Forced Marriage Alea
PPA 105# Restarting

Erica was propped up on the westefel in front of her while looking at her own face behind the mirror. A haggard face with puffy eyes. The nose is not like a clown who is given a reddening with a panda eye circle. For nearly twenty-four hours he locked himself in a room. Crying the stupidity he's been doing all this time.

Water still dripped from the face he had washed many times, but could not remove the aura of sadness and regret that lingered there.

"I'm sorry Mama Lex, this is all Mama's fault. Mama who ruined your life. Your mistakes in the past, you have to bear them. Forgive Mama, Lex," Erica groaned with tears that spilled back.

She washed her face with tears before she came out of the bathroom. The clock on the wall indicates that it is almost midnight. It's like it doesn't care about the time that keeps turning. Since last night, he's not been out of the room, stuff for a moment. Perih in the stomach does not make him flinch at all. But now he is thirsty. Draining the tears makes it eventually dehydrated. His throat was already dry. Making Erica inevitably have to step foot into the kitchen.

He took water from a kettle that was always provided by a housekeeper on a bar table near the kitchen. He threw his old body at the bar stool, then he gulped down the mineral water he had poured into the glass.

"Mbak Erica," said Dilla, surprising her brother-in-law.

Erica looked only at a glance. He had no energy to struggle with the woman he had always been hostile to all this time.

"Isn't anything?" asked Dilla when she saw Erica's face.

No answer came out of Erica's mouth. The woman who used to look perfect with makeup covering the wrinkles that trace on her face, looked sculpted. Dilla then pulled the chair next to Erica and dropped the body there. He accompanied Erica who dissolved in sadness in the silence of the night. For a long time they sat side by side, dissolving the increasingly dark night.

"I'm sorry Ma'am, for what I said yesterday" said Dilla, breaking the silence that wrapped both of them.

"You're not wrong. Here I am wrong" Erica said in a trembling voice.

Dilla's getting the wrong way. I didn't think Erica would say that. Dilla's mouth was confused as to how to melt the awkwardness between them.

Many years of living together with the satirical salaing made it difficult for Dilla to start a heart-to-heart chat. However, looking at Erica's face as the woman walked into the kitchen, made Dilla ventured to sit next to her. Erica looks really fucked up. Dilla believes that this middle-aged woman sitting next to her is in need of someone to share.

"I'm sorry," Erica said to make Dilla jerk, "I'm indeed a person who does not know himself," continued Erica with a clear circle that returned to drip.

"Mhrs .... " Dilla's reflexes put Erica in his arms. Burying that tired-looking face was leaning on his shoulder.

"I should have given up all my actions. Now I'm reaping from what I've been doing all this time" Erica said as she pleased, "It hurts so much more than the karma turned on me. But the karma I gave my own hands to Alex" said Erica still sobbing.

"But if I wasn't obsessed with Papa's confession to Alex, I wouldn't have forced my son to marry Sherly. I always thought badly of you all. But it was my own bad thoughts that blinded my eyes and heart."

"That's over, let it pass, Ma'am. There's no point in lingering in regret. I'm sure Alex can get through this."

"But I didn't just destroy my own son's future. Because my envy also causes the company to be in trouble" Erica said, releasing Dilla's embrace.

"No need to worry," added Dilla while pulling both of Erica's palms and grasping them tightly. "Trust everything to Ravka and Alex. I'm sure, they can improve things with Papa's guidance as well as Mas Derry" continued Dilla with a sincere smile on her lips.

"You're good Dil, it's not wrong Papa loves you so much."

"Papa loves you too. Because after all, you've given a grandson to Papa. He just doesn't know how to show his affection. He cares a lot for Erica and Alex. It's just that, sometimes the way is too hard as if to show the opposite, so it's very easy to misinterpret."

"I just realized, actually I'm too childish. I've done something wrong, but I hope you're the ones who flatter me. Perhaps God had been trying to rebuke me all this time, but I was too proud to realize his reprimand. Until I got a big slap from this."

"We can't change the past. But we can fix what's to come" Dilla said, staring at Erica with tenderness.

All the anger and annoyance at Erica's behavior had evaporated just like that, in order to get a sad look that piled up in the woman's eyes. All this time the communication was not good between them, bringing bitterness to grieve Erica to make the woman always throw tantrums. Adult age does not necessarily mature their way of thinking so far. They just let hate rule the heart, until it continues to roll like a growing snowball. A sense of hate that is useless and only leads to destruction.

"From now on can we forget the past? We are reorganizing this family and supporting each other as we should. Although late, at least it's better than nothing" added Dilla again.

Erica just nodded her head. There was no word he could say. A word capable of representing relief that strikes in the heart. At least this time, he did not want to repeat the same mistake, the mistake of fostering a disease lodged in the liver.

"I'm sorry Dilla again. For all the things I've done. Both when we were young until this time we lived together," said Erica sincerely while immersing a hug in Dilla's body.

"Sama-sama Ma'am. Forgive also for my caliphate and childish attitude," said Dilla, raising her hand to embrace Dilla to return her embrace.

A hug that was only a blink of an eye, but it released all the emotions that were buried in the chest.