Substitute Mother

Chapters 147. She’s Broken

“Papa, can Aera stay here?”

Indeed, Jeanno Alexander always had a weakness for the eyes of a rabbit who was looking at him full of hope. The rejection he couldn't possibly throw if he didn't want to see his little rabbit moody. In that house, there were people he knew. He shouldn't have to worry, right?

“No, Aera”

The little guy's lips curled down and shook. Showing a puddle of tears along with the roar of spirit there. The other figure that was between the father and son pair, seemed awkward. So he squatted down, likening himself to Aera while his hands rubbed his face gently.

“It's okay, baby. Aera played here today. Tomorrow there's another day. Don't cry, yeah?”

The little boy nodded, as opposed to the increasingly heavy tears that were shed. Isak followed after, making his tiny nose flushed like a tomato. Aera hugged Judith by the neck, drowning her face there as if it was the most comfortable place for her.

“Aera, let's go home”

“Aera..honey mama”.

So Judith caught, she replied with a soft word in the form of the same sentence. Not a lie, because in fact, six months together has fostered a love for a child that he has never felt before. A mother-like affection for her child, or a sister for her sister? I don't know.

The last kiss on the cheek became the last farewell before Aera welcomed the father's hand. Judith, as the host's ‘substitute’, politely drove them to the door. Just to be fixated on the sentence Jeanno uttered faintly, barely caught by his ears.

“Three days. You have three more days left, if you fail, then be prepared to languish in jail”

**

The room was narrow, almost half the size of his old room in the apartment. The color of the paint itself is not predictable. Too dark to be called white, but too worn for yellow. Some, ah wrong, most of the paint has even peeled off. Decorate the original graffiti ‘karya’ results from the inmates who had spent the dark night in the room.

The iron bed was already rusted. Coated with a thin mat that seemed to fall asleep on a pile of rocks. The level bed that voiced a disturbing squeak when the owner shifted the goods a little. For the floor, huh. don't expect too much. The floor is full of dust and the presence of the rest of the rice crust at some point. Disgusting, but nobody cares. Those who inhabit the room, between busy regretting their actions, or even resigned to spend the rest of their lives behind the cold bars.*

The space that is already narrow, suddenly increases in size. Lights with no wattage how it was extinguished for a moment, then come back to life. And so on a few times. Until death, it was completely dark.*

When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in the detention room. Except being in an unused building. His eyes caught no one but himself, but his ears heard a mix of cheers accompanying the roar of motor vehicles. Curious, he stepped his feet closer to the source of the sound, oh apparently there is a motorcycle race down there.*

He just turned his face away from the streets for a moment, then miraculously the crowd was suddenly silent, everyone just disappeared. He shook his head, assuring that what he saw was real and not a hallucination.

Then from behind him, a few pairs of feet were heard. Accompanied by an evil laugh that shrinks the guts.*

“Why beautiful? You want to run?”*

“Your choice is never wrong, Ethan. She is beautiful once”*

He turned his head, only to be faced with three men who were staring at him pervertedly. The man in the middle, who was standing at the very front nearby, smirked so horribly.*

“I'm very lucky to meet you again, Naya”*

The naya? He shook. Her name is not Naya. His name is Judith! He wanted to scream, but not a word came out of his howl. As if he was mute, provoking the laughter of those bastard men cruelly.*

“I wonder how Arjuna can know a woman like you. If only I had known from the first”*

The laughter of the men grew deafening. Judith closed her ears. He had no other choice because he was now upstairs which made it impossible for him to escape.*

As he busily covered his ears, two other men had left the room, right after the man named Ethan had uttered a sentence that he could somehow hear.*

“I was the first to enjoy it. You can come back again, even if there is anything left”*

Ethan's posture somehow becomes bigger and scarier. His hands stretched out, swaying his cornered body at the end of the room.*

‘Please, don't!’*

“Today, your body belongs to me, Nayara”*

Judith woke up stiff. Feeling his nightgown wet with sweat all over his body. His chest tightened and his breathing was stifled. The room he occupied now was a spacious guest room, but why did it feel like he had trouble reaching for oxygen to breathe? Judith beat her chest, causing a faint sobbing in response to her fear that came back. Her body was shaking instead of playing, the woman then brought her hands over her ears. Even if the dream was over, but his sense of hearing seemed to still be able to clearly catch the laughter mocking the man who raped him.

A stranger with Ethan kidnaps her as she prepares to do her job as a waitress in Victoire.

The man who keeps calling it by another name that isn't his name. Judith remembers how dark that night was, and she just wanted to die. The first time he lost his temper to a man he didn't even know. The night that she became the forerunner she decided to become an erotic dancer. He declared to the world that women are only sexual objects for men. There is no love, no love. Just sheer lust.

Unable to stand his brim, Judith chose to go to the bathroom, trembling in her hands never stopping. He reflected. The reflection he saw was a woman who was very broken and messy.

“You're destroyed, Aleta. You are trash, there will be no price. You're nothing more than the lustful satisfiers of the men”

The voice with a tone full of ridicule and ridicule continued to circle his head. Makes Judith pull her hair hard, hoping thus ‘they’ is silent.

“Being Alexander's mistress? Aera's mother? you know, your dreams are too high. Realize your true place, Aleta”

“Be aware that you are just a whore child”

“You just finished SMP”*

“You were raped”*

“Your price has been lost as your mother's successor”*

“Even Jeanno is not willing to glance at you”*

“STOP!!”

After shouting, Judith's eyes darkened. He collapsed on the bathroom floor.

**

When his eyes opened, the first thing that greeted his gaze was the light of the lamp. Makes Judith reflexively shut back. His head was dizzy, it felt as if it had been hit by a load of thousands of kilos. He doesn't know where he is now, maybe a hospital? what he caught from his eyes were only a few seconds, he lay alone without anyone.

The door opened, Judith chose to shut. Pretending to be asleep. From his footsteps he could confirm there was more than one person entering. Someone was tidying up his blanket, then another hand touched his head gently.

“Supposed he'd be sober, Mark. Why did she faint this long?”

Ah, apparently he fainted. Judith turned back her last memory, as she struggled with the voice inside her own head. It ended with his dark eyes. Then don't remember anything anymore.

“Doctors say nothing serious. Let's just wait until he wakes up, hopefully nothing happens to Judith”

“I haven't seen it like this” in a long time

Without the need to open their eyes, Judith can immediately recognize who the humans are nearby. Mark and Hannah.

“Like this? What do you mean, baby?”

Hannah was silent for a while, Judith could wonder what her best friend was doing now was looking at her after goal.

“Then, Judith was like this. Shouting hysterically for no reason, then ending fainting”

“Why? What's reason?”

Judith could feel her heartbeat hunting along with Hannah's hand on her fingers. He did not want his trauma to be known to many people, but he felt he was tired of his rigid mask all this time. Mark has helped him a lot, maybe it's okay if he shares a little bit of hurt.

“Judith... never raped”.

**