Chapter 12

She couldn't sleep that night. The moment she would close her eyes the guy with crew cut would appear in her thoughts troubling her. "What did he want? And why did he threaten me?" She asked herself. She put her mind into all the possibilities that could be the reason for their confrontation but nothing would make sense to her. Something was missing and it made her freaked out. "Why do they think I am their trouble maker? What have I done?" She recalled the confrontation that she had with the boys in her childhood and she thought somehow this was a continuation of that event. She strolled around her room and pressed her mind to force something out of it but didn't succeed. She stepped out of her room silently and went into the kitchen. Opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. Just as she took a glass of water her mother appeared. "Don't feel sleepy?" She asked curiously. "Yea, I was making a coffee." "Coffee?" She asked surprised. "Nothing mom just a little headache." She said without looking at her.

Gianna came closer to her to take a clear look of her. Amelia seemed to ignore her presence maybe because she didn't want to make her worried again. "Look at me sweetie!" she said stopping her from putting coffee into the coffee maker. Just as she looked at her the agony in her hazel green eyes flashed like a light. "You have never been up this late. What's the matter?" She inhaled a deep breath and said, "I told you there is nothing. Don't worry." She released her hand and picked a cup from the cabinet for coffee. "Everything is fine," she murmured to herself. "It's just that I don't feel sleepy. And I have some work to do." She came out of the kitchen holding the steaming hot cup of espresso, put it on the centre table in the lounge and dropped herself lazily on the sofa. She closed her eyes for a moment as she lay her head on the back pillow. Gianna folded her arms and looked at her from the kitchen door.

"You can share with me." She asked after a brief moment of silence. "What?" Amelia half opened her eyes and looked at her from the corners. "Whatever it is?" She said. "Whatever is making you sleepless." She opened her eyes, lifted her head and looked at her. Gianna sat on the sofa next to Amelia. "What kind of man was my dad?" She quizzed before Gianna could ask something else. She looked at her astonished. The same question she thought. "Your father wasn't an ordinary man." She said after a pause. "That's what I have been hearing since childhood. Tell me something else. Something that I do not know of. I know that he was an honourable, respectable and honest man. That's what you have been telling me." She uttered in a single breath gradually increasing the volume of her voice. "Tell me something new. Or you can tell me how the world perceived my father." She asked staring at her. "Does that matter to us? How the world perceived your dad does not matter to us." She exclaimed with conviction. "Your dad was sincere to himself, with his family, his friends and his patients. I think that's all that should matter to us. How the world saw him is none of our business." She exhaled a tired breath.

"But it does matter to me." She spoke. "I deserve to know the truth that you have been hiding." Gianna looked at her uncertain what to do. "Look sweetie!" She said as she sat near her. "This world is too cruel to acknowledge a person's sacrifices. Cut yourself into pieces just to make people around you happy, there would still be others who would criticise you. They would keep telling you that you have cut yourself the wrong way, not having a pinch of shame. Your father was a fearless man." She cupped Amelia's face in her palms and gazed at her beautiful eyes. "Whatever happened to him was not because he was criminal. It happened because he was a fearless and courageous man." Her voice lowered as she let the truth out of her heart. "What do you mean by happened to him? Wasn't it an accident?" She asked incredulously. Gianna bowed her head and shook it gently. To her everything at once seemed absurd. Her nightmares were suddenly obscured by deceitful reality. "Why?" She asked looking at her feet. "Why did it happen to dad?" She asked again raising her eyes to her.

"His only crime was that he wanted to help people. He wanted to pursue his dream of creating a medicine for the cure of various fatal diseases." She said teary eyed. "I remember he would come home feeling immensely depressed. He wouldn't talk much. But i would feel it. In his eyes... in his voice. In his overall demeanour. He wouldn't be himself." She divulged grievously. "Their pain-stricken faces would leave scars on his heart. I want to do something for them, he would say. He wished to relieve their pains. He had made it the purpose of his life." She said looking at Amelia. "And that's when his own trials began." Exhaling tiredly. Amelia looked at her mother with quizzical eyes trying to comprehend the things she told her.

"You mean dad was killed because he wanted to help people." She asked astonished. "No!" She said immediately. "He wanted to save people. Saving others cost him his own life." "What do you mean?" she asked. "The medicines that he wanted to create would save people from cancer. He once came home. I could tell from the wetness of his eyes that he had cried. When I asked him what had happened? He replied, it is very painful. It's extremely hurting when you know death is looming around the corner waiting for you to accompany it. Not that you considered it fallacious but because you have lost all the courage and strength to fight it. We all know that we die one day. We cannot run away from death. But losing the spirit to live is very painful. He had said it."

"It is very easy for the world to say he was a criminal but I know how much humane he was. He wasn't just a doctor he was an extraordinary and compassionate human being." Gianna said tears rolling down her face. "He knew that he was targeted. There were people who didn't want him to exceed in his career. They deemed him a threat. They didn't like him. He knew their intentions. So, he asked me to take care of you and to educate you. He loved you so much sweetie. That's the only thing you should remember, nothing else." Gianna looked at her wet eyed. Amelia came closer to her and hugged her tightly without saying a word. She closed her eyes peacefully as if a huge pile of doubts had gotten away from her heart making her so much lighter than before. "Thank you mom." She could only manage to whisper it.