THE ART OF REDEMPTION

LAIN

hrowing her phone to the ground. "And here I was, acting worried about Mr. Dear Alex," Valery said hitting her hand on the table. She dressed up and fell on the bed, staring at the ceiling. She had Alex portrait painted and attached to her ceiling. "You don't see me, Alex. After all this time, after five years of helping you grow from nothing. I was a fool, wasn't I? A foolish girl in love. Calling you 'sir', 'boss', carrying your coat, running your little errands and yet you don't see me. But just once, one fucking encounter and you listened to what she had to say", Valery soliloquized. She let out a scream feeling frustrated and threw her pillows on the floor in anger. Maggie, on hearing the scream, ran upstairs to check on Valery. "Miss Valery, are you okay? I heard you scream", Maggie asked concerned standing outside the door. "May I come in?" Maggie was like Valery's second mum to her after she had lost her parents. She barely had any friends since childhood, so any time she was in a bad mood or just generally having a bad day, she may decide to talk to Maggie about it to try to calm down. Sometimes it worked...most times it did not. "I really don't want to talk to anyone right now, Maggie. Just leave me alone", Valery said from inside the room. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it? You could ease your stress a bit by talking about it. Let me know what troubles you dear", Maggie continued. Slowly, the door knob turned. Valery let Maggie inside and went back to bed. The room was in a mess. The sheets and the pillows were scattered on the floor. "Tell me, what is wrong?" Maggie asked petting Valery on the head. Valery could be vulnerable sometimes with Maggie even though she was already in her late twenties. She curled he