Chapter 19 - 3 A.M.A little girl was crouching on the mattress.
Six years old.
White dress.
Red ribbon.
Black eyes.
I couldn't scream.
She smiled.
“Finally.”
The bedroom door opened.
My husband woke instantly.
“What happened?”
He looked at the girl.
His face turned white.
“Mara.”
The little girl tilted her head.
“You remember me too.”
My husband backed away.
“How?”
Mara climbed off the bed.
She walked toward the mirror.
The mirror reflected the entire family.
My father.
My mother.
My husband's parents.
Lena.
And me.
But there was one person missing.
My husband.
I looked at him.
His reflection wasn't there.
He stared at the mirror.
“No.”
Mara turned.
“You are the debt.”
My husband's face changed.
“What?”
She smiled.
“Your family never needed a bride.”
My heart stopped.
“They needed a descendant.”
The truth slammed into me.
The wedding was never about me.
I wasn't the sacrifice.
My husband was.
His family had been trying to produce an heir who would carry the curse.
I looked at him.
“Is that why you married me?”
He began crying.
“I didn't know.”
Mara walked closer.
“Your father knew.”
I turned.
My father-in-law stood in the doorway.
He looked exhausted.
But alive.
He held the original agreement.
“The only way to end it,” he whispered, “is for the family to admit the truth.”
His wife appeared behind him.
“No.”
He turned.
“You've lied long enough.”
She began screaming.
The house shook.
The walls cracked.
Every photograph fell from the walls.
Then my father-in-law tore the agreement in half.
Nothing happened.
He looked confused.
Mara whispered:
“It won't work.”
“Why?”
She pointed at me.
“Because she has to say it.”
I looked at the mirror.
At all the dead daughters.
At Lena.
At my mother.
At myself.
And I finally understood.
The curse survived because everyone was afraid to tell the truth.
So I spoke.
“My family sacrificed children.”
The house went silent.
My mother stepped forward.
“Their family hid it.”
Lena said:
“And everyone pretended it was tradition.”
My husband whispered:
“And I was going to continue it.”
The black marks vanished.
One by one.
Then Mara smiled.
“Now you remember.”
She disappeared.
The house became completely silent.
For the first time in twenty years...
May you like
the curse was gone.
Or so we thought.
