Cryptic Words and Hidden Letters

020

:: Fifth voice, Kalliope

There are lessons that aren't taught by books alone. There are learnings that you can't get from schools. Experiences are the best teacher, they say. One might be drowned in between the thick pages of laws and the system, but there's a reason why someone would choose to be filled with articles and codes to memorize, rather than get up every morning with just a cup of coffee to make their day. An explanation behind everything is enough to say that there's always a deep justification of people's actions—an underlying reason that many could see, but only few could comprehend. It takes years to swallow and digest, but the aisle of the courtroom is more worth it than the aisle of the church, or at least for me.

I may not be one step away from changing the dirtiest shits circling around inside and outside the sacred hall of justice, but I know that I've already got this far. I'm more than capable today than I was yesterday.

"They've found evidences of his corruption and his embezzlement to a foreign paper company. The full documents will be handed to us soon."

My ears rang as I heard that news coming from the person whom I survived with. The journey was never an easy wave for the both of us, but our will pushed us to keep sailing despite the strong current holding us back before.

After Mama's death, I thought it was the end of everything for me. I may have my cousins and friends, but I never thought that they would be enough for me to push forward. Little I didn't know, I'm in this road for a reason.

When I was crying and mourning, a stranger walked in and passed by, making me realize what I should carefully think about—and reflection isn't something you can get in a snap of a finger, or by counting seconds of time.

Realization hits more when it takes its time before it finally slap itself to you.

Years of tears and headaches happened, thoughts of giving up always entered my young but not innocent mind. I was full of rage, but I didn't let my hatred to be my distraction. I used the negative side of my story to aim for something better than what was expected of me.

Law school was my doom, my jail—or so I first thought. I never expected to make it until the very end. I have nothing with me, not even a passion to be a lawyer or be a disciple of law. The dream of being a child of justice didn't occur to me, not even once as a kid.

I was a rebel, a violent one. I was the black sheep, and never foresee to be a dark horse.

But my mother really learned, and made up with her mistakes. Financially, she supported me. She took my cousins to live with her. She gave my friends countless of open doors to change their lives.

And as I watch her change her wrongdoings and end up knowing what she did, that's when also realization slapped me.

If it weren't for the man who ran away from his responsibilities, we wouldn't end up that way. It's unbelievable that it took me years of contemplation until I finally saw the truth lying beneath the graves we all dug.

He was the starting point of the never-ending race, the problem occurred and never had a solution.

It wasn't me, nor my Mom—none of us wanted it to happen. We're just victims of someone who escaped the bars of obligations and decided to demand for an undeserving free will.

And now that I'm taking it one by one, I won't let any loopholes get through me again.

I've got this far because I chose to continue, not just for the people who believes in me, but also for myself.

I finally found the purpose I've been searching for so long.

"I heard he's asking you to defend him?" I said in a fascinating tone. I might know his response, but I still want to hear it directly from him. Sounds childish, but that's what amuses me.

"As if I'm going to be on his side, Kalliope," his always cold tone and aura automatically filled our office.

Who would have ever imagine that the person who I argued with when I was at my lowest, would be the person who wouldn't give up on me until the very end?

That's why you never know what life may offer.

"Come on, he deals with millions of cash. Who would even try to decline him? One of our well-known colleagues is dying to get the job," I teased even more while observing his pissed reaction to whatever words coming out from me.

"Then he could get it. I'd rather starve than to spend the money he stole from the people," disgust quickly tainted his manly voice. "He might still be blood-related to you, but he deserves to rot in jail. No offense."

"None taken," I answered with a satisfied smile on my face while raising both of my hands, a sign of surrender.

I would never want this man to be my enemy inside the courtroom, or else I'll be eaten alive. The fangs he has, it is indeed, a venom.

"Hey," I called him after a short period of silence. "Do you want to be the prosecutor?"

"It's not my call, that's yours."

"No, I've done my part. I'll have another one, but I'll give the most to you," I said in a carefree way, wanting him to know that it's all right for him to take the case.

After all, I already got something to prove. It's his turn to bite now.

He looked at me with a bit of confusion in his face, but I immediately tried to ease off his puzzled expression.

"He wouldn't remember you just by being a lawyer. He needs to remember you as someone whom he took advantage."

"But you've been waiting for this your entire life," he spat back, in pursuit of pushing me to do the payback time.

But I refused even more.

"You waited for this your entire life, I didn't," I returned his remarks. "Watching him fall apart without doing anything, even if I have the capability to defend his case would be more devastating for him. And seeing you inside that room, destroying every piece of the useless treasures he collected would be his downfall—the greatest insult," I reasoned out as I directly stared at his eyes with the same determination he once gave me inside that church.

It's been that long, but I would never forget the day he became honest with me, not as a friend but someone who experienced almost the same shit as him.

He stared at me for few seconds, so I took advantage of it to do the talking.

"You were falsely accused and your family. Now pay it back, but prove him guilty."

In the midst of his silence, I smiled. My phone suddenly rang, and Sera's name flashed on the screen.

I walked to his direction and tapped his shoulder before answering the call.

We're both victims of wealth and power, by the same person who abused it—and it's fulfilling to see how we're about to use the same thing he used against us back then.

The difference?

We used the right and just way, unlike the method he once practiced.

A complete opposite of the evil deeds of that man who never became my father.