Chapter 4Her Buried Past

January 10th, 2021

Diary.

My best friend is dead.

We spent more than a decade together in the orphanage.

And now she’s gone.

All because we couldn’t scrape together five thousand dollars.

I told her I’d find a way.

I told her to just hold on.

I would have delivered food, done anything to get the money for her treatment.

But while I was on set, she pulled out her own oxygen tube.

She left me a voice recording.

“Zara,” she said, “we were abandoned as kids. Most of us aren’t very healthy. I’m just happy I made it to 25.”

“Don’t be sad for me. Maybe in heaven, I’ll finally get to meet the parents who threw me away.”

“I’ve got a bone to pick with them.”

“You and Rick need to be happy together.”

“And hey, remember to get regular check-ups. People like us can’t afford to get sick.”

I cried until I couldn’t breathe.

We were so close. If she had just waited a little longer, maybe I could have earned it.

Diary.

Why is life so unfair?

Today on set, I heard the producers gave the lead actress several handbags that were each worth over five thousand dollars.

A single handbag could have saved my friend’s life.

Writing this reminds me of something.

When I was little, I had another friend at the orphanage.

Her name was beautiful, Maeve.

She had a round face, and when she smiled, her eyes curved into beautiful crescent moons.

Compared to the rest of us, she just radiated life.

She was so bright that when she was eight, a wealthy family adopted her.

I was so happy for her when we said goodbye.

But a year later, she came back.

She was so much thinner.

And she never smiled anymore.

Worst of all, she couldn’t speak.

She wrote on a piece of paper and told me what had happened. She had been subjected to unspeakable abuse for a year.

Her adoptive parents were afraid she would tell someone.

So they cut out her tongue.

I ran to the director of the orphanage, trying to get help, but he beat me half to death.

He had taken money from that family to keep quiet.

Maeve… she killed herself not long after that.

And now my other friend is gone, too.

There aren’t many of us left from the orphanage.

Diary, I want so badly to tell Rick all of this.

But when I look into his tired, smiling eyes…

I just can’t. I’ll wait until things get better.

I don’t want to be another burden for him.

Goodnight, Diary.

I hope I wake up to news about my audition.

The host’s voice trembled as he read.

Online comments flooded in.

“So she needed the money for her friend.”

“Forget that, what the hell kind of orphanage is that? Someone needs to investigate.”

“This feels like a PR stunt to make her look good. But you can tell she was just a jealous person, getting angry over a five-thousand-dollar bag.”

The host sighed and looked at Rick. “Mr. Brown, did you know your wife needed five thousand dollars?”

“You were both 25 by then. Did you really not have that much in savings?”

Rick’s pupils constricted. His mouth moved, but no sound came out at first.

“That year… we had saved ten thousand dollars together. I had promised her I’d buy her a gold bracelet…”

“But… at the end of the year, my mom got really sick.”

“It took every penny we had…”

“After that… she never mentioned the bracelet again, and I never bought it.”

Rick’s voice grew quieter as he lowered his eyes.

The comment section exploded.

“So you’re telling me Zara gave all her savings for her mother-in-law’s treatment, and then had nothing left for herself?”

“What are you talking about? When you’re married, you’re family.”

“If she’d had that gold bracelet, maybe she could have sold it and saved her friend.”

The truth is, Rick didn’t tell the whole story.

His mother had insurance, which covered most of the medical bills.

When the reimbursement check came, I didn’t see a cent of it.

When my friend got sick, I gathered my courage and asked my mother-in-law for help.

I offered to borrow the money, but she just ridiculed me.

“Marrying you was the greatest charity we could offer.”

“And you have the audacity to ask me for money?”

“You’re an orphan. You have no one to stand up for you.”

I stood there, frozen.

My ears were ringing.

The woman who, at my wedding, had promised to treat me like her own daughter, was now looking at me with pure contempt.

We never had a real wedding, just a small gathering of friends and family.

I didn’t get any jewelry, no dowry.

And in the end, I didn’t even get respect.

I learned later.

Once a wife moves in, everyone’s true colors come out.

Especially a wife with no one in her corner.

The pain that never made it into my diary was far greater than anything Rick knew.