OUTBURSTS. IMMORAL RECEPTION

It comes to a certain point in life when you are too intoxicated with everything. That point when you can't even recognize who or what you are anymore. That point where everything and everyone sucks. That time when you can't even explain when or how things got this far. That point where you are certain that things will never be like before again.

That is where I am right now, I, Tessa Angeline! Damn! It slipped my mind that I now have something I never had - a surname! I'm now Tessa Angeline McCall!

I don't know what anyone in my shoes would choose to do in my situation, but I have chosen to end this toxic relationship between me and this woman who I call mother. She doesn't want me, and I don't need her either. It's not like any of us needed the other from the start anyway. Oh, wait, I know. She needed me to feed out her anger and frustrations on, and to be her breadwinner. But that is over now!

Call me bitchy. Call me stupid. Call me childish. Or an ungrateful witch like she calls me, anything, but I am so done with her. I coped with all her insults, I made peace with all her yelling, scolding and unreasonable beatings all my life. I understood all her shortcomings as a mother, because I knew nobody is perfect. But she never cared from the beginning.

I wasn't looking for perfection in her, no. I just wanted her to treat me like her own child. Like her only child that I am. But for twenty years now, I am far from earning her affection as her daughter. I have failed to be the daughter she probably wanted. Not only doesn't she care about me, but she despises me. I am like a devil to her. Why that is, I don't know and I don't care anymore. I am done!

I'm after nothing now but my own peace, and my peace is being as far away from her as possible. I am closing this chapter with her, and starting another one as Jerol's wife, thanks to my so thoughtful mother.

This thing she did to me just now surpasses every other crazy thing she has ever done, and I can't forgive her for this. I will always remember her with this last act of hers. After these five months, I will start another chapter all alone. At least, I will not need to be a hawker anymore. I will be filthy rich then, and I will have a comfortable and happy life.

"Shall we?" My husband asks, coming from the bathroom, dazzling like a diamond in his expensive three-piece navy blue suit.

If there is something I have noticed for these past two days I have been with him, it is that he is a troubled soul. I'm not a physician, but I have sailed in this boat all my life. I would recognize one right away when I spot it. It's there in his eyes.

He is doing his best at hiding it, but it's evident anyways. If not so, then he must be a temperamental devil. I don't know which is which, but I am a temporary wife after all, I shouldn't overstep the boundaries. I should mind my own business and not meddle in his. I will deal with my problems, and him his demons. As long as we don't crush, I am okay.

"Do you really have to come?" I ask him, just to make sure because I don't see the point of him accompanying me to my mother's house. That place is not for rich tycoons like him.

"I need to. You are my wife, remember? I have to accompany you everywhere, and the vice versa applies too."

"Why such charades? Trying to make someone jealous?" I ask, but I regret opening my mouth because of the outburst I receive as a response.

"Can you stop asking silly questions? We are wasting time unnecessarily. Let's go."

Whoa! What a temper! I said it. Maybe this is why women can't stay by his side, and he has to result in buying himself a fake one.

I grab the envelope on the bed and walk out without saying a word, but he catches up with me just two stairs away downstairs. He wraps his hand around my waist, and I don't dare say a thing.

We walk past the huge sitting room which equals a hall, with servants doing one or two things here and there. I haven't had my time to explore this house, one, because I was on bed rest, but I am glad since I can now walk slowly with ease. In two or three days, I will have my bandages removed, and I will be perfectly okay. The second reason is that I know this is temporary. I don't want to make memories here, or get attached to things around here.

Walking out of the door, he guides me and we walk to the black limousine waiting for us near the gate. He holds the door still for me to get in, and after slamming it shut after making sure I have settled in, he walks to the other side and settles in beside me.

Why the trouble, huh? He should have told to me to make some space for him instead of going through all that unnecessary trouble. All the same, the black tilted mirror separating us from the driver goes up, meaning it is just me and my husband at the back of this comfortable limousine. The rich really have a different lifestyle. Even the air they breathe is different from what people like us breathe.

The drive is silent. We are both lost in our own thoughts, me looking at the envelope I am carrying and thinking of how my mother is going to react, and this husband of mine here staring at nothing but space.

I steal a glance at him through the corner of my eyes.

Aside from his cold demeanor and not-so-bearable temper, he is the epitome of beauty. These cold bottomless orbs, I wonder what they would look like brimming with joy. They sure must be the most beautiful ones. These lips, I would love to see what form they take when they curve up in a smile, something I haven't seen in him. I doubt the word smile even exists in his dictionary.

"We are here, I suppose." He says, snapping me out of my short secret exploration of him. I look at how he opens the door on his side, and I do the same to mine. When did I ever ride in a private car? Tsk!

Stepping out, he walks to my side, locking my hand in his again, and we walk side by side towards the house.

As always, there are always people indoors every single time of the day. Seeing such an expensive car might have demonically called the attention of everyone, because now everybody is out, looking at us in bewilderment like we are aliens. I can see some murmuring to each other, and others their jaws are rolling on the sandy ground, their mouths will probably never be able to close again.

I can understand their shock and dismay, I myself feel like this is a dream, you know. I lost my shop and everything that kept me sane just two days ago. I was left with nothing. I almost lost my life too. But now, I am a totally different person.

Apart from having this rich tycoon as my husband, I have a whole fifty million lying in my bank. I have been checking through my phone almost every one hour since Jerol transferred the cash to my account, just to make sure it's still there. The anxiety it's giving me though, lol! I still can't believe it. Life is surely a total turn of events. Today you are poor, tomorrow you might wake up rich. Don't call it a mockery or an expensive joke. I am a walking testimony.

Don't criticize people because of who they are today.

I knock lightly on what used to be my house, and wait for the owner to open. This isn't my house anymore. This is the last time I am setting my feet in it. This house and everything in it, we are paying ways today. Funny how I don't feel any emotion even after the decision I have made. It's like I never belonged here, presumably because my existence was never valued at all. I will never miss this misery of a home.

I push the door slowly, since no one seems to bother to get it.

I hope she was decent enough not to keep a man in this house up to this hour, because Jerol notified her that we will be coming today. The embarrassment will be too much.

I open the door, and since Jerol does not show any sign of waiting for me outside, we walk in together, to the suffocating scene of my mother chewing a man's lips on the pathetic loose and torn couch. It's even producing some screeching sounds as her butt is grinding the man's thighs. Oh, well, I guess I was too late to make a wish.

Isn't this one of the uses of a bedroom which is just two strands away from where they are fornicating at? Jeez! I mean, gosh!

She stops, after noticing our arrival, and smiles at Jerol as she hovers off the man, straightening her dress. The word shame has never been in her vocabulary ever.

I should bow down with shame because of what greeted Jerol the first time I bring him to my house, but I keep my head high, and a straight face. If there is one thing I am ashamed of, it is being called this immoral woman's daughter, and since I can't change that, I will not beat myself over it. It doesn't matter where one comes from, but what matters is what we become without having to be defined by the people we grew up with or the places we grew up in. This despicable woman here is not going to define who I am or who I will become, and whoever wants to judge me because she can go to hell for all I care.

It's said that you should not judge a book by its cover, and I believe in that saying. Fuck the one that says that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I have nothing in common with this woman. I am nothing like her, and I will never be.

"Hi, son-in-law! I hope you brought good news. Have a seat please." She opens her stinky mouth.

See her hatred? She doesn't care about me. She does not even care to hide it. No greetings, no welcome, no how have you been, no nothing! What a great mother, right?

"Nobody is sitting down!" I burst out, because I can sense Jerol's discomfort, and also because I don't intend to stay here for more than ten minutes. I hate the choking stinking smell of immorality in this room. "I just came down here to give you your hard-earned share of the deal, and ask you just one thing." She moves her gaze to me, and I look her in the eyes. I have never confronted her before.

Never have I ever questioned her. Never did I dare talk back at her neither raise my voice at her. Despite all the wrongs she did to me, I was always a respectful child. Honor thy mother and father, right, they say? I followed that to the letter, but it all ends now, because life has taught me that respect is earned, and if you can not respect yourself, then no one ever will respect you. This woman here has never even tried to earn that respect. How can she, if she doesn't even respect herself?

"I hope you were not greedy enough to take out even a single cent from it, Angeline. I hope you brought the full amount that we agreed upon." She fires.

"First tell me, mother. What do you deserve? What do you think you deserve for being a parent, a mother to be precise, huh? An award?"

"Watch your tongue, young lady! Just because your husband is here with you does not give you the right to disrespect me. I am still your mother!"

Mother my foot! If only she knows the meaning of being just a parent not to talk of a mother!