Chapter 100: I Am Not The Part Of The Family
The young Cathryn was joyful regardless, she hopped to the refrigerator outside the convenience store and scrutinized the ice-creams. Grandpa had a bit of a limp and was holding a magazine above his head, trying to walk after the girl.
She didn't move or complain about him but stood in the sun and waited. From time to time, she looked back and told him to hurry.
When she looked again, she noticed a black business car shining in the sun. The window was coated with black film, and she couldn't see the inside but a 10-year-old girl staring with her hair loosely tied up, her face ruddy and sweating, and her bangs snarly. She walked closer to fix her hair.
But just one step forward, she found the window opened with a small gap. There was half a face covered by sunglasses.
And behind that was another face. He was taller than the front guy, and she could see his mouth. His chin was clean and tender, it was a very young man.
The sunglassed man in front was threatening him with a wicked face, and the young lips behind him were muttering silently and carefully repeating the shape of a word:
Help!
Cathryn was so scared and couldn't move. She saw the guy in front say something and close the window, and she heard a distant muffled sound of human flesh. She was completely still until his grandfather came over. She instantly felt relieved, grabbed his hand, and whispered that there was someone calling for help in the car.
As soon as Grandpa heard it, he picked up the girl and ran. Cathryn was so scared, but no sooner did they hear messy footsteps behind them.
That fear of being chased could still freak her out today. The sound of footsteps was cluttered like knives striking her heart. She buried her head in the shoulders of her grandfather and was crying desperately.
Grandpa was not swift and couldn't outrun a strong man behind him. The nightmare only started when they were caught up.
There was only one guy chasing, holding a bright fruit knife and slashing at the old man. Cathryn was guarded underneath in her grandfather's arms, listening to the sound of a knife going in and out of the flesh, feeling the goosebumps mixed with her crying like the world was collapsing right on top of her.
Her grandfather was holding her as tight as he could but still yelling in his mouth, begging. But neither the hand nor the knife stopped, and the blood sprayed over the girl's face. Cathryn's eyes were wide open, and all she could see was red.
During the nightmare, she didn't know after how long, her grandfather's voice stopped, and his breath went weak. But his arms were still tightly held to prevent her from any hurt.
The man, however, did not stop. He was forced to open his arms, and Cathryn rolled out like a freed cocoon. She was all wet and sticky, her nose was filled with blood and fanning heavily. She was all bloody and staring in blankness at the man in front of her.
After so many years, that face still appeared in her dreams and was her most lingering nightmare.
There was blood on his face, too. It was blocking his eyes, and she remembered him wiping with a hand. He wiped it all over his face, and it was extremely terrifying. His mad red eyes stared back at her, and he did not hesitate, raising the armed hand. When the knife was about to get her, a shout came from the open car door not so far away that there were people coming. The man looked back and ran with the knife.
The car rushed away as Cathryn looked up at the license plate and went to the grandfather, crying and screaming. There were people coming that were attracted by the noise and called the police and ambulance, and the old man was sent to the hospital.
Mobile phones were not popular at that time, not to mention for an elder retirees. At the hospital, the police asked Cathryn for contact information. She was still in shock and trembled with a plate number. She finally understood what the phone number was and gave the number to her mother's office.
10-year-old Cathryn was covered in blood, alone and helpless. She kept herself alert from passing out, sitting in the corridor outside the emergency room and waiting for her Grandpa.
The fear was spread all over her body, and she was quivering while the sultriness had made her squishy as if she had just struggled out of a blood swamp.
"Actually, my grandfather could have lived," Tears ran down her face again, like blood dyeing her temples. "He had lost a lot of blood, yes, but he had a rare CISO blood type which the blood bank didn't have enough."
"This blood type is very hereditary, though. My mother, my aunts, and uncle, Stella, and Dexter, all have the same..." Cathryn paused, her lips lost their color, and she began to shiver.
"But I am not..." She smiled dryly, and her tears dropped. "I am not CISO blood."
Keith's eyes were blown.
"I learned it too, that day, that I have no blood relationship with this family."
****
Victoria had an amniotic fluid embolism when giving birth. She almost lost her life, and before she could come out of the emergency room, however, the child was dead. Clement Riley contacted a friend who was a doctor in the OB/GYN and replaced Victoria's baby with an abandoned child born on the same day. This child was then named Cathryn Riley.
This secret, except Clement and the obstetrician at the time, was known to no one. Even Victoria and all their relatives were kept in the dark.
Victoria had a difficult physical state to conceive, and even though she did, it was hard for her to bring it to full term. In order to keep this child, she had spent her last three months of pregnancy in the hospital. The child, who took all her heart and soul to care, died two hours old of respiratory failure.
If she knew this, it would be devastating to her and leave her depressed. Distressed and worrying for his wife, Clement buried this secret in his heart for ten years.