"Now to my next question… what happened to Jessica? How did she die?" Rudy asked calmly but with a serious look on his face.


    "Before I answer that, there is still more to my first answer." After a brief pause, Reba ced the diary back on the table and said, "It was still hard for me to understand everything even though a month had already passed.


    I didn''t read the diary nor talk about it to anyone, not even Elena. But when I was curious enough to open and read the first chapter of the diary, I… read it and the contents written inside were so ridiculous that I felt stupid for taking it seriously.


    I did the very thing the shadow had told me not to; I ignored it, and I had to pay for it. There were signs, and yet I didn''t pay attention to them.


    One night, I had just put you to bed, and Jessica was sleeping beside you; I was taking a bath, and you suddenly started crying, so I quickly wrapped a towel around me and rushed to my room.


    There… I saw the same shadow… holding you in its arms and looking at the doorway, seemingly waiting for me to arrive. I was obviously scared, but I was more worried about you, so I called it out and asked what it was doing.


    I didn''t get any response from the shadow, but the atmosphere around me got cold. My body was wet as I was taking a bath, and the cold atmosphere made it impossible for me to stand in the same room.


    My body had frozen, quite literally. I couldn''t even move my finger, and I could feel my heartbeat getting slower and quieter. My vision had turned blurry, and I could barely see anything. Only my tongue and ears were functioning.


    Then, I heard the shadow say, ''You have failed!''


    It didn''t say anything else, but I somehow knew why the shadow was there— it was there to take you away from me, and I didn''t want that.


    However… what could I do?" Reba shook her head and said, "Nothing. I was just a twelve-year-old girl who had just adopted a newborn baby. If the shadow wanted, it could have killed Jessica and me at any time, but it didn''t.


    It gave me so many signs and chances to do better, but I failed the test and… I failed miserably. I had lost you once, and I didn''t want to lose you again. I also knew that if the shadow took you, I wouldn''t be able to raise you, and we would never meet again because the future would be changed.


    If that future was changed, then maybe you would never return to the past to take care of Jessica and me. A simple thought of it was scary, and it stabbed my heart with a thousand needles.


    So I looked at the shadow and said, ''Give me one more chance, and I will not fail you.''


    When I said that, the air around me got even colder, and I eventually passed out. When I opened my eyes, I immediately nced at the bed and found you sleeping beside Jessica.


    Since that day, I have tried my best to raise you and sacrificed everything. You were the most important thing to me in the world, and that still hasn''t changed.


    Actually, I…" Reba chuckled softly and continued, "I never nned to raise you as my son; I wanted to raise you as a brother, but… I guess I was more attached to you as a mother and you as a son.


    A few months passed by, and you started reacting to every single thing. You would cry when I moved away from you, get angry when I didn''t pay attention to you, and smile when you saw me smile.


    Well, I guess that''s what most kids do with their mothers. But maybe you were a little different. For some reason, you seemed… mature to me. Perhaps, that''s because I have seen and known your adult form?


    As even more time passed, you started speaking a few words. You started pulling Jessica''s hair. You even started biting our fingers when we would poke your soft chubby cheeks."


    She said with a distant smile on her face.


    "..." Rudy didn''t know what to say or how to feel about Reba''s view of Rudy. He didn''t want to ruin the beautiful rtionship they already had. Thus, he kept his mouth shut to think more about it.


    "Now to your second question; What happened to Jessica, and how did she die? If you want a short answer, then the best and the most straightforward answer would be— I don''t know.


    And I know you want to know the long answer, so I will exin in detail."


    "Please do."


    "As you grew up, you became more attached to Jessica than me. You would want to y with her more than me. You would always ask where Jessica was- whenever she was at school or wasn''t around.


    You would want to sleep by Jessica''s side instead of mine— even though you always slept in between us. You would only eat your food when Jessica fed you. I will be honest and say I was extremely jealous of her.


    My envy for Jessica grew day by day, but I didn''t hate her. I loved her just as before, perhaps even more— seeing how beautiful she was bing." She chuckled wryly.


    "A few years passed, and you have grown enough to do everything on your own. You could eat on your own, you could even bath on your own— even though you were only three years old.


    At that time, you started to avoid both Jessica and me, and we didn''t know why. You began to act grumpy and run away whenever we tried to talk to you. And it wasn''t a normal type of avoiding; you were trying your best to not speak or look at us.


    That was a crazy phase, not going to lie. But that phase didn''tst long, and you eventually started speaking to us and acted as if everything was normal despite us sulking at you for treating us like that."


    She let out a soft chuckle as she recalled the events with a distant smile on her face.