Chapter 6
Inside, Nina’s screams still echoed through the house, but I felt no relief.
Instead, they stirred up painful memories I had long tried to bury. I quietly opened the door, slipped out, and hailed a taxi.
My mentor called me several times, reminding me of my impending departure. I completed the paperwork and would leave the country in a week. As I was packing my stuff, I included my mom’s ashes, which were carefully stored in a small box–the one she had given me as a child.
I was so happy to receive it back then. I never imagined that it would hold her remains one day.
Then, around eight in the evening, Caleb finally returned.
He rushed in, wrapping his arms around me as his desperation was palpable. “I’m
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sorry! Lily, please forgive me. Let’s start
over okau?!!
I shook my head, cold eyes fixed on him. “No, Caleb. I don’t love you anymore.”
Caleb stared at me, trying to process my words. After a moment, he let out a strained laugh. “You hate me, don’t you?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he continued, his voice frantic. “You can hit me. Get even with me. Once you’ve done that, we can be together again, right?”
He grabbed my hand and started punching himself in the chest repeatedly as if he could force me to care.
Disgusted, I yanked my hand away.
Caleb didn’t seem fazed. He went to the corner of the room and pulled out box after box of high–proof liquor. “Lily, you hate me for making you go to that drinking party, don’t you? Fine. I’ll drink the same amount of bottles you drank that night. I’ll drink them all!”
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Before I could say anything, he started downing glass after glass. I watched him in
horror.
Caleb was allergic to alcohol. The last time. he drank like this, he nearly died. It was my mom who had stayed by his side all night, making sure he survived.
She always said Caleb didn’t know how to love because he hadn’t received enough love himself. Mom never took his offenses personally, treating him like a child deprived of affection.
But a few words from his biological mother were all it took for him to hate mine.
By now, Caleb’s body was covered in red rashes, a clear sign of his allergy.
I looked him dead in the eye as my voice grew cold. “Stop being so childish, Caleb. Even if you drink yourself to death, I won’t ever like you.”
The coldness in my tone seemed to cut deeper than anything else. He fell to his
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knees in front of me, tears streaming down.
his face. “No, Lily, please don’t look at me like that. Not with those eyes. Please, just look at me differently, okay?”
Caleb appeared calmer after the ambulance took him to the hospital. His attempts to win me back didn’t stop, but his tone shifted back to its usual careless
manner.
Finally, when none of it worked, his patience ran out.
“Lily, what are you even mad about?” he snapped, his voice sharp. “I’ve already apologized, admitted I was wrong, drank all the liquor I could, and even ended up in the hospital. What more do you want from me?!”
His frustration boiled over. “Throwing a tantrum once or twice is fine, but don’t think my patience is endless!” He glared at me, anger growing. “I’ve been ridiculed so much because of your two–faced mother! I haven’t even held you accountable for all of
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that!”
He was bringing up my mom again. But this time, I didn’t ignore him.
I set down the clothes I had packed and looked up at him.
“Come with me,” I said.
Caleb blinked in confusion but followed me without protest. I drove for two hours, taking him to a cave I had found. The inside sparkled with glowing stones that decorated the walls, making the cave glow in the dark.
As expected, the moment Caleb saw it, his face lit up with awe. “Lily, did you find this place for me?” He bent down eagerly, picking up one stone after another. “You must’ve gone through so much trouble to gather all of these!”
I looked at him, watching how childlike he could still be sometimes. “Mom found them,” I said, holding one of the stones in my palm. “She collected them for your
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birthday.”
Caleb blinked, the excitement on his face dimming with confusion.
My mother didn’t live long enough to give them to Caleb. The stones glowed brightly
in
my palm, just like her love for Caleb that he never knew existed.
I took down a photo that my mother had placed at the top of the cave and handed it to him.
It was from Caleb’s sixth birthday.
a Vou
In the photo, Caleb stood in the garden, grinning ear to ear while holding a small cake. The moment Caleb saw it, his expression changed.
His eyebrows furrowed, and his breathing grew heavy. “How… how do you have this picture?!” His voice shook. “No, you stole it! Your mom didn’t even know my dad back then!”
But he was wrong. I remember that day
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clearly. My mom came up to me from school when she saw Caleb alone and crying outside his big villa.
Curled in a corner, he told us, through tears, “It’s my birthday, but my parents are too busy with work. No one remembered.”
He had been so polite and lonely that my mother pitied him.
She bought two little cakes–one for me and one for him.
“Your name is Caleb, right?” she said warmly. “Lily, come on, let’s wish Caleb a happy birthday!”
Together, we sang the birthday song and blew out the candles. For the first time that day, Caleb smiled through his tears.
Then, my mom took a photo of him, one for each of us.
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