I Was Born For Their Mistakes, Not For Love Chapter 06
The doctor crouched beside my body and pressed two fingers against my neck for a long moment
Then he slowly looked up at Dad, sympathy filling his eyes.
“I’m sorry. Your daughter is gone.”
The words dropped into the room like a stone into dead water.
Maya broke first.
“Why?! Why would this happen to her? She was still so young! Why did she have to die?!”
Caleb collapsed onto the floor, forehead pressed against the ground.
“Why wasn’t it me instead? Hazel… this hurts so bad. Come back and let me take your place, okay? I’m a coward. I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry, Hazel… I’m so sorry…”
Dad tilted his head back as tears streamed down his sweat-soaked face.
“How did this happen…?”
He grabbed the doctor’s coat with both hands, clutching the fabric so tightly his knuckles turned
white.
“Doctor, please save her. I’ll pay anything. I’ll sell the house if I have to. Just save my daughter.
Please!”
The doctor didn’t pull away.
He only let out a quiet sigh.
“It’s not about money.”
After a pause, he glanced at my bruised body.
“She ingested a large amount of poison and suffered prolonged oxygen deprivation in an enclosed space. Based on body condition, she’s been dead for over three hours.”
The hallway fell silent.
Three hours ago, Mom had still been eating breakfast.
Still calmly spreading jam across toast while saying, “What’s the rush? I haven’t even finished
eating yet.
Mom swayed where she stood.
Her voice came out barely louder than a whisper.
“That’s impossible… You quacks don’t know what you’re talking about. My daughter isn’t dead.
Why would you say something so horrible?”
Her voice grew louder with every word until she was practically screaming.
The doctor frowned.
“Ma’am, please calm down. Your daughter consumed rat poison and was trapped in an oxygen-deprived environment. That combination is lethal even for a healthy adult. As her parents how exactly were you supervising her?”
Then his eyes landed on the deep bruises around neck.
Anger crept into his voice.
my
“I can’t even imagine how much pain this child suffered before she died.”
That sentence sliced straight through Mom’s final defense.
“The rat poison expired over a year ago!” she screamed hysterically. “I checked! Expired poison isn’t dangerous anymore! Hazel wouldn’t die from that!”
The doctor stared at her like he was looking at a monster.
“Ma’am, even expired rodenticide remains highly toxic. Even with reduced potency, it can still cause catastrophic internal bleeding and death in a fully grown adult.”
Mom let out a shrill, broken scream.
“You’re lying! Shut up! You don’t know anything! Stop making things up!”
Like an animal cornered past the point of reason, she lunged at him.
She shoved the doctor hard enough to make him stumble backward, then swept the medical kit onto the floor. Equipment scattered everywhere with a loud crash.
“Get out! All of you, get out! My daughter is just sleeping! You’re all frauds! Get out of my house!”
The nurse hurried forward to steady the doctor.
The two of them exchanged a look, shock and disgust obvious in their eyes.
But neither of them argued back.
They had seen this too many times before.
Denial was often the first stage of grief.
Mom shoved the last nurse out the front door before turning back around.
Her hair hung in tangled disarray, one foot bare, looking less like a mother and more like someone losing her mind.
She staggered toward me and reached out trembling hands.
“Hazel… let Mommy hold you… Please open your eyes and look at me…”
Before she could touch me, Caleb shoved her away violently.
He stood in front of my body like a wall.
“This is your fault. All of it.”
Mom froze.
“Why did you torture her?” His voice cracked apart. “Why did you spend her entire life hurting her? What did she ever do to you? Tell me! What did she ever do wrong?!”
Tears finally spilled down his face.
“Were you ever really her mother?”
His voice hollowed out completely.
“Did you ever love her at all?”
He didn’t scream the last question.
That made it even more devastating.
Mom looked like she’d just been struck by lightning.
Then the tears came pouring down.
