Chapter 14

When I woke up, I was already in the hospital. The nurse told me that I had slept for two days and two nights.

It was Aunt Linda who brought me food that night. I felt a little disappointed. She saw my sad face and snorted, “Why, don’t you want to see me?”

“No, no, I missed you so much.” I hesitated and asked, “Why didn’t my mom come?”

“I don’t know where your mother went after she sent you to the hospital.” Aunt Linda sighed, “I owed your family such a big trouble in my past life.”

Although she was full of complaints, she still carefully served the food to me. I was really hungry, so I said thank you and started to eat voraciously.

Aunt Linda stood by and watched me. When she saw that I had almost finished eating, she couldn’t help asking, “How did you offend your mother? Even if you banged your head against the bedside table, your mother wouldn’t forgive you.”

I hesitated for a moment, then said with a guilty conscience, “I ... I stole my mother’s money.”

“Is that all?” Aunt Linda seemed unconvinced and looked at me suspiciously, “You stole money from home when you were a child, but your mother didn’t hate you that much.”

I was shocked. Aunt Linda was a police officer after all, so she was very alert. The more I said, the more suspicious she would be. So I just made up a story: “Maybe she saw that I was so old, but I was still stealing money from home, so she thought I was hopeless.”

Aunt Linda thought about it, nodded and sneered: “You are quite useless and hopeless, or you are exaggerating a bit.”

I smiled bitterly and said, “Okay, I feel relieved with your words, Auntie. It seems that I am still a good child who can be taught.”

Aunt Linda sneered, “You? You’re not even close to being a good kid, more like a little bastard.”

I was stunned and looked at her: “What ... what do you mean?”

“It’s nothing. Just keep it quiet.”

At this moment, Patricia ran into the ward with her schoolbag on her back. She was so happy to see me wake up. I felt guilty because she cared about me so much. She really treated me as a relative and always took care of me. But every time I saw her, I always thought about going to bed, going to bed, going to bed.

Patricia sat by the bed and talked to me for a while. When Aunt Linda went to the hallway to answer the phone, she asked in a low voice, “What’s going on between you and your mom?”

I glanced at her and saw that she was curious but also confused. I couldn’t help but feel a little alert: “It’s nothing serious, it’s just...” I wanted to tell her the reason I just told Aunt Linda, but then I thought, this little girl must have some doubts in her heart if she asked this, and she might not believe me if I said something else.

After thinking for a while, he pretended to be angry and said to her: “It’s all your fault.”

“Blame me?” Patricia was stunned and asked back, “What does it have to do with me?”

I snorted, “You threw my mom into the study room, and you replaced the prince with a cat. I thought it was you lying on the bed, so I went up to you and kissed and hugged you. My mom thought I was being a hooligan and almost sent me to the police station.”

Patricia covered her mouth and asked in surprise, “Really?”

I thought about it and felt that it was still not convincing enough, so I simply added another insurance policy: “That’s right, I stole money from home a few days ago, and my mother was angry with me. My father had a fuss, and you did this to me again. My mother is desperate.”

Patricia pouted and thought for a while, then nodded: “Yeah, if it were me, I’d be desperate too. It seems like your mother is using you as a punching bag.”

I don’t know if she really believed my lies or if she was just pretending to be confused. This girl is silly and easy to deceive. It’s just that Aunt Linda’s words just now are a little unbelievable. She must have heard about the incident from Patricia. After all, she is a police officer, so maybe she guessed something from it.

She felt a little nervous, but then she thought again, she was just guessing after all, and even if she really had suspicions, she had no real evidence. This matter concerned her mother’s reputation, so she would definitely not say anything nonsense.

After the call, Aunt Linda returned to the ward, gave me a few instructions, and then took Patricia home.

Lying on the hospital bed, I still couldn’t calm down. My mother didn’t come to the hospital to see me, where is she now?

Given my mother’s personality, it’s impossible for her to forgive me easily. I wonder if she felt a little sad when she saw me faint?

Because I didn’t have a serious illness, my father came to the hospital to pick me up at noon the next day. Along the way, my father kept asking me what happened. Of course, I couldn’t tell him that your son cheated on you, so I used the reason I lied to Aunt Linda and Patricia yesterday and processed it a little more to continue to lie to my father.

When I got home, I felt cold and deserted. My mother was not at home. Without the presence of the hostess, the house was as messy as a doghouse.

I walked around the living room and felt as if I was in another world. My parents were celebrating my birthday just half a month ago, but now they are on the verge of a breakdown.

Dad was sitting on the sofa smoking a cigarette with a sad look on his face.

I asked him, “Dad, have you seen my mom?”

“No.”

“Do you know where my mother went?”

“How should I know?”

“Then you didn’t go looking for it?”

Dad was anxious and pressed the cigarette butt hard into the ashtray: “Of course I looked for it! But I couldn’t find your mother, what can I do.”

The father and son looked at each other in silence.

After a moment of silence, Dad sighed and said, “Take a rest, study hard, and study hard. Don’t worry about other things.”

I went back to my bedroom, and I had no intention of studying. I lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. I really wanted to know where my mother had gone. If my mother could forgive me, I swear that from now on I will be obedient, study hard, and never make her angry again.

In a daze, I fell asleep again.

After a rest at home, I returned to school. The final exam was coming up soon. My classmates were studying hard, but I was the only one wasting my time. I didn’t get my mother’s forgiveness, and I didn’t have the heart to study at all. College entrance examination, college entrance examination, bullshit!

In the next few days, my mother was still missing, and my father also disappeared from home. I think he was busy looking for my mother. Barbara was told to stay in school for the time being and not to come back before the exam. I was the only one left at home, and I spent five or six days in vain.

After school that afternoon, when I was almost home, I saw Elizabeth standing at the gate of the community. She was still wearing the light green school uniform and sneakers, with a ponytail and bangs on her forehead. She looked very innocent and well-behaved.

I was in no mood to pay attention to her, so I walked into the community without even saying hello. She didn’t care, and followed me with brisk steps. When I stood in front of my house and took out the key to open the door, I turned my head and saw her standing beside me, not saying a word, blinking her innocent big eyes and looking at me.

I didn’t want to quarrel with her, nor was I in the mood to argue with her. As I turned the key to open the door, I turned my head and said in surprise, “Dad, you’re back.”

Elizabeth was obviously startled and instinctively looked back. I seized this moment, quickly slipped into the house, and slammed the door shut.

I lay on the inside of the door and looked out through the peephole. Surprisingly, Elizabeth was neither angry nor knocked on the door. She just stood outside with her little head tilted and an expressionless face.

After looking at it for a while, I thought that since she didn’t have the key, I would just refuse to open the door for her no matter what she did.

I threw my schoolbag on the coffee table, fell on the sofa, turned on the TV, and changed the channels aimlessly, but my ears were always perked up, listening to the noise outside. This Elizabeth was unexpectedly uncharacteristic, and didn’t react at all, so quiet that it made me uneasy.

After about ten minutes, I thought Elizabeth had left, but suddenly I heard sobbing and mumbling outside the door. I instinctively felt something was wrong, so I tiptoed to the door and looked out through the peephole. I saw Elizabeth squatting against the wall opposite the door, hugging her knees and sobbing; Helen, who just came back from a walk, stood beside her, and Betty from next door came out with her one-and-a-half-year-old son to join in the fun.

Helen patted Elizabeth’s shoulder and asked with concern: “Don’t just cry, tell Auntie what’s going on.”

Betty, who was sitting next to her, was holding her child in her arms, rocking him gently, and said with a smile, “Is it that kid William? Did he bully you?”

Elizabeth raised her head, tears in her eyes and tear marks on her face. She was as swollen as a kitten, sobbing and saying,” William said ... he liked me, he pursued me, and ... slept with me. Later ... later, he found out that I was his father’s illegitimate daughter, his half-sister, and he ... didn’t want me anymore.”