All Chapters of After Mother Died, the Don Followed Her: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The room got really awkward.Everyone kept sneaking looks at Daddy and Auntie Benita, afraid to make a sound.Daddy gave me a vicious stare.His eyebrows pushed up and then squeezed together, like a heavy mountain pressing down on my head.I didn’t know whether I had said something wrong, and I didn’t dare ask.He loosened his tie. “Don’t talk nonsense, kid.”He swept his eyes over the people around him. “The rest of you aren’t children. I won’t bother spelling it out.”They bowed and scraped and fled the room as if they couldn’t get out fast enough.I wasn’t talking nonsense. They really had been kissing out there.But Daddy was so angry now that I didn’t dare say anything else.Back home, Daddy told me to go play in my room, because the grown-ups needed to talk.I peeked through the crack in the door, scared they would pick on Mommy.Daddy sat in the middle, and Auntie Benita pressed up against him and lit his cigar.Mommy sat alone at the far end of the couch, a long way from them.

Mommy asked the teacher to excuse us and called a taxi.Daddy turned his face away and talked loudly to Auntie Benita on purpose.“I’ll take you home. Go pack your things.”He paused, his eyes cutting over to Mommy.“Benita, you’re moving into the estate today.”Auntie Benita covered her mouth and jumped up and down on the spot, thrilled, like the monkeys I saw when Mommy took me to the zoo.Daddy was still watching Mommy, as if he were waiting for her to beg him.But Mommy didn’t pay him any mind.She just held me and watched the rain in the sky.The taxi came, and Mommy took me to Grandpa’s house.Grandpa had gotten a little older, but Grandma in the photo hadn’t changed at all.Grandpa gave me a toy gun and let me play in the living room.Mommy and Grandpa talked for a long time.I saw Mommy fall into Grandpa’s arms and cry.Mommy’s daddy must love her so much, not like my daddy.Before we left, Grandpa told me to be good and listen to Mommy.I nodded obediently.“Mm-hmm. Mommy only

I followed the voice, and it was Grandpa.I flew into his arms.Grandpa took my hand and walked to Mommy’s bedside.He looked at her quietly, a light in his eyes I couldn’t read.I remembered what Mommy said. I opened my little bag, took out a piece of paper, and handed it to Grandpa.“Mommy said to give this to you.”Grandpa held up the paper, stained with Mommy’s blood, and read it carefully, as if he were memorizing it.“You divorced Charlotte, and you signed away custody of Isa, so everything from here on is none of your concern.”“Leave it to me. I’m her family.” Grandpa looked at Daddy and said it calmly. “You can go now.”Daddy seemed almost afraid of Grandpa, and he bowed his head.“Father-in-law—”“Call me Samuel.” Grandpa lifted the paper in his hand. “Go home. I’ll handle this.”“Samuel, I never thought it would come to this. The medical team had just arrived. I failed her...”“Enough.” Grandpa cut him off. “Why keep an account of who owes who? God settles our accounts for u

On Saturday, Grandpa drove me to the estate for the first time.Daddy and Auntie Benita stood at the door, waiting for me.The estate was as beautiful as ever, but Mommy wasn’t there anymore.Now the estate was just an estate. It wasn’t home.Daddy was happy to see me and held out his arms to pick me up.I stepped back and shook my head.“I’ll walk by myself.”Daddy looked a little hurt. After a moment he managed a smile.“All right. That’s my girl.”I ignored him.I wasn’t his girl. I was only Mommy’s girl.Inside the estate, I went back to Mommy’s room.It was different now.There was a perfume smell in the room I didn’t like, and it wasn’t the perfume Mommy wore.The door opened, and Auntie Benita walked in.Seeing me look around, confused, she smiled.“Auntie lives in this room now. In a little while I’m going to redo it, too.”“Isa.” She looked at me. “Why don’t you move back in? Auntie can be your mommy.”I shook my head right away. “No.”I only had one mommy, and she didn’t dese

Back at the beach house, Grandpa asked me to walk with him along the shore.We walked in silence for a long time before Grandpa finally spoke.“Everyone has the right to choose. But—”He turned his head, and his eyes seemed to see straight through me. “Are you certain?”I didn’t rush to answer. I thought about it, hard.Eleven years.The blind anger inside me had turned into clear, sharp hatred.In that estate, no one remembers Mommy anymore.She is like a raindrop soaked into the mud, with not a trace of her left.The maids, the cooks, the drivers, they forgot the old lady of the house long ago, and they all revolve around Benita now.Daddy kept Mommy’s room the way I asked.But it is only a specimen, with no life in it.Every time I see Benita strutting through the estate, my heart starts to ache.By what right? By what right does she get to have everything that should have been Mommy’s?And Daddy, except for today, has never once mentioned Mommy.Maybe he is afraid that mentioning h