Chapter 11

Two weeks later, I decided to leave the city. Mom was gone, but her presence seemed to linger everywhere. There was the grocer where she always bought her groceries. The bus stop where she'd wait for me after school. The tea olive tree shrub outside our apartment, whose sweet fragrance had always been her favorite. I couldn't bear to face any of it anymore. I just wanted to go somewhere else and learn how to live again. Before I left, I went to Mom's grave. The cemetery was quiet. Wind rustled through the pine trees, filling the silence with a soft, whispering sound. I placed a bouquet of lilies in front of her headstone."Mom, I'm leaving," I said. "I'm going to Southon. It's warmer there."I paused, then smiled faintly. "You used to say that once you retired, you wanted to see the ocean. So I'll go see it for you."I sat against the headstone for a while and talked to her about everything. I told her I'd sold the things we'd bought for the house Yvonne and I were s

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Chapter 12

I didn't stop Colin, but I didn't feel sorry for him either. "Colin, stop putting on a show," I said, my gaze cold. "If Mom could see you doing this, she'd be disgusted."He froze, his sobs catching in his throat. I walked over, picked up the flowers he'd left in front of Mom's grave, then took the ones from Yvonne's hands and threw them both into the trash. The color drained from their faces. I stood in front of Mom's headstone. "Leave, and don't come back here to bother my mom again," I said quietly, but there was no mistaking the finality in my voice. "Don't come looking for me, either. You have no right to ask for her forgiveness."Yvonne's eyes were red when she said, "Nathan… I love you."Those three words were something I'd waited years to hear. She rarely said she loved me. She always told me that real feelings didn't need to be spoken aloud. So whenever she showed me even the smallest bit of tenderness, I'd hold on to it and replay those moments in my mind for d

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Chapter 13

Later, I heard about Colin through a mutual friend. After being fired from his company, he'd never really recovered. He'd tried to qualify as a teacher, but people still gossiped about what had happened. Every time he walked into an interview, the pressure became too much, and he'd break down. He stopped going back to our alma mater. He couldn't even bear to hear someone call his name because it reminded him of the way Mom used to say it. Some people said they felt sorry for him, but I never said anything. Did they really think he was the one who deserved sympathy?What about Mom, waiting for them in her hospital bed until the very end? What about me, standing there alone in my wedding suit as I said goodbye to her?When someone did something wrong, there had to be a price to pay. …A year later, I finally returned to my hometown. It was the anniversary of Mom's death, and I brought her favorite lilies and a photograph of the ocean. She'd never seen it while she was ali

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Todos os capítulos de Her Last Wish Was My Most Brutal Lesson: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 13

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13