Chapter 7
Caleb shook his head, his voice trembling with disbelief.
“You guys were the ones who celebrated my birthday back then? That’s impossible. If it was really your mom and I had treated her in that manner for all these years, she could have informed me. If she’d told me, I wouldn’t have treated her like that!” he insisted, desperately trying to rewrite the past in his head.
The truth is that when I first saw Caleb, I immediately recognized him.
My face lit up, and I was about to say something.
But before I could, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at me with this
cold, detached expression.
“Hah, so you’re the baggage your mom brought along?” he sneered.
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Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Caleb shook his head, his voice trembling with disbelief.
“You guys were the ones who celebrated my birthday back then? That’s impossible. If it was really your mom and I had treated her in that manner for all these years, she could have informed me. If she’d told me, I wouldn’t have treated her like that!” he insisted, desperately trying to rewrite the past in his head.
The truth is that when I first saw Caleb, I immediately recognized him.
My face lit up, and I was about to say something.
But before I could, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked at me with this
cold, detached expression.
“Hah, so you’re the baggage your mom brought along?” he sneered.
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Chapter 7
I glanced at my mom, and at that moment, I realized she had recognized him long before I did.
But why hadn’t she ever told him?
Why had she kept it a secret?
My mom once told me, “Caleb is a kid filled with insecurity and arrogance. He doesn’t believe anyone could ever really love him. I want to show him he’s wrong. I’ll love him just as much as I love you, Lily. And when he accepts us, we’ll tell him the truth, okay?”
She loved him as much as she loved me for all those years.
But in Caleb’s mind, he thought her kindness was just an act, some facade. He didn’t believe anyone could love him without expecting something in return. He once told me he thought all relationships were based on self–interest.
I closed my eyes, unable to bear the thought of how much pain my mom
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must’ve felt. She loved, him
unconditionally, and he never even knew.
Caleb’s emotions spiraled out of control. He backed away, shaking his head furiously.
“No! That’s not what happened! Your mom just wanted to make me regret everything. This is all just revenge, nothing more!”
Hearing him twist things around again, I finally snapped. I walked to the back of the cave and grabbed a stack of letters. They were my mom’s diaries.
When I sorted her belongings after she passed, Caleb burned most of my mother’s things in a fit of rage. The letters were the few things I had managed to rescue from the fire. The edges were still charred from the fire.
The entries were filled with details about him and me: his favorite foods, how he dressed, and little things she noticed that no one else ever did.
Caleb hesitated as he took them from me.
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As he started reading, his brow furrowed deeper with each page.
While he read, I dug a small hole in the cave and gently placed my mom’s ashes inside.
She adored this location, and finally, she could rest in peace forever.
When I finished, I looked back at Caleb.
He was still standing there, his emotions. on the verge of collapse. Tears mixed with snot dripped onto the letters as he read.
My mom’s words finally hit him.
Caleb realized, too late, that someone had truly loved him. It was more than he could handle.
With a loud, guttural shout, he bolted out of the cave like he was trying to outrun the weight of his guilt and pain.
“No, this is not true!!” His cry echoed, filled with so much regret.
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Chapter 7
42
A page from the diary fluttered to the ground in front of me. I picked it up and immediately recognized the entry. It was about when my mom went to great lengths to convince Caleb’s biological mother to attend his graduation.
I remember that day vividly.
Caleb had been so excited, barely able to contain it, when his mother finally showed up, taking deep breaths to steady himself.
My mom had made it happen, even though Caleb’s biological mother didn’t want to be there.
Later, though, his mother saw how much my mom cared for him, and out of fear of losing her place in Caleb’s life, she planted seeds of doubt between him and my mom. And it worked.
From that day on, Caleb’s attitude toward my mom turned colder and more heartless.
No wonder he was falling apart now.
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He once had two people in this world who loved him unconditionally. My mom, who loved him as a son, and I, who loved him. more than anything in this world.
But in the end, he lost us both.
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