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Chapter 9
After traveling abroad for several months, I eventually chose to settle in a picturesque city in
Aotearia.
I opened a small studio with the savings my parents had left me and the money from selling my painting before.
There was a knock on the studio door.
Darien entered with a cup of hot cocoa. He pulled me from beneath the piles of drawing paper
scattered across the floor, where I had buried myself.
Looking at the faces on the paper, bodies of varying shapes but no facial features, he asked softly, “Maeve, you’re thinking about your pups again, aren’t you?”
I shielded my eyes with the back of my hand, but my voice couldn’t hide the desperation, “It’s laughable, isn’t it? My pups were taken from me the moment they were born.”
“When I finally learned that they were still alive, Liora deliberately erased all their performance
videos online. I couldn’t even see what they looked like.”
At that hotel, their tiny faces were completely destroyed in the video. Blood covered their features.
Looking back, all I remember was the blood and the endless pain. |
There was nothing else.
“Darien, it’s my fault. I didn’t protect them. I’m the sinner. I’ll never be okay.”
Darien was my therapist, and the only person who had ever given me warmth in this strange
country.
He’d traveled with me to relax. He watched as I drank myself into a stupor, and always helped me
clean up the mess. He’d never given up on me.
“Your hands are freezing. Drink the hot cocoa. I have a gift for you–something that will let you see
what each of your pups looked like.”
I jumped up immediately, drinking the hot cocoa in one go, and then taking the phone he handed to
- me.
My nose suddenly tingled as I saw my pups.
“I had a friend contact a few theaters where Liora’s team performed back then, and asked them to retrieve the surveillance footage from that time.”
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“Maeve, look at them. Your pups are amazing.
I smiled.
He was right. They were so incredible. Despite their tiny bodies, they could perform such difficult
feats.
But as I smiled, I suddenly broke down, burying my face in my hands, sobbing uncontrollably.
“I wish they weren’t so amazing. I can’t even begin to imagine how many times Liora must have
beaten them just to make them perform like that.”
“I failed them. I didn’t give them the life they deserved…”
Darien gently patted my back.
“Maeve, it’s not your fault, but it’s those who betray others‘ trust and harm their own flesh and
blood.”
“Your pups may not have had the chance to live a good life, but you can still make up for that. You
can give them the life they deserved, through your art. They’ll see it from above, and they’ll be at
peace.”
“Maeve, why don’t you hold an art exhibition? I’ll be there with you.”
Six months later, I held my first art exhibition. The theme was “Love Conquers Physical Flaws.”
In my paintings, my pups weren’t harmed. They were happily cuddling with their mother, doing things they loved.
The exhibition received an overwhelmingly positive response, and all the profits were donated to a charity that helped children with physical disabilities.
This time, no one called my pups monsters.
Even though their bodies were far from perfect, they were always the most precious treasures in
the world to me.
As the closing time of the exhibition approached, one of the staff hurried over to tell me, “Miss
Voss, we’re about to close, but there’s a man standing in front of that family portrait, crying. He
won’t leave.”
I told her to go ahead and leave, assuring her I would take care of it.
As I walked to the end of the exhibition, the man suddenly turned around. His face was familiar, but
more worn, with streaks of gray in his hair.
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Dylan’s voice was hoarse, “Maeve, I’ve finally found you. Can we talk?”
