All Chapters of Scars of his father: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
10 chapters
Chapter 1 THE NIGHT HIS FATHER CRIED
Selma Elias shocked when the ceramic plate burst apart inches from his face. The crash ripped through the apartment like gunfire. Rice and stew splattered across the pale wall beside him. Tiny shards skipped across the floor and stopped near his bare feet.For a second, nobody moved. Then Matilde laughed, Not the soft kind of laugh mothers gave their children. This one was sharp, bitter, cruel.“Look at him,” she spat. “Standing there like a lost dog.”Selma’s fingers tightened around his spoon beneath the table. Across from him, Rafael Elias remained still beside the dining chair, his work uniform damp with sweat and engine oil. The collar hung crooked around his neck. Exhaustion clung to him heavier than the grease staining his sleeves. His eyes stayed lowered.“I said I’m sorry,” Rafael murmured. Matilde scoffed loudly.“Sorry?” She grabbed the small bundle of cash from the table and waved it in the air. “Do you think apologies pay bills?”The ceiling fan creaked slowly overhead. S
Chapter 2 THE MEN WHO VISITED WHEN HIS FATHER LEFT
Selma squeezed his face the moment he heard a man laughing inside his mother’s bedroom. It was noon, his father was supposed to be at the workshop and his mother was supposed to be alone.The laughter came again, low, comfortable, too comfortable. Selma stood in confused in the narrow hallway with his school bag hanging from one shoulder. Sweat clung to the back of his neck from the long walk home under the afternoon sun, but suddenly his body felt cold, very cold.Another sound followed the creak of the bed. Then Matilde’s voice drifted through the door soft, playful. A voice Selma had never heard her use on Rafael.“You worry too much,” she said between quiet laughs.A man answered something too low for Selma to hear clearly. Then both of them laughed again. Selma’s fingers slowly tightened around the strap of his bag.The apartment suddenly smelled different today. Masculine cologne mixed with his mother’s perfume, the scent sat heavily in the air, he stared at the bedroom door. Hi
Chapter 3 THE DAY HIS FATHER BROKE
Selma stood up when he heard his father’s voice outside the front door.“Matilde?”The shopping bag slipped from Selma’s hands instantly. Tomatoes rolled across the kitchen floor, Inside the bedroom, the laughter died, the entire apartment froze.Selma stood near the counter with wide eyes while Matilde jerked upright from the bed. Beside her, the half dressed man cursed under his breath and scrambled for his trousers.Rafael was not supposed to be home, not this early, never this early. Another knock landed against the softer door this time.“Matilde?”Panic flashed across the room like lightning. Matilde jumped off the bed, tightening the bedsheet around her chest while glaring at the man beside her. “Hide,” she hissed.The man grabbed his shirt from the floor hurriedly. “Hide where?” Selma’s pulse hammered violently in his ears.The bedroom smelled heavily of sweat, perfume, and alcohol. The air itself felt dirty.Another knock came, this one firmer. “Open the door.” Rafael sounded
Chapter 4 A MAN WHO STOPPED FIGHTING
Selma jerked awake when something crashed in the kitchen. For one confused second, darkness swallowed everything around him.Then came the sound again, glass rolling across the floor. A chair scraping roughly, His chest tightened instantly.“Dad?”No answer, only heavy footsteps. Selma pushed off his thin blanket and hurried toward the bedroom door. The apartment sat in darkness except for the weak yellow light glowing from the kitchen.Rain hammered softly outside, The clock above the television read 2:17 a.m. Rafael stood near the sink gripping the counter with both hands.His work shirt hung halfway out of his trousers. Rainwater dripped from his sleeves onto the floor. A nearly empty whiskey bottle rested beside him, Selma froze.The smell hit him first, strong enough to sting his nose. Rafael turned slightly at the sound of movement, His eyes looked swollen, Red veins stretched across the whites.For a moment he simply stared at Selma as if struggling to recognize him. Then he fo
Chapter 5 PEACE WAS FOUND INSIDE A BOTTLE
Selma’s eyes opened weirdly when he saw his father asleep on the workshop floor beside an empty bottle. The garage smelled like burnt oil, sweat, and alcohol.Metal tools hung crookedly on the walls. Somewhere deeper inside the workshop, a radio played old music through static while mechanics laughed over a football match.But Rafael Elias wasn’t moving, He lay beside an unfinished car with one arm covering his face, grease staining his shirt and whiskey pooled near his fingertips. For one terrifying second, Selma thought he was dead.“Dad?” No response. Selma hurried across the garage floor, stepping around loose bolts and dark oil stains. His school uniform clung to his skin from the afternoon heat, but cold fear crawled through him anyway.“Dad.” This time he touched Rafael’s shoulder gently, Rafael jerked awake instantly. The bottle slipped from his hand and rolled beneath the car.His breathing came fast at first, Panicked, Wild eyes searching the room. Then they landed on Selma,
Chapter 6 THE WOMAN WHO NEVER STOPPED
Selma nodded his head at the sound of laughter coming from inside the house again but this time it wasn’t Matilde alone, it was deeper. Like someone who had been there before. His fingers tightened around the iron gate as he stood outside the compound, rainwater dripping from his soaked uniform onto the dusty ground.The front door wasn’t fully closed, It was slightly open just enough for voices to escape. Selma stepped closer slowly, The living room light spilled onto the porch inside, Matilde’s voice floated out, soft and playful.“You always exaggerate.” A man chuckled.Selma’s stomach tightened instantly, He recognized that tone not again he pushed the door open just slightly. The first thing he saw was Matilde sitting comfortably on the couch.Her legs crossed, A glass of wine in her hand and she looked relaxed across from her sat a man Selma did not know who’s well dressed and clean shoes, expensive wristwatch glinting under the light.His father’s place on the couch once sacred
Chapter 7 THE JOB HE COULDN'T KEEP
Selma stopped in his tracks when he saw his father sitting on the roadside outside the workshop, head buried in his palms. For a second, he thought he had taken the wrong path home.Because Rafael Elias did not look like a man with a job anymore. He looked like something abandoned. The afternoon sun pressed hard against the dusty road. Cars sped past, throwing up thin waves of sand that clung to Rafael’s worn shirt, His toolbox sat beside him unopened.Selma stepped closer slowly, “Dad?” Rafael didn’t move, Selma's chest tightened. He walked around slightly until he could see his father’s face, Rafael’s eyes were open but unfocused like he wasn’t really there.“Dad,” Selma called again, softer this time. Rafael blinked slowly then exhaled. “Ah” he murmured “You’re here.” Selma noticed immediately the smell of alcohol again.Selma’s jaw tightened. “What happened?” he asked quietly, Rafael stared at the road. “Nothing.” Selma looked toward the workshop entrance behind them.A few mechan
Chapter 8 THE NIGHT OUTSIDE THE DOOR
Selma jolted awake when his father first hit the gate again like a man knocking on a door that already belonged to someone else, he sat up instantly on his bed.The room was dark except for the faint glow of the streetlight slipping through the curtain, then he heard his voice again calling “Matilde”. Selma stood up slowly, barefoot against the floor, and moved toward the hallway.The house was too quiet, except for the knocking and he reached the front door but didn’t open it. Instead, he listened and a few minutes outside, rain had just started falling. It started soft at first then heavier, Rafael knocked again and this time weaker.“Open the door”Selma’s hand hovered near the lock but something stopped him, the sound of Matilde’s voice came from the bedroom.“Go back to where you are coming from!”Selma froze, his chest tightened instantly. Rafael went silent for a second and then a low laugh escaped him, just something broken slipping out.Selma pressed his forehead lightly agai
Chapter 9 THE LAST DRIVE
Selma got emotional when he saw his father take the car keys off the kitchen table like they already belonged to someone else, the house was quiet in a wrong way.Rain still dripped from Selma’s hair as he stood near the doorway, watching Rafael move slowly across the room.Matilde sat on the couch scrolling through her phone like nothing had happened last night, like a man had not collapsed outside their gate.Like Selma had not dragged his father inside half-dead, Rafael didn’t look at her not even at once. He just turned the key in his palm again and again, and Selma stepped forward.“Dad?” Rafael stopped for a second and then continued walking. Selma followed him quickly “Where are you going” but he didn't answer.Matilde finally looked up from her phone, “Don’t start another drama this morning,” she muttered, Rafael stopped at the door and his hand rested on the handle.Selma felt something tighten in his chest. “Dad,” he said again, louder. “Talk to me.” Rafael didn’t turn but h
Chapter 10 THE FUNERAL PROMISE
Tears dropped from Selma's eyes when he saw the wooden coffin being lowered into the ground. It didn’t feel real, neither the soil nor the crowd, not even the white cloth draped over trembling shoulders around him.Only the sound was real, earth hitting wood each one heavier than the last. Selma stood at the edge of the grave with his shoes sinking slightly into damp soil. Rain had stopped, but the sky still hung low like it hadn’t decided whether to cry again.His hands were numb completely and behind him, people whispered voices he didn’t care about. “He was a good man.” “Such a tragedy.” “Alcohol took him.” Selma heard none of it properly, only fragments of broken pieces like a radio too far away.The priest’s voice rose and fell somewhere in front of him but Selma’s eyes stayed fixed on the coffin, the same coffin that held his father inside it.Rafael Elias. A man who used to fix engines with tired hands, a man who used to smile softly when Selma came home from school, a man who