The Betrayal

~Merina Pov~

I stepped inside the house, the envelope clutched so tightly in my hand that its corners pierced through my palm.

My breaths came out shallow and quick.

My mood was so low that even now I could not force a false smile; the weight of the diagnosis felt like a stone pressed against my chest. I was so afraid.

I had replayed this moment in my head a thousand times of how I would ask-how maybe, just maybe- they would care enough to help save me. But they would, wouldn't they? It's just a little money right? I had made more than that for this family.

The low hum of laughter came from the living room—so warm, so carefree that I had to stop walking.

I frowned. "Are we celebrating something?" I muttered to myself. The house had that kind of happiness a few times over the past years, though it had not let me in. Stepping inside, what I saw with my eyes made my breath rub right out of my chest. Never was I ever that shocked in my entire life. I really did, during that instance feel quite horrible, and now my head starts feeling like a balloon ready to just—explode.

There was Sofia with her perfect hair and perfect smile, sitting on the arm of the chair. Beside her sat Liam—my Liam, my boyfriend. His arm casually slung over her shoulders, as if it belonged there.

My father leaned back in his chair and that stern face of his eased into a very rare smile, one he never reserved for me. While my stepmother leaned onto him, then leaning in to whisper in his ear something that made him laugh.

I blinked. My eyesight was dimmed. "What's happening?" My voice was tiny, trembling, nearly inaudible over the chorus of their laughter.

Four pairs of eyes faced me. Their smiles didn't slip, if anything they appeared more amused.

Sofia's lips curled into a sweet, pitying smile. She rose and walked toward me. "Oh, Merina," she said, her voice oozing with false concern. "I didn't want you to find out like this."

"Find out what?" I asked, my voice cracking as I tried to steady myself.

Sofie turned, looking at Liam, and he squeezed her hand reassuringly before she turned back to me, a small smirk on her lips. "Liam and I are getting married."

For a moment, I thought I misheard. She couldn't be talking about my Liam, about the man I loved, about the man I'd taken as my last shred of hope in this cold world.

"What do you mean?" I whispered as my heart started hammering in my chest. "Liam's my boyfriend," I said. I won't believe anything she said!

"Was your boyfriend," Sofia said, her voice as light as if she were correcting some trifling error.

"But Liam and I… Well, we've always been in love. Since high school, actually. I only told him to date you because you had a crush on him, and… well…I felt sorry for you."

I stared at her, the room tilting around me. "Sorry for me?"

"Yes," she said as if it were just right. "You've always been so… delicate. And you're ill, Merina. You're hardly girlfriend material, are you?"

I let her jab at my disease slide as I looked at Liam, my breathing catching in my throat. "Is this true?" I asked, shaking.

"Say No, just Say No!" I whispered over and over, but I was just meant to be disappointed.

He shrugged indifferently. "Sofia is right. You're…too much. You're always needy, always sad. I need someone who would help me advance in life rather than weigh me down.

What do you have that you can show for yourself, huh? Are you going to offer me your life? What if you fall dead someday? I don't want to be an impending widower!" He said.

It was as if someone had taken a knife and driven it straight into my chest. I turned to my father and was expecting, hoping he would say something or anything to take the shattering from me.

"Let it go, Merina," he said, his voice cold and dismissive. "You're not well enough to be worrying about this sort of thing anyway. Focus on your health."

"Focus on my health?" I repeated, my voice rising. "You knew about this? And you let it happen?"

"Stop being dramatic," my stepmother snapped, her voice shrill with irritation. "Liam needs a girl who can really be there for him. You should just feel lucky Sofia always kept an eye out for you."

"Lucky?" I whispered, my voice cracking. My hands were shaking as the tears ran hot and unstoppable down my face.

"Why don't you just leave?" Sofia spat, her voice full of distaste. "You're only making this harder for everyone. We've moved on. You should too."

I wanted to scream, to rip the room apart, to make them feel even a little of the pain they were giving me. But I stuffed it all down my throat and clutched the envelope tight as I remembered why I was really there.

I turned to face him, then swallowed hard. "I need money," I said, forcing my voice to steady. "Five million."

The room was silent for a beat. My father's eyebrows furrowed in incredulity. "What?"

"It's for treatment," I said, desperation lacing each word. "Please. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't urgent."

"Five million?" Sofia snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "For what? Your condition is not that bad. Can't medication control it? Or have you been lying, trying to manipulate us?"

Her words slapped, but my stepmother was nodding her head up and down in agreement with her. "She is right, Merina. You're always so demanding, aren't you? Maybe it's time you learn to take care of yourself now."

I felt the earth give way underneath me. My family, the people who should have loved and protected me, were now disowning me right when I needed them most.

"I'm dying," I whispered almost silently. So shaken was my voice that I'm not even sure if they heard me when I said, "Don't you understand? I'm dying.".

"Enough!" Sofia barked, eyes narrowing.

"Then why are you still here, Merina? Why are you even alive? You're just wasting space."

Her words rang in my mind, and something inside me snapped. The tears stopped in their place. Then a numb, icy calm spread through my body. I turned to my father, to my stepmother, Sofia, and all of a sudden, I saw them not as my family but as strangers who had taken everything from me.

"You've forgotten," I said, my voice ice-cold and surprisingly calm. "The promises you made to my mother. How much she gave up for this family, for you.” I ignored my dad after my words.

“And you" I turned to Sofia, my words like a blade sharp enough to cut "your life, all your success and those songs—it's all on account of me. You're all ingrates. You know you are."

My father's face toughened. "Shut your trap, Merina.

"Why? Ashamed? Why should I shut up?! Haha! You are shameless!"

I smiled wryly then, my lips trembling with restrained anger. "Never mind, alright?" I said, and abruptly, my voice cracked into piteous laughter. "Now I see. I do…."

I turned and began to walk toward the door, my movements slow and deliberate, like a puppet. I had reached the door when Sofia's voice called after me, sharp and venomous: "Why are you still alive, Merina? Die already."

Those words hit like a final blow. I swayed just a little but kept on walking, blinded by tears as I stepped out of the door into the cold night.

"Bang!" The door slammed shut behind me, the sound like the final cut-off.

And just like that, the last spark of hope inside of me was gone.