Chapter 10: Sora's Story
"Please Izzy. Don't you see how important it is?" Kari said.
"Kari, I am not hacking into the scho…"
"Because it is the first time for you." Kari said sarcastically.
"Oh alright I did a bit of here and there spying back in high school but….."
"A bit?"
"Oh okay a lot but there is a difference in making Joe's status read. 'I am so desperate for a date that I can kill' and hacking into the private folders of a school."
"Oh come on Izzy. I am not asking you to hack into the Japanese government's defense list or something. It is just a school file. Oh and nobody will know you did it while in the episode you just mentioned Joe seriously kicked your….."
"Alright fine!" Izzy interrupted. "I will do it. But you must never ever mention it to anybody especially not Tai."
"Ok Ok agreed!" Kari said eagerly.
"I can't believe I am doing this at all." He murmured as he began typing away on his laptop.
*Gap*
"Hey Tai." Matt said as he led him in. He had tried to put on the best act on the outside. Inside was another story. What with all he had heard from Mimi and his suspicions about Nikki, his head was on the verge of bursting.
"Hi."
"Hey what's wrong? You look absolutely beaten up." Matt said.
"I…..I had a pretty strange experience." Tai said.
Great. Matt thought. Another experience….just what I needed.
"So….." Matt said sipping on a drink settling on the kitchen counter while Tai leaned against it.
"I….I…I…."
"Oh Spit it out already Tai. I know you have an eye."
Tai frowned at him. "One of the worst puns I have ever heard."
"Moving on…." Matt said pointedly.
"ImetSorainthegarage." Tai said.
"Er….could you repeat that…..slowly please."
Tai took a deep breath. It was difficult for him to talk about this. "I met Sora at the garage."
Matt choked on his drink and spat out all the contents of his mouth on Tai's face.
"Hell Matt! What is wrong with you today?" Tai said moving towards the basin to wash his face.
But Matt wasn't listening. Every one of his suspicions was suddenly beginning to make much more sense now. He meets a girl who looks totally like Sora. Her surname was something beginning from 'Take'. She was nine years old. And now Sora…she was definitely in Odaiba.
Then it had to be true. If the girl was definitely around nine which she definitely looked then she just had to be Tai's daughter. And Sora was back in town. What the hell was she doing moving back here. Back where it had all begun and back where it had all ended…
"Matt?"
"Huh?"
"Are you listening?"
"Sorry. Blanched out a little there. Sora? But… but how can she be back?" He knew that he was acting poorly but Tai was too distracted to notice.
"I have no idea. She was there getting her car repaired. I talked to her." Tai repeated the conversation they had had. "I was too cold on her….."
"Well Tai obviously you were and what more could she have expected? Hugs and kisses?"
"No but Matt…..I…..I felt something go through me. It was a strange feeling…..the way it used to be when we were younger when I had a crush on her and she was dating…er….."
"Me."* Matt said rolling his eyes. "And Tai that is because you loved her more than anything else…..and probably still love her a bit. But she did not. She never realized the worth of having love in life….not everyone gets it." He added in a small whisper.
"That is not only it. There is something else. She looked…..she looked as if….as if she has been through a lot. She looked as if there is a huge emotional pressure on her."
"Tai you are probably imagining stuff. And if she is having difficulties it is her damn fault." Matt said. He was clearly disgusted of the woman who had led his friend to almost commit suicide.
"I guess. Well it is almost five. I have to be somewhere just now. See you." Tai said moving out.
Matt sighed. After a while he searched his contacts for the number which he hated the most and rarely dialed. Kari.
She picked up the phone on the second ring.
"Please don't tell me you've had another break up."
"You'd be the last person I'd like to tell that. Anyways it is not about me. It is about Sora. She is in town and…"
"And I have her address and am going there just now."
"What? How?"
"Sorry I am not supposed to talk about it."
"OK well listen. Your brother met her."
"What the hell?"
"Yeah…" Matt told her the whole conversation that he had had with Tai.
"God he still cares about her so much. Argh. Sora is in for it today."
*Gap*
Sora had got home earlier today and it was a bliss to find it without Daniel in it. Nikki and Chris also, it seemed were not home.
Sora sat on the sofa and buried her head in her hands. And she let out all the exasperation she had been holding since the morning when she met Tai. She loved him still…a lot. But all thanks to Daniel she had seen him look at her with a coldness that she had never before seen his eyes. Heard words she'd never thought would come out from his mouth. Tai totally detested her….rightfully so. And in a way the more he hated her the better it was for him as well as her children and her father. But still…there were moments like today when she could not help being selfish. When she could not help being reckless. When she would let her needs and her heart take over her mind and necessities and let it break all rules and all restrictions. But she knew today as well as any such moments in the future that this was simply not reckless but outright dangerous.
She wiped her eyes. How different life had become. Earlier he was always there to wipe her tears and to solve all her problems. But now she was alone….all alone. It had hurt saying this stuff in the beginning but slowly she was getting used to the hollowness with which she was being forced to live. Hollowness without a bottom…no end. If it hadn't been for the kids she might have just killed herself and done away with it.
Then suddenly the door bell rang. Sora jumped at the sound. She had been so deeply lost in her contemplation that she had totally forgotten everything around her. She wiped her eyes clean absolutely this time and got up making her way towards the door hoping that even Daniel had not decided to come home early and destroy the few hours of peace she was hoping to get.
She unbolted the door and opened it expecting to see one of the kids. But she was in for the shock of her life. Sora gasped as she stared at the brown haired, brown eyed girl standing before her.
The ground seemed to be moving from beneath her. No….she couldn't be here.
"K…Kari…" She spluttered finally.
Kari looked at her with a blank expression. "Hello Sora. Long time no see."
"I…what are you doing here?"Sora said pulling herself together.
"Nice welcome. May I come in?"
"Er…. Yeah." Sora said and moved aside making way for her to enter.
Kari moved in casually and turned to face Sora who closed the door hastily hoping that now Daniel really did not come home early or else Kari was in real danger.
"You've been crying." Kari said. There was no sympathy in her voice but Sora was not deceived by the look of pure concern with moved in her eyes which she was trying to push back. That was how Kari had always been. Worried about every person even though it was one she detested.
"Er…."
"It's OK I don't want to know."
"How did you find out that I was staying here?" Sora said. It was pretty awkward. She and Kari used to be such good friends and they should have been hugging and catching up after meeting after such a long period of time but no….even this moment was ruined because of Daniel.
Sora was not ecstatic as she should have been but scared. Scared for Kari…..and for her brother.
"Well I promised my source I would not tell but I am here for a reason because in all honesty I was never interested in seeing you again after Tai….. well let it b….."
"After Tai, what?" Sora asked anxiously.
Kari eyed her incredulously. "Nothing."
"After Tai, what Kari?" Sora repeated.
Kari again gave her look and sighed. "Attempted suicide."
Sora gave a yell of shock and all but fell on the sofa in shock.
Kari frowned at her. "Why do you care Sora? It was because of you."
"I…" Sora didn't know what to say. She had never thought that Tai…so brave and courageous would ever try that.
"Anyways." Kari continued wanting to get this over with. "The reason I am here."
"Y..ye..yeah?"
"You have a daughter Sora."
Sora gasped. How could she have come to know about Nikki? No she couldn't let go Nikki go away from her. Or Chris. She was being selfish, she knew by denying her children the life they should have had but she just could not let them go and she knew that they wouldn't want to go either.
"Don't deny it. I have confirm news." Kari said.
"I… Yes." Sora said again regaining her composure. "Yeah. I have a daughter. Her name is.."
"Nicolette or as she goes by Nikki." Kari finished.
"Yeah. How did you know?" Sora said trying to keep the conversation casual though her heart was fluttering inside her chest.
"Oh I know a lot more Sora." Kari said and suddenly her gaze became much more piercing. "I also happen to know that she has a brother Christopher and that they are my niece and nephew."
Sora stared. Simply stared. This just could not be happening. It must be a dream. She should wake up any moment now. But she did not wake up. She could not see any light at the end of the tunnel in which she was standing…..only a fuming bearer of light who at the moment seemed all but light.
"No Kari you are mistak…."
"I am not mistaken Sora. I know their birth dates. December 2003, right? Nine years of age at the moment. So they are definitely Tai's kids unless you had been cheating on him…"
"No." Sora said before she could stop herself. She knew it was stupid. They hated her anyway. How much more could they hate her if they knew that she had been cheating on him or something? How much could another lie hurt? But she had had enough. She could not take Kari or any of her friends hating her all on the basis of lies and one-sided stories.
"How could you Sora? After all you put him through. After all he did for you. You did not have that much ethics or decency to at least tell him that he has two kids! What is wrong with you? You can't let him have any form of happiness? Why Sora? Why?"
"Stop it." Sora said tears flowing shamelessly. "You don't even know anything. Do you think I ever wanted all this to happen? Do you think I never loved him? Do you think I don't care about him? I did and still do. I never wanted to leave. I was forced to leave." She said it all in one breath without even realizing that she said it. Slowly at the look of horror on Kari's face she realized what she had said and gasped loudly.
"Sora…What do you mean you were forced to?"
"Forced? Did I say that? No No. Why'd I be….."
"You suck at lying Sora."
"Kari…..It is better for you….all of you to stay as far away as possible from this mess. Believe me you will be in danger you cannot imagine."
"I am prepared." Kari said.
Sora sighed of course she was. This was Kari they were talking about. She was the girl who never squirmed away from anything…..a quality which apparently had not changed in the past nine years.
Sora did not have the strength to lie anymore. She had to tell the truth now. It was annoying. She knew it was extremely dangerous but something in Kari's eyes told her that she had to get this story out. The story which had been buried nine years ago was about to be dug out.
"Alright. I will tell you." Sora took a deep breath. "It all began one month before I left Tai. As you know everything was perfectly great between us. It happened with a phone call from a man I had thought was long dead….."
"Who?"
Sora sighed. "My father."
Kari gasped. "What?" Sora's father was supposed to have died when she had been eighteen in an accident.
"Naturally I was shocked as well as happy beyond belief. My father who we all thought was dead was actually alive. I could meet him again. He called me to meet him. At _# road near the lake at midnight but he told me not to tell anyone. Not Mom. Not Tai. He said that his life was in grave danger and the more people who knew that he was alive, the more the danger. I was worried, of course. I left home without telling Tai at night when he was asleep. It was a scary night. It was about to rain. It was the last day of my happiness and my peace. At midnight sharp, I saw a small two seat boat come towards me. And I was in for another heck of a shock when I saw that the man in the boat was none other than my ex-boyfriend Daniel. The guy who had tried to haunt me even after I left him. I knew this was the time to run but before I could do so he yelled from behind 'If you want to see your father alive then don't move a step.' Of course I stopped. He grinned at me maniacally.
Now this is what had happened three years from that time. Eleven from now. Daniel, after he was kicked out from the college, began to work in an illegal manner. Through black money. He had a whole company flourishing under him. Dad worked in the police. He was suspicious of the manner in which this whole enterprise was working and was suddenly one of the best over night with an entrepreneur who was a college drop out. He investigated this case and found out how the money was coming and how the goods were being smuggled from abroad. Daniel one step ahead always learned from his sources that Dad was about to pull a raid on his company. He was a complete mafia and he and his buddies kidnapped Dad and tortured him. They were about to kill him when Daniel realized that he was my father. Of the girl because of whom he was kicked out of college but he knew that wasn't the right time. He wanted to cause Tai and me a lot of pain. As much as he could. He waited till we were married and then got my father to call me to that place.
Coming back to the night. He met me there and he showed me the photographs of my father. They had totally tortured him. His whole body was covered with cuts and bruises. He told me that he would not kill my father and even let him go free only on two conditions. One he was never to interfere in his business matters ever again to which he informed me had been agreed by my father and second…..Second was that I was supposed to leave Tai….cut all my contacts with him and…and…and marry him. I was outraged. I couldn't do anything like that. He said that he would kill Dad. He knew that I could not go to the police because I had no evidence. He gave me the time of a month. In a month I had to meet him there again or else….. I had no choice. It was the most difficult thing I had ever done. Signing on those papers… but I couldn't let him die Kari. And if I had tried telling Tai or any of you, well he had promised that nobody would ever find you again, and against him I had no proof. He was an expert.
I was forced to marry him and in a month I realized that I was pregnant with Tai's kids. Great for Daniel, he had another hold over me. I tried a lot to get evidence against him so that I could get myself and my children out of this hell. Daniel used to abuse the kids. I think I managed to stop that but I am not so sure. And well that is about it. My father is living now under a fake identity and end of story."
Kari could do nothing but stare. To say she was shocked was an understatement. She could not believe it. The woman they had all been cursing and hating for the misery she had caused had actually always been trying to protect him.
"I love Tai, Kari." Sora said softly. "And will love him always. I will love him forever. Always and forever….."
*Gap* (A/N I am sorry about these but this computer sucks)
Hey people I am back! So this was the most awaited chapter and here it is! Hope I could live upto the expectations.
# I do not know the names of roads in Japan so imagine any road you like folks.
Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I had to type it three times. I have come away somewhere for the vacations and left my laptop home so I had to type it a second time and then when I was almost done, my brother accidently deleted it so here is the third part.
Well good news…my results came on 17 May and I got a 94.2% in boards! All the hard work paid off!
Thanks to all who reviewed:
Angel9979; Thanks! And thanks a lot for letting me know that I'll have someone to talk to. It is sometimes better to talk to somebody you don't know personally. I am a lot better now.(And I heard the song. It was great and really helped me). But I am happy to know that I can always talk :)
Herbivore Munch; Thanks! Yeah it is one of my favs.
Neon765; Thanks! Hope you liked the chapter.
Missylea; Yup! She surely will! Hope Sora's part was Ok.
Mimato Love 4ever; Thanks! Glad you liked it. And thanks for understanding about my problem. I know depression makes you feel helpless…. I am better now but I am not sure how long it will hold! I am glad to know that I can talk to you about it :D
Thedexterfan; Thanks for the review. I will try to update as quick as possible!