Chapter 526 I Am Not So Vile
“I really wanted to thank you for Janette. If not for you, I would dread to imagine what else would have happened to her,” said Alicia in earnest while she sat beside me with my hand in hers.
She spoke to me in a very cordial manner which made me frown uncomfortably. To be honest, I did not like how distant that made me feel.
“It’s something that I ought to do, so think nothing of it. With everything that had happened to her, anyone else would have been equally sympathetic. What’s more, she’s my half-sister, so there was no way I could have stood by and done nothing.”
Without evoking much emotion, I looked her straight in the eyes as I spoke.
“Regarding Janette…” said Alicia apprehensively after she saw that I was quiet for some time.
“Actually, I have something that I wanted to discuss with you all as well. As this is no trivial matter, I was wondering if you would consider filing a police report.”
My initial plan was to seek an opportunity to broach this subject with her at a later time, but since I was already here today, I thought that I should bring this up and seek their input.
“This…”
Not expecting that I would table this suggestion, Alicia appeared perturbed. It did not seem that she would be open to this course of action.
“I don’t want to go to the police!”
Just as she was at a loss for how to answer me, Janette’s shrill cry shot out from the staircase.
With her face pasty and in an obvious state of agitation, she strode down the stairs and began to scream her head off at me.
“I won’t go file a report! I will not have this brought up with the police!
The sudden appearance of the irate Janette had me furrow my brows.
I understood her reservations as I knew how much this was going to affect her should there be more people to find out about that incident.
“Janette, I still think that it would be better for us to file a report because if we don’t notify the police and have those people arrested, who knows how much more harm they could cause to others. Am I right to say that you wouldn’t want other girls to suffer the same way as you did either?”
While it would not be in Janette’s personal interest to go to the police, I was only raising this suggestion in the hope that others may be spared from a similar fate. However, that was only me coming from a position of an outsider. I was aware that it might not be a concern that Janette may share in.
“What business is it of mine even if it happens to anyone else? So what if those men were all caught? Would it help restore my innocence?”
Janette’s sallow face was visibly livid, and her eyes glared at me with much contempt.
“You know as well as anyone that nothing can undo what had already happened. By suggesting that you do this, it’s in the hope that no one else would get hurt in the future.”
In spite of knowing that getting those people rounded up would be the prudent course of action, I was aware that I myself was not convincing enough, or perhaps, not being sensitive enough because I was not the one who had to go through that ordeal.
“You are doing this on purpose, aren’t you, Anna Garcia? You want the whole world to know about my shame, don’t you? You want to see to it that everyone knows about it, so that they may judge me until I’m driven to my death. Only then would you be satisfied, yes?”
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