Divine Deception"One and Only"
The line between good and evil continues to blur beneath my feet like a treadmill. It might be at full speed, an illusion that I am moving at a great pace, but unfortunately I am going nowhere. Instead the line starts to disappear and its delimitation is no longer as clear as night and day. This is what my life has turned into: a hole, something I had hoped I would leave inside Vita. One I hoped that she would never be able to fill once my assignment was complete, yet here I am, digging deeper and deeper into the cold ground with little to do other than dig some more.
As I look at myself in the mirror, I try to justify the terrible things that I have done. I have broken a family apart, ripped a man from his wife and now I am engaged to him while Vita mourns the life of which she used to have. I no longer dip my toe into the darkness of evil. I've dived straight into it. I've dug myself into this hole so deep that I don't believe I will ever see light again. It leaves me with two and only two choices. I can either keep digging until I find light, the reason why I decided to participate in the mission to begin with. Or I keep digging until the place caves in. Whether it is made of lightness or darkness, good or evil, I must reap what I have sewn.
I head out to meet with the wedding planner. Nick can't make it. He's been busy at work the last few weeks since Snowflake Day, although he did say that he was never that good with decisions regarding decorations and whatnot. He said that it would be better without him anyway. While I disagreed, I didn't make a big deal about it. I am meeting with the wedding planner at The Wedding Place, but not for another few hours. I head over early so I can clear my head.
Clouds have rolled in and I know there is a storm on its way. To me, it seems fitting. It's been a little too quiet at the Alto residence and since Snowflake Day, I've been waiting for Vita's attack. Hurting her emotionally hasn't been exactly easy. Sure, she gets damaged, tears up a bit, but almost instantly she's over it. I know that all too well. That's what I do too. That means there is something bigger on its way if I can't crush her before she has the ability to strike. But I don't know what to do next. To be completely honest, everything that I have done I can't say has hurt her tremendously. Vita and Nick's marriage was on the rocks long before I arrived. Heck, I might even be able to say that me taking Nick away from her might have been a blessing in disguise. I need something that was never cracked to begin with. I need something Vita could only see as perfect from the very beginning...
The wedding planner never arrives even two hours after the time we scheduled so I leave. The clouds break apart and the sun starts to shine. I stop by Candi and Donna's house. Nick asked me to drop off the gift Candi "forgot" at the party. I don't think she forgot it by any means. She hated it, whatever she got, and she didn't want to take it with her. I didn't say such a thing, though. I press the doorbell instead. Nobody answers. Part of me is surprised, yet part of me is not. I would have expected them to be dancing tonight, not during the day. However, they probably go in whenever the cash is good. I still peek through the nearest window just to make sure.
Right then, the front door opens. I expect to see one of the girls, if not both, but when I look down, there a toddler crawls out and starts crawling away.
"Hey," I say to him as I pick him up. "Where are your parents?" He speaks in baby gibberish. I walk with him in my arms back to the door and knock a little harder this time. Still nobody answers, so I open the door and walk inside.
The place is deserted. From the faint scent of lavender perfume, I guess that Donna and/or Candi left just a little while ago. I pull out my cell phone and call them. Neither of them answers the numbers Nick gave me. I walk back outside and check the backyard to find it empty.
The young one starts to cry and a quiet him and pull him close. "It's okay," I whisper. I can't help but think of my own childhood and how abandoned I felt when my parents left me. I can still remember my mother crying the night she tucked me into bed. I didn't understand why that night. She said she was crying because she had been cutting onions. Being young, I believed her. I didn't think adults cried. I thought they were strong and crying was something a child grew out of. How wrong I was, and now I know why she was crying that night. That was the last time my family could be classified as whole. I would never see either of my parents again. That was the night my mother said goodbye forever.
A truck door snaps me out of my daze. I shake my head and notice a man with dark skin and black hair step out. "Hey, what are you doin' with my kid?"
My eyebrows raise. "He's yours?" I don't wait for him to answer. "I wouldn't have thought his father would leave him here alone." Before I can say anything else, the man yanks the child from my arms and stomps inside, slamming the door behind him. I stand there, baffled. I don't even know what I should do. Do I ignore it and go home? Do I call child services? Then a thought hits me and I know that it can solve both of my problems.
***
I hear Vita walk into the dining room around dinnertime. Grady's in the kitchen making our meal and Nick called earlier this evening to let everyone know that he would be working late. I listen to Vita's footsteps. They're quick but consistent, like she's determined to get somewhere. Until they come to an abrupt halt. I know exactly what it's about too. Surely she must have seen the photograph I had put up when I got home. My photo of Nick and I at the winter festival finally arrived. I had framed it the instant I could and put it in the sitting area outside Vita's room.
"What is this?" I hear Vita growl, her teeth chomping onto every word as if they are so bitter that they stick to her tongue.
I walk into the dining room. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"It seems these days when we see trash we call it art," Vita spews. She doesn't look at me. She stares at the photo as if ready to toss it at the wall. When she does glance over her shoulder to take a peek at me, she says, "You're all prettied up. Got somewhere to be? Moving out, possibly?"
"Actually, I have some news I wanted to share with you. I thought I would dress for the occasion."
Vita spins around to face me. "Well, the wedding isn't for a few weeks. Don't tell me I've missed the rehearsal dinner," she scoffs, walking over to the wet bar and pouring herself a drink. "Or did you finally come to your senses and realize that this arrangement between you and my husband is nothing more than a two dollar fling?"
Listening to Vita's arrogance expel from her lips takes me back. I hadn't realized that I've been able to get under her skin so well.
"No, Nick and I are doing very well, thank you."
Vita rolls her eyes and takes a swig from her drink.
"Well, it has to do with a few things. My bachelorette party is tomorrow night and I still haven't received your RSVP. Don't tell me it got lost in the mail," I joke.
"Nothing would please me more than to be there, Sadie, but I have more important things to do than drinking away my sorrows with a bunch of hussies."
"I won't be drinking anything," I say, letting her insult roll off my back. "Other than water, that is."
Vita looks at me questionably.
"I'm pregnant." I don't have enough time to relish the colour draining from Vita's face before the door to her bedroom opens.
"Mrs. Alto?" A pudgy woman with dark hair tied up at the back of her head comes into view. She has a baby bag slung over her shoulder and a few toys in her hands.
Vita turns to face her, finishing off her drink. "Yes?"
"My name is Linda Duran and I'm here on the behalf of Social Services. I'm sorry to report that your child is being taken away."
"What?"
"We were contacted by an anonymous caller reporting that you are unstable and unable to care for your child."
"This is ridiculous!" Vita argues. "I'm stable. Look around yourself!"
"I am." Linda glares at the empty glass in Vita's hand. "You have treated your child poorly and, unfortunately, we are going to take her away," Linda continues.
"You can't... You won't!" Vita's dropped her glass now and is following Linda as she makes her way to the front door.
I stand in the back watching. It's like a soap opera. A sad soap opera where I actually feel something other than hatred. I feel and that's a problem. It can and will be used as a weakness if handed to the wrong person. Tears sting the back of my eyes to the point where I have to turn away and wipe them.
I am the person who did this. I called them, had them brought here after telling them a long story about how Vita was mistreating her child. How Nick hasn't been around much because of work and how the child has been suffering.
Vita runs by me and straight into her room. She's not going to hide. She's there to see if Alicia actually has been taken away. Her crib is empty just like my parents' bedroom was when I went to wake them that morning many years ago. I am young again and I feel everything. The echoing of my blood running through my ears. The tension at the back of my throat with the urge to cry.
When I see Linda start her car up and drive off, I clear my throat, compose myself and return to the woman in front of me.
"You did this!" Vita screams at me. She's shaking and for the first time since I've known her, there is real devastation in her eyes. I've made a dent. Vita won't be able to crawl into her igloo and forget this all happened like she's done time and time again. No, this time, I have her in the palm of my hand, closing in on her.
"I'm sorry, Vita... truly."
"Why would you do such a horrible thing?"
I smirk inwardly at her. "I know you don't understand this, but there is room for one child in this house and one child only. Seeing as you can barely keep up on your own I thought it would be best to have her moved into a family with love bursting at its seams. I'm sure you can understand
that."
"You're a monster!"
Her words slap me hard across the face. "No, I'm your best friend, who has been there and will always be there for you when you need me most." I turn around and head back to the office as Vita bursts into tears. I don't look back. I can't bare to see her face or for her to see mine. I know I can't hide behind this mask of apathy any longer. I close the door and sit down.
My guilt grows as I listen to the wails coming from Vita in the other room. Her thrashing and glasses shattering once they come in contact with the ceramic floor. My guilty heart is a silent one and I can barely hear or feel its pulse. Tears stream down my face for I know how hard it is to be torn from a family member. Whether or not she was good at it, Vita was Alicia's mother and there is nothing that can change that. A mother's love is stronger than any other out there and no matter how hard she tries, Vita will never be able to forget this. The unfortunate part for me is that neither will I. I have dug myself too deep in the hole that I know for a fact there is no way out. I have gone the distance of pulling a child from her mother just like she had me and I will continue on with tomorrow as if nothing ever happened. While I haven't married into the family completely yet, I have transformed into an Alto, through and through.
