Chapter 119: VOL 2 Chapter 64: The overwhelming weight of reality.
One day, just like any other, Martín—her younger brother—grew tired and tried to defend himself from his cousin. This cousin, who used to treat him kindly and play with him all the time, now wanted to show off in front of his friends by hitting him with a stick just for fun. The problem was that, in Martín's attempt to defend himself, he ended up pushing the ruthless boy, who fell to the ground and ended up with his head bleeding.
That incident nearly drove their aunt insane. She beat all three of them so severely that they still bore several scars from it. But she wasn't satisfied with just that—she threw them out on the street with nothing but the old clothes they were wearing, which were torn and bloodied from the beating they had received.
Even though the siblings apologized and begged the merciless woman not to kick them out, she refused to listen. She went so far as to call the neighborhood's private security where they lived—a moderately exclusive, relatively high-level area in Aranta, to which she had moved shortly after taking in the siblings, leaving behind the lower-middle-class neighborhood where she had previously lived.
When the guards arrived, the hysterical woman demanded at the top of her lungs that they kick the siblings out of the neighborhood. The guards did so literally, without a moment's hesitation, looking at them with arrogance and contempt on their ugly faces the entire time.
That was where the siblings' problems really began. Although they had spent a year practically living like slaves, they still had food and a roof over their heads. But after being expelled from their aunt's house, even those small comforts became luxuries they could only dream of having again.
After leaving their aunt's house, Clara and her two siblings went to the home their parents had left them, hoping to live there. One of the reasons they had decided to stay with their aunt in the first place was because she had sworn on their mother's memory that she would keep the house in perfect condition. So, they could return at any time. After all, it was their most precious possession, full of memories from the happy life they once had with their parents.
But the siblings' innocent hopes were once again crushed by the overwhelming weight of reality. Their exhausting journey back to their old home—where they arrived after forcing their bruised bodies to keep walking—only served to reveal that the house had been sold not long after it was handed over to them.
That day, with a broken heart and her frail body covered in wounds, Clara, while clinging to her siblings with tears streaming down her face, could only watch through the windows at the family now living in the house they had loved so dearly. She saw them dining happily, smiles on their faces, but their presence seemed to bother the family, as they were eventually chased away from there not long after.
After a series of devastating blows from reality, Clara and her siblings had no choice but to sleep on the streets and eat leftovers given to them by restaurants or families. At the same time, they desperately tried to find their other relatives, the same ones who had seemed so empathetic and caring when their parents passed away, swearing they would help them with anything they needed. But they were unable to find almost any of them, as if they had vanished into thin air.