“Amelia, I know that Mad Woman! Her name is Eunice!!!”-hongtran

“Amelia, I know that Mad Woman! Her name is Eunice!!!”
My father jumped up the moment he heard the name leave my mouth.
I had just finished confessing everything—every terrible secret I had buried for years. The room was still heavy with silence when he suddenly shouted those words.
My husband David had already left me. The moment he heard the truth about what I did to the Mad Woman’s daughter, he couldn’t even look at me again.

He abandoned me right there in the market.
He didn’t argue.
He didn’t ask questions.
He just got into his car with his friend Tim and drove away like I was a stranger.
Now I sat in my parents’ living room, broken and ashamed.
But the shock was not finished yet.
Because my father knew the woman.
“Wow…” my father muttered slowly, lowering himself into the chair again. “What a small world.”
He looked like someone who had seen a ghost.
“What goes around… truly comes around.”
“Daddy, what do you mean?” I asked desperately. “How do you know her?”
My mother sat beside him quietly.
She nodded slowly as if she already understood everything.
She had heard the story before.
My father wiped his face with his palm before speaking.
“I knew Eunice when I was still in my twenties,” he began slowly.

His eyes looked far away, like he was watching memories from another lifetime.
“She used to come to our house often,” he continued. “Back then she was young, very beautiful, and very clever.”
He paused and drank some water.
But I noticed his hands were shaking.
“She liked enjoyment,” he added. “Parties, expensive gifts, money. She always wanted more.”
I listened carefully.
Trying to understand how our lives had become connected like this.
“One day,” my father continued, “she accused me of something terrible.”
His voice hardened.
“She said I tried to rape her.”
My mother lowered her head.
I gasped.
“What?!”
“It was a complete lie,” my father said bitterly. “A wicked lie.”
“Why would she say that?” I asked.
My father clenched his jaw.
“Because of money.”
The room went silent.
“I had saved money that year to start a business,” he explained. “She wanted me to spend it on her—clothes, jewelry, parties.”
“But I refused.”
“And because of that… she destroyed my life.”
His voice cracked slightly.
“She reported me.”

“People believed her.”
“I was arrested.”
My chest tightened.
“How long…?” I whispered.
“Four years,” my father replied quietly.
“Four years of my youth wasted in prison for something I never did.”
My mother’s eyes filled with tears again.
“I only agreed to marry your father after he told me everything,” she said softly.
“I knew he was innocent.”
My mind was spinning.
“Daddy… are you sure it’s the same Eunice?” I asked carefully.
“Maybe it’s another person.”
My father shook his head firmly.
“No.”
“A face like that cannot be forgotten—even with madness.”
“Show me her picture.”
My hands trembled as I opened my phone.
I showed him the photo I had taken when the Mad Woman stood outside my gate screaming.
He studied the image carefully.
Then he let out a dry laugh.
“Yes.”
“It is her.”
He handed the phone back to me.

“The same Eunice who ruined my life.”
He leaned back in his chair and shook his head slowly.
“Now look at her.”
“A beggar.”
“Mad.”
“Roaming the streets.”
For a moment, none of us spoke.
The silence felt heavy with years of pain.
Then my mother spoke gently.
“The world is like a circle, Amelia.”
I looked at her.