THE UNFORGIVEABLE ACT

THE UNFORGIVABLE ACT

“Happy birthday, our prince,” my dad said for the 1000th time today. I smiled brightly. My parents and I were coming back from celebrating my 13th birthday at my dad's newly opened hotel.

"Afonso, my prince, when you get to 23 years old, which will be 10 years from now, you will take over Dad’s hotel,” my mom said.

“Really!! Mom? That big hotel is mine,” I said happily.

“Your dad already registered you and your little sister’s name there, Afonso Junior,” she said, smiling. My mom was heavily pregnant; we just had a month to welcome my little sister after 13 years of my parents waiting for a child.

“I love you, Daddy and Mommy; I promised to always be the best to my sister,” I said, smiling.

Suddenly, a car was coming in our direction at a very high speed. The car was driving directly toward us. My dad suddenly took the left turn, and Mom was holding me tightly to herself, but the approaching car took the left turn and crashed into us. I was screaming in fear when my mom smiled at me as she held me tight and slowly closed her eyes. I couldn't talk or scream; I felt like my voice was gone. A man came out of the car that crashed into us; he was holding his neck. He approached us and stared at my dad. I shot my eyes out of fear; he brought out his phone, and his hands were trembling. I believe he was dead drunk.

"Hello, Mom,” he said, but I couldn't hear who was at the other end of the phone.

“I just had a little accident, and these people crashed into my car, and they are not moving. I think they are dead; they have a child here.” He said this, shifted his phone from his ears, and shut his eyes like he was being screamed out on the phone. After he was done, he said something that caught my attention.

“Just tomorrow for me to be appointed as chairman, then this little trouble comes knocking; I can't just have fun without trouble.”

He said this and kicked his car tyres angrily. After some time, as I was about to go to sleep, I heard sirens, and I smiled and said, “My parents are saved.”

*******************************

I opened my eyes little by little. I looked around me; I was in a hospital bed. I could see people staring at me; the only person I could recognize was the man who hit our car. Fear gripped me the way he was staring at me like he wanted to strangle me. I thought to myself, “Why is he here instead of the police station?”. The doctor came closer to me to inspect my eyes.

“Can you see me? he asked, and I nodded in response.

“What is your name?” he said, but I couldn't answer.

The doctor beckoned the man that hit my parents and an old lady standing with him; she has been staring at me with eyes filled with guilt and pity.

“Afonso can't talk, and he has lost his memories of 13 years of his life. He is like a child starting to store a new memory. But once he has overcome his shock, he will start talking again. The smoke from the fire affected his lungs so he needs to heal gently”. He said, and I thought to myself,

“But I can talk, and I remember everything; I just choose not to talk. Why will he say I can't remember? Why did he say I was in a fire? though my hands and legs were burnt which I don't know why, But I knew I wasn't in a fire. How did I get burnt marks?

My parent's picture was shown on the TV; they were talking about their accident.

“The new president of Martins Corporation, whose driver killed a man, his pregnant wife, and his son last month when he crashed into another car while driving home and was intoxicated from alcohol, was sentenced to life in prison this morning.” The lady on the TV said:

I stared at them. “But that's the man, not the one on TV,” I said to myself when the alleged picture of the man was displayed on the news.

But I am alive, why will they publish me as dead?

“Why are they mentioning Martins Corporation? What if our stock prices fall?” Martinz Junior said interrupting my thoughts.

“Can you just shut up?” Helena Martinz said. She moved closer to me and said, "Your name is Afonso Martinz, I am your stepmom” she said, faking a smile.

" Mom, Why are you bringing him into our house after his mother abandoned him? Why not send him to an orphanage home?" he said to his mother.

"Your father's will indicated his name, and you can't receive your inheritance without him being present" she answered her son faking a smile to me.

"It's just father's way to protect his bastard," he said with hatred writing all over his face

***********************

Their house was so beautiful, and it was a majestically built mansion with maids, cooks, and guards. That's how rich they are, so they can protect themselves from enemies, but they are also enemies of others. Their house was painted gold; they believed they were royals. Mrs. Helena Martinz took me to a well-furnished room. She assigned a maid to meet my needs and left.

After she left, a beautiful woman came to my room and stared at me. She was a beautiful woman with golden hair and blue eyes, which was very rare in Oniva. She stared at me with eyes filled with pity, and she left after staring. I was astonished by this rare and strange-looking lady. I followed her as she entered a room. I was peeping at her through the half-closed room door. She carried a baby from the crib and sat on her bed, sobbing bitterly. She lifted her head and looked at me. She hurriedly cleaned up her tears and smiled at me sadly. I found later that she was Martinz Junior's wife, who had just given birth to his daughter Kamilla.

Three months later

Kamilla was crawling to the stairs; she stopped and stared at me, smiling. She smiled at me, the only thing I could feel was anger in my heart.

“Why was she smiling at me? She shouldn't be happy while my little sister is dead,” I said to myself.

I looked at the CCTV location and remembered it was maintenance day. I gave her a little push down the stairs, She went tumbling down the stairs. I screamed to attract their attention, and everyone came running to the stairs with wide eyes, staring at Kamilla tumbling down the stairs. They stared at her in shock and looked at me with fear….