𝐔𝐍𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐈𝐑𝐂𝐔𝐌𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐒.

unforseen circumstances.

that is what they told me the day my mother’s body had been recovered from the forest just behind my house. she had been missing days prior to her finding and halfway through, I had already accepted the fact she was no longer with us. the police officer was a slightly older individual, he had a rugged beard that almost seemed overwhelming for the man considering how small his face looked from any angle.

”you seem surprisingly calm.” his accent was rough – almost incomprehensible if you weren’t listening properly. “did you guys find out who did it?” I replied. a small crack escaped my voice as I tried to hide it through a small cough. I had been holding my composure for the last week but knowing my mother would never walk these halls again and I would never hear her voice made things harder to control.

a deafening silence followed soon after I had asked that question and I already knew what that damned officer was going to say. Deep down I knew they didn’t give a damn for my mother – truly, they just wanted to write this as a cold case and leave it at that. I swallowed long and hard as my eyes scanned for any hints on his face, but the only thing I could pull out was his furrowed eyebrows and darting eyes that looked at anything but him.

just when I thought I wouldn’t get any answer from such an officer who can’t even look at a child in the eyes, his voice cut through the air and something in me wished he just ignored the question all together. “We know who did it, however we have no grounds to arrest him. 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧, well—“

”my father?” I managed to choke out as the world started ringing heavily around me. My throat felt heavy and my heart started to beat at an irregular rate that made my chest feel tight and knotted from the shock. I had known the relationship my parents had, they divorced not even a year prior to the incident but my father had obviously not taken a good hit out of it as his mistress left right after the papers were finalized saying she “couldn’t be some leftover he decided to pick up.”

my father was rich, an influential man that held many titles. of course, you would think with such power and money he’d be able to himself and his family even after such circumstances, however that poor excuse of a man left my mother with nothing but a dime to herself and her child from poverty that hung at every corner in their house. but to think, even that wasn’t enough for him, and he had to take her life too.

”your father,” he coughed, “as I was saying, hired a hitman to complete the job. The hitman did out himself in the interrogation room but there’s not enough evidence to pull up to make a proper arrest.” the officer averted his gaze because even he knew how inexcusable it sounded. My teeth gritted as my gaze lowered to the ground, how could they just let such a person just wander around freely? Has the justice system fallen so?

”you need to come clean to me, because I know you aren’t telling me the full truth here,” he bit his lower lip, “he 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 be arrested, a voiced confession is enough for any authority to raid a house and arrest the suspect even if there isn’t enough evidence. you guys just don’t want to do it because he’s a rich white man.”

the officers face expressed disdain as the kid continued to speak, a sigh escaped his lips as he grumbled something under his breath and turned his back to the child. “I don’t care what type of fantasy you come up with, truth is, your mother is dead and your father will continue to walk freely until we pile up enough evidence against him.” the man then walked out of the house and to his colleagues who were having a chat near the vehicle with coffee in their hands – they all seemed so carefree.

and from that day onward, the child was left with nothing but a picture to hold of his mother and the memories of her voice fluttering through the air ever-so-slightly.

______

#feature

image credit

teaser for nikolai antonov.