8 YEARS AGO
One hot afternoon, I returned home earlier than usual. My supposed dismissal is at 3 PM, and now it's still noon. Heavy tears are streaming down my face as I hold my knees, dripping with blood, along with the big scratch on my knee.
"Mary? Oh my gosh, honey, what happened?" my mother immediately rushed to me and pulled me.
"Mary, what happened to that? Does someone bullying you?" It's my dad, looking frustrated at the blood streaming down my knees. He immediately used his magior to heal it.
"Some kids at school told me I wasn't your daughter—that how could two powerful people have a daughter who doesn't even have a magior… I-I fought back, Mommy, but they just pushed me," I said, still crying.
My parents exchange glances.
"Shush, baby. Don't listen to them, okay? That's not true. You are our daughter… and you'll always be." My mother embraced me in her arms, calming me down.
"Mommy, I saw you on the news today—you and Daddy! You are so cool!" I exclaimed. I was sitting on my mother's lap, cherishing every second with her, telling her everything that happened in my day.
"Thank you, dear. You know your Mommy and I make sure to be cool because we know our little princess is so proud of us," Daddy said, pinching my cheeks.
"I want to be like you guys. But I don't have a magior. Why hasn't my ring arrived yet, Mommy? I'm already seven. Jad got his, and he's still six," I looked at my mother. "Will I ever become a hero, Mom? Will I become like you?" I said pouting.
"Someday, dear… but even if you don't have a ring, You can be a hero in your own way. The real magior doesn't come in any ring."
"You have a magior that no one in the world can take away."
My head tilted.
"Huh? What do you mean, Mommy?"
My mother smiled and tapped my right chest. "Right here, my love. The kindness and purity of your heart will be your magior. That's the strongest magior. Always remember that, honey, okay?"
Even if I didn't get it, even if I was still confused, I nodded as if I understood.
END.
Looking back at those memories, I wonder if my parents were heroes or actors. They made me believe. They managed to hide this for 15 damn years. It's so obvious, so understandable, but now that I'm holding it, I'm confused—as if this is something written in a foreign language.
"Mary… why is your name written on that death certificate?" Jad whispered in my ear, also confused about what is really happening.
"I don't know. I didn't even know my parents had a secret compartment. And I've lived my whole life in this place," I uttered.
Silence fell between us. I was still gripping the paper. Tired of the silence, I stormed out of the room and headed downstairs, Jad following behind me.
"Uncle Gregory, do you know anything about this?" I asked.
I handed the death certificate to my uncle. He took it—and to my surprise, he wasn't surprised.
"So you knew about that?"
"Where did you find this? I thought Cris had thrown this away," he said.
"You know about this? What is this?" I asked. My brain was spinning, and "confused" wasn't enough to describe it.
I looked at my uncle. For the first time, I couldn't read his expression. Was he shocked or something else? The frustration inside me snapped as I stared at him, unusually silent, as if for the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do.
"Fucking answer my damn question, Uncle Gregory!" I shouted, and before I realized it, tears were forming down my face.
"Dad, who is this person? Why does this have the same name as Mary?" Jad stepped in.
"I guess there is no secret that can be kept forever," Uncle Greg said, which made me even more furious—why can't he just say it?
"That is the death certificate of Mary Quinlan—daughter of Cris and Aries." He paused for a moment. "The real one."
My world seemed to stop at those three words.
"T-The real one? Then… what am I? W-who am I?" I said, my voice barely audible.
"The baby died a few days after it was born. Cris and Aries were devastated. They cremated the child, and they themselves buried it. But…"
I listened intently as Uncle spoke, yet it felt like I was hearing a foreign language I couldn't understand.
"But, like a miracle, you could say… On a rainy night after the burial, when we arrived home, there was a baby left at the doorstep. Cris and Aries, still in the midst of losing a child, did not hesitate to adopt it and named it after the dead child. She took care of it until she died, and now… that kid is standing right in front of me."
I felt like my world shattered into pieces. Hurt. Betrayal. Every emotion rushed through me in seconds.
"I thought I could keep this secret until death, just like Cris and Aries—but tsk, there's no such thing as forever, even for secrets," my uncle said, turning his back on us with no remorse.
"Dad, can't you at least have some sympathy?"
"Jad, my words will not ease the pain of betrayal her so-called parents have done to her."
I couldn't take another second of listening. Uncle Greg's words were still processing in my mind. I was trying to piece everything together, but it was breaking me from the inside.
I stood up and ran out of the house. I heard Jad calling my name, but my mind was too occupied to listen. My heart was too heavy to turn back. I wanted to disappear, to vanish entirely—maybe then this pain would go away.
I didn't know where to go. I just ran and ran with no sense of direction, letting my feet decide.
Until I stopped.
I looked around and realized I had gone too far—I had arrived at the cemetery. The same cemetery where my parents were buried. I walked toward them.
I looked at their tomb, and something inside me burst.
I shouted as loud as I could, trying to ease my mind through it. I cried and knelt in front of my so-called parents.
"Why…" my first word, as I looked down at them. "Why did you lie to me? Why did you let me live in the memory of your dead daughter?" I shouted and punched their tomb.
My knuckles bled, but it was nothing compared to the pain of betrayal—the lies they planted in my head all these years. For making me live as a different person. For lying to me. I am not who I thought I was.
All my life, I thought I was a princess living in a big house with a future already secured—but it turns out, this isn't mine. Even my own name isn't mine. It was borrowed from someone who's dead.
"How I wish you were still here. You know the wrath I want to let out right now. I am risking my life for people who are already gone. You think I will be grateful? No." I harshly wiped the tears from my face. "Because you never did that for me. You did that for your dead daughter—the one you've been reliving through me all these years!" I hit the tomb again.
I stared at it for a moment before collapsing. I cried heavily, tears streaming down my face. One hand clutched my chest—it felt tight, like my heart would burst from the pain. Questioning who I am, what I am.
This is not me. This is not my life. This is Mary's life—and unfortunately, that isn't me.
I have nothing in this world. My so-called parents made me live on behalf of their daughter, giving me the name of someone else, while my real parents left me on a doorstep like trash.
No one wanted me… No—
"Oh, she's here!"
"Mary! Oh thank God you're here—we were worried about you!" It's Micah. She immediately ran to me and hugged me.
I looked at the people who were here. Jad is here. RJ is here. These people…
"Goodness, Mary, don't disappear like that."
"Are you okay?" RJ spoke, looking at me with a blank expression.
I shrugged. That's the truth—I still couldn't understand it or make sense of it.
"Jad said you were crying when you left your house. We got worried something might happen to you, Mary."
"Do not… call me that name." I looked at her—at all of them. "That's the name of the person who died fifteen years ago. I am not Mary—never was."