87 - Fred

I knew it was all my fault, but the certainty only came on the day Rebecca's mother received the news. In fact, when she saw, watching the news, that her daughter was missing. I was still in hospital. I was still debilitated, struggling to leave the devices and look for it. But Rebecca's mother went to the hospital. And she visited me.

Sophie Smith, the woman that Rebecca admired so much for having survived a toxic relationship, was desolate, broken, lost. Even inside a hospital, even surrounded by my family and medical staff, she screamed and blamed me. She cried and pointed her finger at me, while saying:

"You promised, Fred! You promised you would take care of my daughter, and you took her away from me!”

After that day, my dreams were invaded by Sophie's voice, by the image of what I thought Rebecca would be already dead in some abandoned grave. And then, sleeping or taming myself with medicines, became everything but a moment of rest. And I couldn't even deny it. Because I knew it