Fifty-Five

Clara Addas





I can't speak.
A lump has formed in my throat
The girl in the mirror meets my eyes again, hers are tender. She smiles.
"Your secrets are safe with me. Let it all out."
I'm finally able to speak, though my voice is faint. "Daniel is quite gullible, he believes everything I tell him. When we were kids he'd have nightmares about this interracial couple who were constantly fighting and the men would always climb over the balcony.
I found out about these bizarre dreams through the pages of his diary . Why anyone would keep a diary in the house is beyond me. I've always been a storyteller and it was just so simple to feed him the lie: You were illegally adopted. The reason you and Papa don't get along is because he secretly loathes you. You aren't his biological child. You're having these nightmares because you blocked out the incidents, but your subconscious tries to remind you.
It's called gaslighting. And Daniel fell for it.
Daniel and I are twins.
He's my biological brother.
Papa showed me a picture of my grandmother once. She was really white skinned. Papa said Daniel took that from her. Daniel's never seen the photo. I made sure of it. Burned it to ashes.
So again, my mother was right about me priming Daniel to hate our parents. Not that I wanted him to hate them but I find people are much more willing to betray friends but its not so easy when it comes to family. He thinks he's doing this for a good course. He's just a pawn in my agendas.
The primary reason I killed my father is simple. They do say money is the root of all evil. It was for money but not in the way you might think. You see, a year ago I found out my father was going to divorce my mother and (shocker) build a life with Dr. Jones. I wouldn't allow that.
Since everything: the house, cars, money, furnishings basically everything is his, the Islamic laws allowed him to leave his wife with practically nothing and what would become of Daniel and me?
When Dr. Jones started showing, I knew my mother had to... Disappear. You can't really divorce a ghost. My father was going to leave our family for another life with Dr. Jones and the child she was carrying.
I didn't know then she was my half-sister. It was quite easy once her mother started taking her to daycare for me to sneak in and get a hair sample. It was confirmed. She's my sister. Lulu Barika almost got caught trying to bribe a friend in the lab. But that's not important. The important thing is... I have a half sister. How easy it would've been for Papa to forget us, Daniel, Lulu Barika and me.
Yes. Lulu Barika is my older sister. Ten years older and she's a receptionist at the psychiatric ward. She makes sure Mama's stay is as comfortable as possible with minimal 'happy' pills. She gives her PCP once or twice a month so that Mama will hallucinate and try to commit suicide.
So it's back to why Mama had to be locked away. Simple really. She knew about the affair. The bastard kid. The divorce. And she was going to accept the half a million out of court settlement. What could one do with half a million? Certainly can't afford our current lifestyle.
The house's upkeep is like a hundred thousand each year. Daniel and I's tuition totals forty thousand each for a year. The clothes, overseas trips, well its safe to say my family spends five hundred thousand in four months.
The only way to make sure we kept the twenty million estate was for my father to die. Sorry Papa. He brought this upon himself.
Mama was just happy to escape an abusive marriage, and so was I, no really but I didn't come to this world to live a middle income life. Where I'd have to mind my spending, worry about the pricetags, eat at mediocre restaurants. I was born into the millionaire life. Can't now expect me to adapt. Call me a snob. Who cares. If love (as people like to claim) was all people need to be happy, the world at large wouldn't be trying so damn hard to escape poverty and middle-income statuses.
At least I'm being honest. Honesty rubs people up the wrong way but not Lulu Barika. She has my viewpoint. Mama deserved at least half of Papa's net worth. She gave up her life to build the one she now has with him. She endured years of emotional and physical abuse. Bore him children. Three beautiful kids. Kept the bed warm while he nurtured his cents into millions. She contributed to his success. Now that he was successful he had the nerve to want to go spend Mama's hard work with another woman? Hell no.
Daniel can never find out that Papa didn't lay a hand on him. That Mama is in there because she wasn't going to contest the divorce.
Daniel believes he was physically abused. Fine. Does more good than harm.
I'm actually happy it ended this way. With my mother locked away. Personally I think Mama was just being a bitch. For years she suffered abuse, never called the cops. She was only thinking about herself when she agreed to the settlement. How was she going to support Daniel, Lulu Barika and me?
She said she'd get a job. Doing what? South Africa's job market is crazy right now. She wouldn't have found any decent job and we'd have to go grovel to Papa and his new wife. I don't grovel. Clara never asks. She takes.
Another reason is that they were so willing to break up our picture perfect family. Think about it: my father married to another woman, my mother broke, Daniel and I attending a government school. Oh my.
Now on to the second murder.
Ever heard the saying : (insert name) was in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Well, for Wendy Sherman, that's the case as cliché as it might sound.