Office Diaries - Chapter 104

“What are you saying? I lived here until seven months ago Big Sis. I can’t remember this house being renovated,” Ria stated, totally in confusion.

Having said that, she watched as her sisters exchanged looks. Their eyes had widened in awe as understanding dawned in them.

“Ria… it’s the other you right? I mean you’re the other Ria right?” they asked which puzzled her further.

“Bis Sis, what are you saying? I don’t understand,” she replied with a laugh, still believing that her sisters were somehow playing a joke on her.

Her siblings on the other hand looked more concerned— not to mention disconcerted having realized what was wrong. “Ria, you graduated two years ago…” they informed her seriously.

“What? How’s that possible?” Her brows rose in disbelief. “Stop kidding me you two. That’s not a funny joke,” she added with a nervous chuckle as her heart raced, her temple beginning to throb.

“We’re not kidding,” her oldest sister told her in a seriousness which wiped away the smile on her face.

She was starting to feel that whatever it was that was going on, her siblings were not kidding. She watched as her sisters exchanged looks once more and she swallowed hard, anticipating their words.

“Come here,” they beckoned as they guided her to the long sofa across the single chair she had been occupying just earlier so they could sit on either side of her.

One of her big sisters then left the living room for a while only to return armed with several photo albums which she placed in front of their puzzled youngest sibling.

“Look at these. I think it’s time for you to know about yourself,” her eldest sister announced and Ria’s anxiety grew.

“What are you talking about? What do you mean ‘know about myself’? I should know everything about me, right? It’s my own person after all,” she scoffed but without confidence and both his sisters shook their heads at her.

“Little Sis, I know this is going to be a little confusing— not to mention scary as hell. But know that your big sisters are just here for you,” they told her as they held her arm, squeezing it as if they wanted to give her strength.

“Now, you two are really scaring me,” Ria stated honestly; her panic began to rise from the pit of her stomach to his throat, suffocating her and she stood up. She was in no mood to put up with this, whatever this was.

“I came here because I wanted to have a breathing space from the problems I have back in Singapore. But this…” she indicated the house and the photo albums as she pulled her arm from her sister’s touch so she could place a hand against her throbbing temple. Her headache was worsening and she felt like screaming at her siblings.

If this were a nightmare, she wanted to wake up.

“Ria, we already told you it’s difficult. But aren’t you at least a bit curious? You yourself said you were last here a year ago— and we said you were here days ago. Don’t you want to know?” her sister prompted and she was totally conflicted inside.

She was already emotionally troubled coming here and now, the things her siblings were telling her were not helping at all.

“Are you guys out of your mind? I shouldn’t have come here,” she stated in anger as she stood up, ready to leave, but her sisters grabbed her, making her keep still.

“We’re sorry,” her eldest sister said as her grip on her arm gentled. “We have no idea if we’re handling this right or wrong since this is the first time we’ve encountered this “you” again after some time,” she continued and Ria’s anger turned back to bewilderment.

Her sister made seeing her sound like a rare event and she was at a loss once more as to how to deal with it.

Then again, they were right. She did want to know. Why? How?

An array of expressions crossed her face as she shifted her weight from one foot to another in her unease. But in the end, she decided to sit down. After all, aside from her love life, there was something that’s been troubling her lately. She had become more aware of her memory gaps but they weren’t really that bad. Or were they?

“What?” she asked wearily, eyeing the albums in front of her like it was Pandora’s box but her sisters’ determined looks made her man up and decide to face whatever it was.

There was nothing bad about opening photo albums right? It wasn’t as if she’d die or something.

Her eldest sister handed her one of them; Ria took it with trembling hands and started scanning the pages.

It was her photo album.

In it were dozens and dozens of pictures of her and most of them she could remember but there were some that she couldn’t.

“When did we take this?” she asked his sister as she stared at her picture wherein she looked very different.

In the photograph, she was sitting with his sister on their old couch but she seemed like another person. It wasn’t her face that was different per se, but the aura of the person that was her in the picture emitted was atypical.

Instead of her kind and smiling face, the “Ria” who stared back at her from the photo had a pair of sharp vixen eyes with mischief glinting in them. Her smile too was more of a smirk than an actual smile— a smile which reminded her of her immediate boss, Charles. It was as if she was mocking everyone who looked at her.

“That was taken on my birthday four years ago,” her sister informed her and Ria frowned.

She couldn’t remember that particular time, and as she browsed the album, she found more pictures of her that she couldn’t remember taking at all— and all of “her” there looked…different.

Her headache becoming more pronounced, she flinched as she asked herself once more what was going on. And then…

Then she reached the last page and she stopped.

Reaching out, her long fingers touching the grainy photograph taken on the day of the competition, a wistful smile played on her lips.

She was standing on the stage, grinning like silly with her classmates. But what really caught her eye was the tall man standing next to her in the picture.

Even without a smile, Michael Chen looked very handsome.

Seeing his face however reminded Ria of her broken heart, and the smile vanished from her lips as they trembled. Recalling the hurt she experienced upon learning that the man she was in love with was in fact a married man, she felt like crying.

“That competition was two years ago,” her sister said next to her, and Ria’s frown deepened, her attention returning to the entirety of the photograph in her hand.

“Two years ago?” she repeated her sister’s words.

How could this be? She could clearly remember this event happening.

“That was taken in February 2009,” her sister continued confusing her further.

“I know— but that was seven months ago right?” Ria questioned desperately although she knew by the looks her sisters gave her that it wasn’t the case.

“Ria, it’s already January 2012. More than two years had passed since that time,” they said.

Ria couldn’t understand but she continued to listen anyway. She couldn’t remember things but somehow as her sisters fed her with details, bits and pieces of memories flashed in her mind.

“You were the one who gave the money to renovate this house Ria,” her sister informed her. “After you graduated, you transferred to the dormitory your company-owned in Newton, and became very busy with projects.”

Newton?

“W-wait… the company house isn’t in Newton. I live in Sentosa Island,” Ria insisted as the pain in her head intensified.

She couldn’t remember living in a dormitory at all. All she remembered was the huge house with its rich furnishing.

Feeling genuinely troubled, Ria closed her eyes as hazy fragments of memories came piecing together in her head, but they were too much that she suddenly willed them away. But they wouldn’t.

Once she thought about them, the memories didn’t stop. But the recollections that came rushing through her didn’t make sense— at least not to her.

All that ever made sense to her was the first two. “I live in Sentosa Island. I never lived in a dormitory,” she insisted once more as she clasped her head; visions from the photos and her house whirled in her mind. People she met, events she attended, the different hustle and bustle of the day to day life she could remember flooded her brain and she bent forward.

Nausea ȧssailed her senses. She felt sick— really sick.

“I live in Sentosa Island. I live in Sentosa Island,” she said over and over again as if reciting the words over and over would help her hold onto the only reality she understood. She lifted her head, her eyes beseeching her siblings’ hoping they’d tell her she was right.

But she was wrong.

“Ria, that’s not your company’s dormitory. The house in Newton is,” they said as her eldest sister held her face in her hands so that they could see eye to eye. “The house in Sentosa Island you’re talking about, that’s your husband’s house…”