CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

I finally found my niece, the child I had been searching for so long. Manuel's mind is now filled with regret. 

He looked at the child in the cage, and for the first time, he realized that the shape of the child's cheeks resembled those of the mother. He let out a soft laugh; he wanted to reach out to the imprisoned child.

"Stop it now, Manuel; you've already seen your niece, so stop your madness." That's all he heard coming from Angely.

He clenched his fist; he quietly looked at his companion, even nodding. 

"If I hadn't met you back then, I would have been happy with Leah." He couldn't help but say.

Angely turned to him and glared at him angrily. "Do you think you can turn back time? Besides, you wanted what happened to us, so don't blame me for all of this." It even said.

"You have to be honest here, Angely. Was my dad your lover before we met?" He bluntly asked the woman in front of him, staring at her intently.

She didn't immediately respond, avoiding his piercing gaze. "Speak up, we're dead now, what else can we do, right?" he asked, laughing and shaking his head.

"Don't project your regrets onto me now, Manuel. You're still a coward. You're the one blindly following your father, aren't you?" This is a question for him.

"Yes, I will admit it; I am indeed a coward! I killed the woman I loved! I killed my child! I couldn't do anything when my youngest sibling was killed! I couldn't protect my only niece!" He shouted directly at the person in front of him.

He still felt the anger and regret for the sins he couldn't correct while I was alive. 

"I will face it! I will admit it! You? When will you admit to the foolishness you did?! Huh?! Will the three of us continue to circle around each other? He shouted at his two companions. He stood up and banged on the cage.

The young girl looking at them was surprised. There, he calmed down.

"Until death, really! We'll rot together here!"

"Goddamn it!" was his outburst.

He remembered when Leah got pregnant, the cracks in their marriage began to show, and they started living under one roof. But he still felt that his wife loved him very much.

Sometimes he goes back to his parents' mansion. 

"Manuel, please tell your in-law that I took some money to further grow our business; I know they will understand." 

"Dad, even though you are partners with my wife's parents, you can still discuss this; you are not taking from their wealth." He could only say that and shake his head.

His father suddenly punched him. "What are you saying? Are you lecturing me? You are simply my child; I nurtured you from birth. You have no right to tell me what to do, okay?" He said that and left.

Because of his annoyance, he goes to his mistress, Angely, and there he finds solace when his father angers him. He endures his father's behavior.

"Where have you been?" Leah's only question to him when he comes home at dawn.

He didn't answer her question and went straight to the room. His wife followed him.

"Leah, please, not now." Manuel couldn't help but say it.

It just sighed, went out of the room, and after a while, returned with a basin of lukewarm water. 

"Did you fight with your father?" Leah worriedly asked while cleaning the wound caused by his father's punch.

He didn't answer her. Even though their relationship with Leah is cooling, his kind-hearted wife still tries and hopes that they will reconcile.

"Ouch." His only complaint was as she treated the wound on his face.

"I'm sorry, just take it easy, Manuel," Leah just sighed.

His wife looked at him intently and sighed. "I don't know what you're doing with our money, Manuel, but I've noticed that it's getting bigger and bigger, taking from our couple's savings." She even said to him.

The money he siphoned from his wife was spent on women and alcohol. 

"I—I'm short on cash, but I'll pay you back."

"No need to do that. I hope you tell me where the money is going; we worked hard for that, Manuel. We shouldn't indulge in the wealth of our families because it will run out if we are too extravagant." Leah reminded him of their expenses.

"Another thing, Mom and Dad are complaining about your dad; he took money from the bank again without telling Mom." Manuel heard that his wife sighed again.

He didn't answer; he knew that. He felt guilty when he was with Leah.

Leah took both of his hands. "We also need to prepare ourselves, because we are going to become parents." Leah stared at him intently.

His ears perked up at what he heard. "Are you pregnant?" he asked in disbelief, unable to believe what he had just heard.

She just weakly nodded and smiled at him. "Three months."

Manuel's joy knew no bounds when he found out that his wife was pregnant. When he found out she was pregnant, he forced himself to stay away from alcohol and women because he wanted to be a father to the child she was carrying.

To keep Angely quiet, and knowing that she is a friend of his wife, he gives her money.

"My wife is pregnant; I need to be a good father to the child she is carrying now." This was supposed to be their last meeting.

A few months, and now it's been seven months, and they found out that their child would be a girl.

Leah just lets her father take the money from the bank. 

Leah visited their mansion; her father was there.

"Your due date is approaching, isn't it?" Raymundo asked Leah, beaming with a smile at his wife.

She just nodded while holding her belly. 

"I know that's a boy; there will be another heir for the Santiagos." His father was still smiling.

"O—Our eldest is a girl." Leah replied.

"Woman? Firstborn?" he asked.

"Y—Yes, sir." Leah just smiled at his father.

His father looked at him with a meaningful gaze.

"The girl is unlucky if she's the eldest. Oh no, just abort that child."

"Dad," he said, and he shook his head.

His wife was scared back then, so they just went home, fearing his wife might get stressed. 

"I'm sorry to Dad, Leah." He could only say it to his wife. 

His father sent a package, and he immediately read the message from his father. He was threatened that his wife's life would be in danger if they didn't abort the child Leah was carrying; he was even sent an abortion pill back then.

He didn't want to choose, but he was afraid of their threats.

Forgive me, Leah, forgive me; I choose you to live. He could only say it in his mind.

That's why he added an abortion medicine to its drink. There are many drugs that can directly cause the fetus carried by Leah to be aborted. 

It was writhing in pain and bleeding heavily; it was asking for help from him. Instead of taking her to the hospital, he brought her to the basement of their home.

He just watched his wife suffer, crying, losing consciousness, until the entire baby came out of her womb.

His hand trembled at what he had witnessed; he cried out, asking why he had done that to his wife and child.

When Leah woke up, she almost went crazy from crying; she slapped him, something Leah had never done to him before. Even when he was caught cheating with her friend, his wife accepted him completely because she loved him.

Leah even begged him to take her back. Now, almost all of Leah's anger towards him was directed at him.

Leah carried the dead baby as she left their home. That was also a great pain in his heart. 

It's not my fault; it's not my fault. He could only say it in his mind.

A week later, Leah returned to file a case against him.

"I can still forgive you, Manuel, if you surrender to the police. You killed our child!" she said, tears welling up in her eyes. 

"I did that for you!" 

Leah slapped him with all her might, shaking her head in disbelief. Manuel was afraid of going to jail, so he punched Leah repeatedly until she lost consciousness.

He asked his father for help; he didn't want to go to jail, thinking of what help he could provide.

Leah was placed in the coffin, unable to speak. Angely was there. 

"Angely, we need to talk to Leah, not in this way." He was sobered by what he was about to do to his ex-wife.

Angely glared at him. "Calm down; if we back down, we'll be the ones buried there," she whispered to him.

He could clearly hear Leah's screams, begging to be taken out of the coffin. He wanted to help her. Manuel was ready to help Leah, but Angely was stopping him from doing it.

Afterward, he married Angely again, and Leah's parents could hardly believe what had happened. They were led to believe that she had left and would never return because she had gone off with another man.

His mind was filled with regret. He looked at the young girl who was worried about him. 

I will die carrying the burden of my conscience.