บททั้งหมดของ Please, call me Auntie : บทที่ 121 - บทที่ 130

121. Soraya🍒The past couple of weeks went by pretty fast, and things are back to normal with both companies. Contracts are rushing in, and I've been able to relax a bit more. Even Thane seems a bit more relaxed after his boys' night out, and I'm glad to see the man I married getting back to his old self. With all that, things are still a bit uneasy at the house, after the fruits and juice went missing, my sunglasses, my favorite lipstick, and one pair of earrings were gone, along with a necklace I got from Thane and for the love of me I can't put my finger on who could be messing around with me in my own home. I know I've been under a lot of pressure at work, and I might misplace some stuff, but not this many and not like this. I sat in front of the mirror, staring at myself, thinking about how the person could be getting into the house, when I checked the cameras, there was no one. I sighed, then it hit me: “The person is already inside the house.” I quick

123.Soraya🍒The call came at two seventeen am.I had just drifted into sleep, Thane’s side of the bed still cold. It had been hours since he'd dropped his grandmother off at home; he should've been home by now, but I didn't let that bother me. I turned to my side and went back to sleep. Not two minutes in, my phone was ringing on the nightstand. Sitting up, I stared at the unknown number. This late in the morning, something wasn't right. The phone had stopped ringing when I reached for it, then it rang again. I didn't know the number, so I picked it up. “ Hello”“ Is this Mrs Kline?” The woman's voice asked on the other line, and my heart stopped for a second. My voice breaks “ Yes-”“There’s been an accident.” She says, and after that, I don't know what happened, how I got dressed and got behind the wheel, all I know is I need to get to Thane, and he needs me. The drive to the hospital was a blur of red lights. I barely remember stopping for any of them;

125. Thane🎼Sound came first, a steady beeping that filled the room, then the weight of my body felt weird, like it belonged to someone else; it was wrong, like I was cut and put back together. I tried to breathe deeper, pain sliced through my ribs, sharp enough to make me groan, and I finally opened my eyes; the white ceiling let me know I was in the hospital. With a second, the memory hits me in a flash: the headlights, me swerving to protect us, Avia in my arms, blood all around us, before everything went black. I tried to sit up but couldn't. Soft hands on my shoulders, “ easy, easy, don't move.” Soraya was leaning over my eyes, red as if she hadn't slept in days. “You’re in the hospital after an accident,” she says. Grabbing her wrist, I ask her in a desperate tone, “ Avia?” She froze. I knew the answer, but I wanted her to tell me I was wrong. “ Where is she?” I pushed, trying to lift myself again, but the pain reminded me once again that I w

127.Soraya🍒“Coming here is your way of getting answers?” Jacob whispers beside me.I roll my eyes at my ever-confident brother, who looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here. I didn’t ask them to follow me; they did that on their own. Now they look disgusted to be in a place like this.“You can still go outside and wait for us,” I tell him, then glance at Scott. “There was no reason for the two of you to come.”He sucks his teeth. “I wasn’t going to let you meet that woman alone.”Before I can respond, the door opens. Two guards escort a frail older woman inside. Her ankles are shackled, the cuffs biting into skin that looks too thin to hold them. When her eyes land on me, pride flickers across her face as if she thinks I’m here to beg.How wrong she is.“Took you long enough to come here,” she says as she lowers herself into the chair across from me.I look her up and down. “Prison doesn’t look good on you.”Her face tightens, aged two decades by the bars th

129. Thane🎼Today is the day we lay Avia to rest.The day I look at her for the last time.The day I say goodbye to the woman who raised me, the woman who made me who I am. I don’t want to accept that she’s gone.Seeing her lying there in the casket, motionless, breaks something inside me. I will never hear her laughter again. Never see her smile. Never listen to her nag me about working too hard or skipping meals.The world feels wrong without her voice in it.Putting on the black suit feels heavier than it should, like grief has stitched itself into the fabric. I can’t bring myself to look in the mirror. The lump in my throat never leaves, not as we walk to the car, not as the door closes, not as the engine starts.The drive to the service passes in silence.Outside the window, the world continues, people walking, traffic lights changing, life moving forward as if nothing has ended. Inside the car, everything has.The service is short, too short for a wo