Chapter 33

Raya’s POV

I closed my eye in expectation of its venom on my body. I understood clearly what was meant by life flashing before one’s eye. I saw myself in my earliest memories competing with my mother for my father’s affection.

I remembered my first crush, a boy within the same neighborhood, I used to write love letters addressed to him that I never sent; I remembered travelling with my parents and looking out the window of our modest carriage while my father pointed out things to me; I remembered learning to read and write from my mother who had been a governess before she had married my father and so there had not been a need for me to attend school.

The painful memories also played in my mind; my mother’s death; her best friend turning her back on us after Mother had passed away; the gradual wasting away of my father; the false murder accusation against him and his eventual execution; the feeling of helplessness at having to take care of myself and sister