Babel Novel
4
Chapter 4
+ 5 Points
Chapter 4
I tried, but it didn’t work.
I can’t leave this place.
That year, for the SAT, I applied to a university in Providence for their interior design program.
Noel changed my application to a local,
ordinary university.
Because Lydia’s grades were so poor she couldn’t even get into community colleges, she had to intern at his company.
So, I had to stay in this city with Lydia.
Noel chose an obscure major for me.
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He resented me. Not only did he want to trap me here, but he also wanted to seal off my
future.
Yet, I remained steadfast in my passion for interior design. Through perseverance and self–learning, I graduated and worked my way up from a design assistant to a chief designer.
Lydia, lacking design talent and motivation, remained a design assistant at Noel’s company
for five years.
Noel, however, paved the way for Lydia.
He said it didn’t matter if Lydia didn’t work hard; he would support her for life.
Later, when I tried to move to another city for
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better opportunities, Noel always found a way to bring me back, using me as Lydia’s blood donor.
He seemed to always know my whereabouts.
When I left Noel’s office, I ran into Lydia.
She leaned close and whispered in my ear, “Sis, everything is mine if I want it. There’s nothing out of reach–your family, your blood, and everything about you. You mean nothing; you’re just my blood bank.”
I kept my head down, counting silently to three, but I still couldn’t hold back.
Grabbing her by the hair, dragged her towards another office.
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She screamed and shouted, but I ignored her.
I pulled her into an empty office and locked the door behind us.
“What are you going to do?”
Fear crept into her voice.
I didn’t respond, rolling up my sleeves before delivering a hard slap.
“You hit me! Noel will kill you!”
Another slap followed.
Her delicate skin bore ten vivid red handprints.
She cried, and a crowd gathered outside the glass door, with Noel pounding on it.
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I wanted to stop, but years of repression drove
me to lose control.
By the time Noel broke in, Lydia was on the floor, her face flushed red from the blows, trembling uncontrollably.
Seeing Noel, she threw herself into his arms,
sobbing.
“Noel, she hurt me so badly. Please, make her
pay…”
But Noel didn’t hit me. He simply told me to “get out.”
Later that night, Noel called me.
“Come to the hospital and give Lydia a blood
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transfusion.”
His voice was icy, his tone matter–of–fact.
It was as if I owed Lydia, and he was just collecting the debt.
“I won’t give her a drop of my blood.”
“You have thirty minutes to get to the hospital, or… face the consequences.”
Thirty minutes passed.
“Where are you? Why haven’t you arrived yet?”
“I’ve told you, I won’t give her any of my blood.”
“Don’t push me.”
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The call ended abruptly.
Minutes later, two men came for me.
“Ms. Kelley, you need to come with us.”