Chapter 3

After dealing with the hospital, I went home.

The dining table, usually covered with my mother's cooking, was bare. My eyes started to burn.

She would never stand there again, smiling, calling us to dinner.

I looked at my silent phone. Not a single message from my sister.

The next morning, she finally came back. Her arms were full of shopping bags, a huge smile on her face.

"Thea! We bought so many things for you and Mom!"

"And guess what? Jared said he wants to marry me! I’m going to meet his parents in a few days!"

I just stared at her.

When I didn’t say anything, she just kept talking. "How's Mom doing? We should go see her at the hospital tomorrow."

She knew every penny was critical. And still, she had done this.

My silence finally seemed to get to her. "What's with the long face? We brought you presents. Look, do you like this? And this is for Mom, for her health."

She held up a tiny jar of something. I almost laughed.

I had seen her pictures on social media. She had bought a huge gift basket. This was just a tiny sample she had taken from it.

"Where's the money?" I finally asked. "You bought all this with that money?"

Her smile vanished. "It's gone. Everything over there is so expensive. I barely bought anything. And the plane tickets alone were almost five thousand each."

"Did you pay for everything? Don't you know that money was for Mom? How could you just spend it? What's she supposed to do now?"

Her voice turned sharp. "What's the big deal? Once I'm married, Jared will pay for everything. It's only right that I spend a little extra now. And Mom has been sick for years, it's always one thing after another. Is she mad? I'll go apologize to her tomorrow."

Her words were a knife in my heart.

Even as she was dying, my mother was worried about my sister's future, telling me to look after her.

And this was how she repaid her.

I had shown her the test results. But she had been in a hurry to meet her boyfriend and had only glanced at them.

She thought it was just some minor illness.

So she had taken the money, the money that could have saved our mother's life, and spent it without a second thought.

Ever since she met him, she had stopped caring about us, about anything but him.

This whole trip, it was his idea. He was the one who told her to take the ticket.

I had tried to tell her he was no good, but she wouldn't listen. She said I was just jealous, trying to break up their "true love."

I couldn't hold it back any longer. I slapped her across the face. "Mom and I will never approve of this marriage. If you insist on being with him, then you're no longer a part of this family."

She just stared at me, her hand on her cheek, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"You have no right! My relationship with Jared has nothing to do with you!"

With that, she slammed the door and left.

She was going to him, of course.

Whenever he was involved, she lost all reason.