. So many Christmases have passed, Thanksgivings have come and gone but not a single person have come to meet us. The only person is the uncle who rented us the house," she thought. And she already tried to ask him but he like her mother would always feign oblivion.

"They have mutually decided to keep me unaware of the past," she assumed. "And this is making it more dubious," she knitted her brow. Her eyes fell on the photograph covered in a sterling silver frame. Jason held her tightly in his arms with a wide smile. Gianna stood beside them. It was a fulsome photograph picturing the beauty and happiness of their lives. There was not a hint in her father's personality to have the capacity of leading a criminal life. His persona exuded a completely moralistic aura. She saw the words beneath the picture written in italic.

"Loveless soul is like a leafless tree

Love is a flowery scented Spring of life"

To her it seemed quite ironic. A man who had been charged with criminal offense talked about love too. It went well with the picture in that frame. But the reality of his nature was unknown. Nobody knew if he was a leafless tree or a flowery scented Spring. Whatever he meant by those words had gone with him. Amelia in her heart believed that her father was a morally exceptional man. But the opinions of people were contrary to her beliefs. "If he truly believed in love than why would he end people's lives." It hurt her so much. She wanted to scream and tell the world that her father was an honorable man. He did nothing wrong. But she could only tell that to herself. She kept looking at her father and read the caption many times. But neither his smile nor the words beneath that smile eased her painful heart. She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. Though sleep seemed farther away but she tried to throw everything out of her mind at least for that night.