My Family, My Friends, My Fiancé, All Hers Chapter 08
Another week passed.
I thought they would slowly give up.
But when I returned from the lab one evening, someone was waiting outside my apartment building.
It was Mom.
She had lost a great deal of weight since I last saw her. Her eyes were swollen, and she carried an insulated
food container.
The moment she saw me, she stumbled forward.
“Claire…”
I stopped ten feet away instead of going to her.
“How did you find me?”
Mom wiped at her tears, her voice painfully hoarse.
“Your adviser didn’t tell us. Your father tracked down one of your old classmates and got the address.”
“I made your favorite chicken soup. You’ve been out here all alone…”
“I know I was wrong. I shouldn’t have lied to you or helped Chloe hide the truth.”
She took another step toward me. I took one step back.
Mom stopped.
I looked at her, my voice calm.
“Mom, the last time you pretended to have a heart attack and tricked me into going to the hospital, you used
the same excuse about making chicken soup. You did it so Ethan could go on a date with Chloe.”
“I lay in that hospital bleeding for three days while you were next door cutting cake for Chloe…”
“Did you think about the fact that you had another daughter, even for one second?”
Mom’s insulated container hit the ground with a loud clang.
She covered her face and crouched down.
“It was my fault… I truly didn’t know that had happened to you…”
“If I’d known, I would’ve gone looking for you even if it killed me…”
I didn’t listen to the rest.
I walked around her and entered the building.
My finger shook a little when I tapped my key fob.
But I didn’t look back.
Once upstairs, I stood by the window and looked down.
Mom was still crouched on the sidewalk. The container lay on its side, soup spilled across the pavement.
I closed the curtains.
Six months earlier, seeing her cry would’ve made me soften immediately.
I would’ve run downstairs to help her up and said “It’s okay,” just as I had every other time.
But this time, I couldn’t do it.
Every word of forgiveness lodged in my throat. I couldn’t force any of them out.
The next day, Dad and Ryan took her place outside the building.
I didn’t go downstairs.
On the third day, Emily and Jason came.
I still didn’t go down.
They waited outside for six hours, until building management came and told them to leave.
Through the curtains, I saw Emily crying so hard she could barely stand.
Jason kept making phone calls. They probably still didn’t know my new number, so he couldn’t have been
calling me.
On the fourth day, no one came.
I let out a breath of relief and left for work.
But the moment I stepped outside, I saw someone sitting in a car by the curb.
Ethan Carter.
