Chapter 297
Chapter 297:
“My daughter, please… forgive me p>
I heard every word, but I ignored her and kept dragging Craig toward the parking lot, refusing to look back.
Memory…
“Mom, where are you going p>
“Mommy has to leave for a little while, but I’ll come back. And when I do, I promise I’ll take you with me p>
F𝗶ո𝖽 ոоv𝗲𝘭 P𝘋F𝘀 𝗼n 𝘨𝘢𝗹n𝗈𝗏еlѕ.с𝗈𝗆
“Then why do you have a suitcase p>
“It’s just some of Mommy’s clothes p>
“Mommy, don’t you love me anymore p>
“Why would you ask that? Of course I love you. You’ll always be my little one p>
“Then why are you leaving? Why can’t you stay with me? Why do you have to go p>
“Sweetheart, I wish I could explain it to you. You’re too little to understand right now. Someday, when you’re older, you’ll understand why I have to leave, and why things are like this p>
“Just promise you’ll come back. Promise me, Mom p>
“I promise, sweetheart. Really. I’ll come back for you p>
The memory faded.
“Bryan… I saw her again,” I whispered. Tears ran down my cheeks as I spoke to him in the kitchen, Nanay Emily’s lunch filling the air with its warm scent.
After that strange encounter with my mother at the mall, I’d come straight home with Craig and tried to calm down.
“Was it your mother again? Where did you see her this time p>
“At the mall. Today p>
“But I thought she was still in Amador p>
“That’s exactly what I thought. All this time I believed she’d settled in Seattle, and then I ran into her in Amador. Now she showed up here in Los Angeles. Sometimes it really feels like the world is too small p>
“Why won’t you talk to her, Belle? Ask her to explain everything. After everything that’s happened, maybe she finally has a reason for leaving all those years ago p>
“I’m not interested anymore, Bryan. I don’t need to hear her excuses. She was my mother for the first ten years of my life, and that was it. After she left, she wasn’t anymore—and she never will be. I have no connection to her p>
“But Belle, no matter what happened in the past, she’s still your mother p>
“A real mother never abandons her child, Bryan. I would give up everything before I ever left my own child p>
“You’ll never find out her side of the story if you don’t talk to her, Belle p>
“What’s the point of asking? No excuse she gives can erase the fact that she failed me as a mother p>
A dry laugh escaped me as I wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“Even if she explained everything, would it change anything at all? She can’t undo my childhood, Bryan. If she’d stayed… maybe I never would’ve gone through the things I went through with Félix p>
“Ysabelle p>
“There was a time when I believed she’d come back. Every year—on my birthday, on Christmas, any important day—I sat there waiting for her to walk through the door. But she never did. Over time, I learned to stop hoping p>