Shatter.

“But, she is your daughter too!”

“I can’t do that, it will hurt her more when she knows the truth.”

“Still, we can’t keep this forever, sooner or later she would know about us and about 𝒉𝒆𝒓…”

The door was slightly ajar, enough for Helenina to hear the heated argument coming from inside. She halts her step, leaning on the wall as she eavesdropping the conversation── she somehow recognizes the voices.

It’s her father. It took her a few minutes to realize the voice inside the room belongs to her father and another woman, although she could only hear it faintly.

She was in utter shock, couldn’t believe what she heard. Did her father commit an affair and have a daughter with another woman?

Suddenly her knees felt weak, the missing puzzle about her father’s missing presence since last year and the reason why Helenina heard her mom crying almost every night in her room── It’s all clicking.

No wonder when her mom came into her room that night — one year ago — with her swollen eyes, comforting her and saying sorry to her without reasons.

Helenina could see a glimpse of hurt and sadness in her beloved mother’s eyes that night── it’s hurt to see her mother crying like that. That night really changed everything.

Somehow it made her realized, even if she tried her best; earn the first place, learn to be a great pianist, excel in both academic and non-academic, it’s useless.

She couldn’t bring her father back with that, she couldn’t heal her mother’s pain. Her family shattered into pieces and here she is, trying to put every piece back again.

Clinging to the only thing she has left with── memories.

It could be fixed, right? Right. She hopes so.

Helenina couldn’t hear all of this any longer, she felt sick to her stomach. Suddenly regretted why she didn’t go back home earlier, but here, in front of the art classroom with sheet music crumbled upon her hands and heart shattered into pieces.

Before they caught her, Helenina picked up her bag and stormed out while trying to hold herself from breaking into tears.

If her father ever let Helenina being in the same school as his daughter from that woman, she swears she will do anything to make them feel like living in hell.

Helenina despises them; the woman that stole her father and the daughter.

Silence.

Helenina drops her bag and sits down on the floor with her back against the door. She realizes that this the place she lived in for her entire childhood and until now, this place held so many memories.

It used to be her safe space filled with warmth and love.

Now, it’s all gone. She’s all alone there── head buried deep, the only sounds that can be heard is the muffled sobs coming from her.

Sobs of pain. Of loss. Of anger, even.

The sobs of a daughter who has lost her parents.