Chapter 5. You Lost What?

Vanessa's POV

My days started pretty early with my brother, Victor, waking me from my sleep. "Vanessa, aren't you going to work today?" he asked, his voice tinged with concern. I rubbed my eyes and tried to shake off the remnants of sleep. He was wearing an apron and I could perceive burnt food in the air. Did he cook? I asked myself and wondered why he went to the kitchen again as I remembered, he was an awful cook.

Seeing his stern look, I realized that he asked a question earlier. "Work? I lost-" My tongue slipped, almost revealing my secret. Panic surged through me, and I quickly recovered, "I mean, I'm on off."

Victor raised an eyebrow, giving me a suspicious look. "You lost what?"

"N-nothing," I stammered, my heart racing. "I mean, I didn't say lost. I said I'm on off." I corrected.

He stared at me for a moment longer before letting out a sigh. "You're getting so many days off recently. Did you do something wrong?"

I swallowed hard, my mind racing to come up with a plausible explanation. "Why would I?" I replied, trying to sound casual.

Victor crossed his arms, giving me a scrutinizing look. "It's unlike you to not go to any of your jobs in the last few days. How did you manage to align your days off together?"

My heart sank. The bad news is that I had lost my second job at the nightclub after my stint at Taylor's, and finding new employment had been a string of failures.

I managed to avoid further questioning and retreated to my bed and covering myself with the blanket with my eyes distant, feeling a mix of relief and guilt. I had to be more careful if I wanted to keep my little secret from Victor.

"What are you thinking, Vanessa? You didn't answer my question." Victor said.

"Question? What question?" I mumbled.

"I said how'd you manage to align your days off together?"

"I've been working extra shifts, you know, to accumulate off days. Just trying to rest for a bit," I replied, my voice tinged with a hint of frustration.

Victor's suspicion seemed to lessen, and he shrugged. "Well, okay. Just making sure everything's okay."

"Go outside Victor, please don't disturb me," I said, covering my whole form with the blanket this time and preparing to go back to sleep as he left the room which gave me relief for a while until his sharp knock graced the door, and informed me that my mother wanted to see me.

I groaned internally. I wasn't in the mood to deal with anything right now. I am stuck in my head thinking of possible options I could do to get money. We needed it for survival. 

"Tell her I'll come to see her later," I replied, hoping to buy myself more time to sort through my thoughts and emotions.

"It's important, Vanessa. She wants to talk to you," Victor insisted.

With a resigned sigh, I got out of bed and made my way to my mother's room. She looked frail, lying in bed with a tired smile on her face. "Come closer, my baby," she beckoned the moment she noticed my presence.

I approached her bed, my heart heavy with sadness and my limbs weighed down by helplessness "I'm sorry for putting so much pressure on you over the last few years, Vanessa." She started,

"I must have forgotten how much it weighed down on you. It's all my fault, everything."

I exchanged a confused glance with Victor, who stood by the door, equally perplexed. "W-what are you talking about, Mom?" I asked, trying to find a meaning to her every expression.

"Which is why I want you to stop." She said and for the first few minutes, I still didn't understand what she meant.

"Stop?" I asked back.

She turned to my brother, and then to me, "Victor, you're thirty-two and your sister is twenty-three, it's time for you to think about yourselves, and make sure to achieve. I've made you both accumulate debts that you would spend your lifetime paying back, yet you're still paying for my treatment." She inhaled deeply, "It's not working. The surgeries, the medication, they are not making me better, why not let me die after knowing my children are doing well?"

"Mom, don't speak about death," I said with watery eyes, wiping the existing tears from my eyes. "I'm not complaining, the doctor said you'll get better in time, don't lose hope. Victor, tell her not to worry, you'll find a job soon, right?" I said, turning to him to get a nod from him. He was willing to work but hasn't found a good job yet. She didn't have to bother herself with these things, just about getting better.

She looked at my brother too and let out a shaky breath. "Victor got into trouble in the first place and ended up in jail because of me. I've burdened both of you with my health issues and financial struggles."

I went close to her bed where she lay almost helplessly. "Don't say that mother, we love you and will do anything for you. I'm not complaining about taking care of you, I would never."

"Vanessa, Victor, it's time for you to think about yourselves. You're both young adults with your whole lives ahead of you. I've burdened you enough. Why not let me find peace,"

I blinked back tears, struggling to comprehend her words. "Mom, you're not making any sense. We want to take care of you."

Her grip on my hand tightened. "I know you do, my dear. But I've come to realize that the treatments, the surgeries—they're not making me better. I've seen the toll it's taking on both of you. It's time for you to let go and live your own lives."

My heart ached as I tried to process what she was saying. My mother's words were like a bittersweet symphony, a melody of love and sacrifice that resonated deep within me.

"Mom, please don't talk like this," I pleaded, my voice quivering. "You're going to get better. The doctors said—" I tried to remind her again if she at least gained any hope.

She gently shushed me. "I've made my decision, Vanessa. I want you to promise me that you'll take care of yourselves, that you'll find happiness and chase your dreams. You wanted to own a restaurant, go become a chef right?" 

Did I? I had forgotten most of my dreams while trying to focus solely on the real world.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I leaned down and hugged her frail form. "Mom, I'm fine. Please don't do that to us, I can't imagine a life without you."

She stroked my hair lovingly. "My sweet child, life goes on. And I want you to embrace it with all your heart."

After crying all our hearts out, I managed to console her and give her a bit more courage to continue living, she can't die just yet, I wanted her to see me succeed even though I had no idea what I could do to succeed.

My family background was nothing to write about. I was the girl who never saw her father, although Victor knew what he looked like as he was at least ten years when my father left, but no one ever talks about him. My education is worse, I managed to finish high school in a public school and that was all, ever since then, I've been working my ass off endlessly.

I folded all the fresh clothes, organizing them in my bags as I thought of what my mother said earlier about letting her die. No, she cannot! I wouldn't let her die, I'll make sure to struggle as hard as I can to ensure she wins against this sickness.

My mind flashed through the event of three days ago with that narcissist. I shook the thought off with a shrug. "Gosh, I hope I never see him." And then I remembered that along with my boring life, I had no phone anymore as he took it with him. As much as I loved my half-broken phone, I should let it go if it means I never get to see that troublesome Jerk again. My eyes quickly went to the wall clock, the time told 3:00, Claire should be back from work at this time. 

Claire has been the closest person to me after my family, we finished high school together and planned our dreams together but life prepared something else for the both of us. I did part-time jobs of cleaning and serving to earn money while she was a lingerie waitress whose nightly pay surpassed all my weekly wages because of the nature of her job.

Like me, she didn't have a stable family, her father was a drunk who took out his anger on the family whenever he was broke, especially her two brothers so she made sure to send money every week so that he wouldn't beat his wife and other children out of frustration. More like paying him to let them be.

I finish up quickly and ran off to Claire's and after almost giving up from knocking at the door for so long, she appeared in front of the door, lazy and sleepy with shabby hair.

"V-Vanessa, you're here? Hmm," She asked in between a yawn. 

"You're still asleep at this time?" I asked and pass through the flimsy space between her body and the door to the room.

"Last night wasn't an easy one. We had a lot of customers. I didn't sleep the whole night." She replied. My eyes scroll around the messed-up room with clothes and lingeries scattered everywhere.

"What happened to your house?" I asked Claire who started to pick up a few things from the floor. "I've been so busy that I couldn't arrange anything. It's a great thing you're here, please assist me, Vanessa..." She pleaded, seeing I gave no reply, she pouted her lips, making a cute babyface with pitiful eyes.

"You'll help me? Thank you!" She said excitedly without waiting for my reply. She went ahead to pick up more clothes, dumping them in my hands, "Give me a minute, I'll get the wardrobe ready." She said and ran off. We spent over an hour arranging the whole room and both became exhausted I crashed onto the well-arranged bed and she followed suit.

I stared at the turning blades on the fan for a moment before telling her my reasons for coming.

"I need your help, Claire. I lost my job." I revealed quickly.

"What the? Since when?"

"On Tuesday," I said, biting my lower lips, knowing she'd freak out because technically, her influence got me the Job.

"Madam Taylor asked me not to come back." 

She sat up straight, pouting her lips, "Now, come here babe," she said, opening her arms to me which I didn't fail to embrace. Surprisingly she didn't freak out. She pat my hair which gave me a sense of comfort. I had someone I could rely upon my problems to. My best friend. Claire Toddler.

"It's alright baby, it's their loss. You can continue the cleaning job at the nightclub until you find yourself another better job, right?" She asked without knowing I had lost that one too. I didn't lose the nightclub job because of my character, I swear. It just happened to be bad luck which rubbed off from meeting that jerk.

"I lost my job at Taylor's because some crazy customer who happens to be her son made me a fake proposal just to prove his point on how all women are the same and embarrassed me real bad."

"Huh?" She asked, probably not understanding a thing I said. I took my time to explain the whole details of what happened at the restaurant to her. 

"I want to tell you something, please don't freak out," I begged as I moved an inch closer to her.

"What more did you do other than lose your job, Vanessa?" She asked.

I took a deep breath, not knowing where to start for a minute. "Ok, do you know the guy I told you about?"

"What about him?"

"I threw his ring away," I said in between a sigh, "And as if that wasn't enough, he turned out to be the same person who splashed water on me, and so I-I, I broke his car," I said with a squeaky voice, fidgeting my fingers on my dress.

She screamed instantly with widened eyes, covering her mouth with her hands.

"What did you do, Vanessa???!"

"I know right?" I exhaled deeply, "I just wish I could go back to that day and change my actions. If I took the day off, I would've never met him."

"What type of car did you break? what did he say? Did he look rich or average?" She bombarded me with questions.

"I don't know the name of the car, but it looked some sort of fancy, and he did look scary. He promised to find me. I'm not so scared of him but I hope we never meet."

Claire interrupted me, her voice filled with concern. "Vanessa, this guy sounds dangerous. You need to be careful and take precautions. I've seen men like this at the club, things don't end well with them."

I sighed, feeling a mix of fear and frustration. "I have more problems in my life than getting scared of someone I probably would never meet again. He took my phone with him, that should settle."

She chuckled, "You're just so clueless, do you know the weight of your offense? You broke someone's car for f**k sake."

She brought out her phone in front of me, suggesting we identify the car I had damaged.

"Describe what you know about this car, perhaps we can check the product and the price and know if you're going to jail pretty soon or not."

After moments of scrolling the internet, I eventually found a yellow car that matched the description in my mind.

"$400,000!" 

"$400,000!" We both screamed at the same price tag.

Panic and doubt gnawed at me. "This can't be right, Claire. It resembled the car, but this expensive?"