17 Her DNA and mine donst match (2/2)
”I searched for her for months and just when I was quietly going out of my mind with worry, there she was in my house, carrying you and begging me to take her back. Take her back? Didn't she know how much I loved her?”
”So you got married...when did Maya figure in all of this?”
”When you turned three, Yu Yan went back to her village. I knew about this after she told me when I arrived home from a business trip abroad. She came back with Maya. Yu Yan said she was a niece and that her parents were killed in an accident. So, she begged me to help her. I didn't like Maya. There was something that wasn't right about her but your mother...this woman... insisted.”
”We didn't formally adopt her, thank god. I'm not so stupid as to adopt a kid I didn't like and call her daughter but she stayed with us. She stayed away from me and you, too, because I saw her bullying you one day and nearly kicked her out of the house then.”
”How did she bully me back then?”
”She was trying to feed you worms,” An Ma still looked angry at the memory. ”You were five and she was trying to feed you worms. I think seeing that poisoned my relationship with Yu Yan. I confronted her about it and she said it was just a prank. Maya tried to apologize but I never trusted her after that. I rehired my old nurse back and she was the one who raised you until you turned 16.”
”We still don't know who this woman is though,” Matt pointed out.”You lived with her for 20 years and during that time you never suspected anything at all?”
”What is there to suspect? She's the same woman I fell in love with, the same woman I got pregnant...there's no reason for me to suspect her. I admit there were some problems in our marriage, mainly because of my dislike of Maya, but she had been an exemplary wife. What is there to suspect her of?”
”What's the name of this village you found her, dad?”
”Saravia. I think it was Saravia,” An Ma said.
”What bothers me is if she's not who she says she is then where is my real mother?” An Ning asked.
An Ma looked at her, surprised.
”You think the real Yu Yan is still alive?” he said, a strange light in his eyes.
”I don't know, dad. I'd like to think she is so I could meet her. But if we want to know what really happened, one of us needs to go to this village and check it out,” An Ning said, looking pointedly at Matt.
”I want triple the amount you paid me.”
”Done.”
”I'm going with you,” An Ma chimed in.
”Are you sure, dad?” An Ning frowned worriedly.
Her eyes suddenly fell on the body on the floor. She uttered a surprise gasp when the woman met her startled gaze and stood up. In quick, assured strides, the woman reached her side. An Ning tried to dodge the claws that went straight for her throat but she was too late.
The woman's hands squeezed around her windpipe like steel bands. An Ning was trapped, twisting and turning to break free but to no avail. With an angry howl, An Ma tried to pull the woman off An Ning but he was pushed back. The woman elbowed him away viciously. An Ma staggered like a drunk, his feet unsteady until he finally collapsed on a table, gasping for breath.
Matt repeatedly kicked the woman on the back and on her sides, the thudding sound of limb hitting flesh getting louder and uglier. The woman snarled at Matt then swiped a vicious hand down his perspiring face. Blood sprayed down the opened and torn flesh, temporarily blinding Matt as he, too, collapsed howling with pain on the floor,
An Ning was nearly losing consciousness when her hand finally gained traction on a spot of flesh and dug in. Her nails viciously scoured the exposed flesh until she hit bones. The woman screamed but still did not let An Ning go.
An Ning balled her hands in fists and started pounding at the woman relentlessly. She bent her knees and allowed her body to free fall. The hands on her throat loosened a bit as the woman fell with her.
Just as they were about to reach the ground, An Ning clamped and bent her legs, caught the woman's falling body on top and gave a powerful push. The woman was thrown off the side along with the sound of breaking glass.
An Ning got to her feet and started punching at the woman's face and body with her fists. The strength of her hands tore the woman's clothes off her body; buttons flew, exposing her neck and the long chain around it. An Ning grabbed the chain and viciously tagged it tighter around the woman's throat. The woman gagged, her eyes rolling from her head.
The chain was too thin and started to cut at the woman's bloodied throat like a saw.Suddenly, it broke and something round and small rolled down the woman's body to the floor. It twirled around like a top then stopped. With a loud and maddened growl, the woman flung herself away from An Ning and tried to reach for the stone with her hand.
AnNing reached for a piece of broken glass and repeatedly stabbed the woman's hand with it until the bones broke and gave an ugly crunch. The woman screamed. An Ning pushed herself on the wet, bloodied floor and snatched the stone away. The woman looked at her, suddenly panicked.
”This is important to you,” An Ning said, holding up the stone and smiling inhumanely.
”Give it back,” the woman snarled. ”It's mine! Give it back!”
”Let's see if it's really yours, shall we?” An Ning asked, then brutally hacked at the stone with the heel of her leather shoe until it splintered and broke.
The woman's agonizing howl echoed in the house loud as a bullhorn. She thrashed and twisted like a giant snake, spitting saliva and blood in all directions. An Ning watched with unblinking eyes as the body started to stiffen and writhe in the throes of death.
The body that had been hearty and hale as her own collapsed in on itself then caught fire. There was a strange popping sound as the blaze consumed flesh and bones in seconds. An Ning stood up and drew nearer to the body, which was slowly being turned into ash.
”What just happened, An Ning?” Matt asked through numb lips while holding up the torn flesh on his face with a trembling hand. ”What the fuck just happened?”
An Ning poked at the ash with her toe and didn't answer. She was wondering about the sound she heard when she was stabbing the woman with the broken glass. It was almost like laughter. From children.