All Chapters of When Saving Is Killing: Chapter 11 - Chapter 13

I hadn't asked him for money again after that.Instead, I had saved up my own loose change, coin by coin, to buy that pack of glittery star stickers. On the cardboard backing, a sentence was written in faint pencil…When Mom isn't mad anymore, stick these on Leo's medicine bottles so Sophia won't mix them up.Dad gripped the doorframe, his knees buckling as he slowly slid down onto the floorboards.Mom scrambled over, violently snatching the sheet of stickers from his hand. The plastic packaging crinkled sharply under her frantic grip. She bolted upright, stumbling blindly toward the apartment exit.Dad forced himself up and chased after her. "Where are you going?!"Clutching my pink notebook and the stars tightly against her chest, Mom charged toward the elevator bank. She was completely barefoot, her soles slapping against the freezing hallway tiles."The hospital," she panted, her eyes vacant and frantic. "I have to tell the doctors. Nova knows how to soothe his bac

In the silver frame, the photograph showed me wearing my favorite yellow dress, holding a giant strawberry up to the camera.Mom had taken it a long time ago. Back then, she used to chase me around with her phone, laughing, saying, "Nova, look at Mommy! Smile for Mommy!"Now, she couldn't see me at all.Every single morning, Dad would carry Leo over and stand right in front of the photograph. He would nudge the toddler gently, teaching him a morning routine, "Say good morning to your big sister."Leo couldn't pronounce the full phrase yet, his voice cracking into a small, broken chirp. "Morning, Nova."Dad would nod, his eyes glassy. "Your sister saved your life, Leo."He repeated those exact words every single day. And every single day, I stood right beside them, watching.Leo grew quickly over the next few months. He wasn't afraid of his nebulizer mask anymore. Every time he finished a breathing treatment, he would independently slide a glittery star sticker off th