"Because of one woman, my house feels dark."
"You still have the nerve to come home," said a middle-aged man, none other than Arya, Recandra's biological father.
Recandra ignored his father's words. He walked past him and headed straight to his room. He was truly exhausted today and just wanted to collapse onto his soft bed, but before he could lie down,
"Candra, come here!" his mother, Clara, shouted, calling him.
Without a second thought, he went to see his mother in the family room. Before he could even ask why she had called him, "Slap!" his mother slapped Recandra, her eldest son, across the face.
"As a child, all you do is shame the family!" Clara snapped, full of emotion.
Recandra just stood in silence, listening to his mother's words while enduring the pain on his cheek.
"How could you, Candra? I just can't understand."
"Candra doesn't understand what Mother means."
"Slap!" Another slap landed squarely on his cheek, followed by a punch from his own father, causing his nose and the corner of his lip to bleed.
"Don't you pretend you don't understand! We already know your rottenness!" his mother yelled, pointing at her eldest son's face.
"Yesterday at ten o'clock at night, Kayla came here and said you often hurt her. She also said you planned to r*pe her, and that you put poison in her younger sister Ale's drink," his mother said in a high-pitched voice.
"That's all slander, Mother. I never hurt Kayla because I love her very much, Mother, and I never put poison in Viola's drink. Why would I do such a thing, Mother?" Recandra said.
"Slap!" His face was slapped hard again.
"We don't believe you anymore. We believe that child's words more than yours," Clara said.
Recandra was shocked to hear this. He couldn't believe his mother and father would say such a thing. His heart ached as if pierced by a thousand crystal shards.
"Mother believes other people more than Candra," Recandra said with a sad look on his face, trying to hold back his tears.
"Do you know that because of what you did to Viola, it was actually going to be taken to court? But because your father knows Viola's family and also has a business relationship, you were saved from the law, do you understand?" Clara continued.
"Useless child," Arya cursed, then aimed a punch at Recandra's body.
He fell, and so did his tears. He could no longer hold them back.
"Your father and I regret raising you. The most shameless, most burdensome, and most jinxed child in this family."
"Starting today, do as you please. Your father doesn't care about you anymore," Arya said, then walked away, leaving Recandra and Clara.
Two seconds later, Clara also left Recandra, who was still sitting on the floor. His eyes were teary, desperately trying to hold back the tears. His mouth said nothing, but in his heart, he was crying and screaming.
Recandra remained seated on the floor, his body trembling from the pain, not just on his face and body, but much deeper—in his heart. The sound of the bedroom door closing upstairs seemed to signal that all the affection he had once felt had truly vanished since that night.
He wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand, then wiped away the tears that finally spilled, flowing uncontrollably. "What was my mistake that I have to be destroyed like this..." he whispered softly to himself.
After that, he stood up and walked to his room, limping slightly. He sat on his soft bed, letting out a heavy sigh, trying to rid his mind of the burden of his thoughts, but failing. In the silence mixed with pain, his phone suddenly vibrated. A message arrived on his phone, and he immediately read it.
Kayla:
Candra, I'm sorry... yes, I had to destroy your life, but don't worry, after this you will suffer even more.
Recandra's face changed instantly. His hand clenched. His eyes stared at the phone screen, filled with a mixture of anger and sorrow.
Recandra typed a reply: You're evil, Kayla. What did I do wrong that you're destroying my life like this?
There was no reply after that. He threw his phone onto the bed. His heart was already shattered, but now his head began to think clearly amidst the pain: "If they don't believe me, if they want to discard me... then so be it. I will stand alone. And I will prove—the truth cannot be hidden forever."
He slowly got up, looking at his reflection in the mirror. A bruised face, but eyes that were starting to sharpen. Full of revenge. But also full of determination.
"You think you won, Kayla?"
He spoke to the reflection, as if challenging someone far beyond himself.
"You got the wrong person. This isn't over."
Night had fallen, and Recandra began to reassemble the pieces of the story he had once ignored—all the chats, all the recordings, all the traces that had ever existed between him, Kayla, Ale, and Viola, and also all the members of the Cakra gang and Tommy. He knew that the only way to prove himself... was to expose the rottenness that had been hidden all this time by those considered "untouchable."
And that night became the beginning of a journey full of pain, truth, and revenge.
Morning approached, and a gray sky hung over Recandra's large house. But there was no family warmth within it. Recandra was still sitting in his room, in front of his old laptop, opening old folders, searching for something—anything—that could prove he was innocent. He even tried to hack into the data belonging to Kayla and several other people he suspected, but before he could hack, his phone vibrated.
A message arrived from an unknown number:
"Stop looking for evidence. Or you'll regret it. Do you think you're strong on your own?"
Recandra's eyes narrowed.
"A threat? Now I'm even more convinced I'm on the right track."
Three hours had passed, and he hadn't been able to touch Kayla's database security at all. Suddenly, his phone vibrated again, indicating a message had arrived. He immediately read it.
Kayla:
You're wasting your time hacking my data. It's useless, and you'll never be able to hack it.
Recandra typed a reply: You've gone too far, Kayla. We'll see. I'm not the Recandra from yesterday. I'm different because the Recandra from yesterday is dead.
Kayla: Okay, let's see how far you can last.
Meanwhile, at Kayla's house.
Kayla was sitting on the balcony, smiling slightly as she imagined Recandra's suffering. But deep in her heart, there was a sense of guilt. What she and Ale had done... perhaps it had indeed crossed the line. But now they were too far in to turn back.