Chapter 11
570words
But then he stepped in front of me, holding out a wilted azalea, blocking my way.
……
“Fiona, do you like it?”
I sighed. He thought I was my mother.
I took the flower from his trembling hand, and as he looked at me with hope in his eyes, I threw it to the ground and crushed it under my foot.
I spoke softly, “Don’t you know? Fiona Lincoln has been dead for a long time. You killed her. When she was bedridden and suffering, you were in the next room, fooling around with the housekeeper.”
His shy smile shattered. His face twisted in agony as if he suddenly remembered everything.
He dropped to his knees, desperately clawing at the flower embedded in the cement.
“I’m sorry, Fiona. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me… please forgive me…”
Tears and snot streamed down his face as he cried out in despair.
He remembered. He was begging for my mom’s forgiveness.
But she would never forgive him.
She was gone.
……
I placed a bouquet of azaleas, my mom’s favorite flowers, on her grave.
Their delicate beauty reminded me of her gentle spirit.
“Mom, I’ve avenged you, and my little brother, and us. Now I’m going to start a new life.”
I laid down the toys I had brought.
Then I lay beside her grave, gently tracing the letters on the headstone.
“Mom, it’s so cold.
“Mom, can you hold me, just like you did when I was little?
“Mom, don’t be mad at me. I… I destroyed Dad’s company…”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I kept talking to her.
The strength I had built up since my rebirth crumbled as I spoke to her. I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably, my hands gripping her headstone.
Exhausted from crying, I curled up against her grave and fell asleep.
When I woke up, the azalea petals were scattered all around me. I didn’t know if it was the wind or something else.
I remembered how, whenever I was sad or upset, my mom would buy a bouquet of azaleas. She would pluck the petals and scatter them on the ground to cheer me up.
“Spin around, sweetheart!
“Here comes my little princess. Don’t be sad. The azalea knights are here to protect you!”
She would place the petals on a toy knight’s head and wave it around, making it look like the azaleas were coming to my rescue.
I always ended up laughing.
Snapping back to the present, I looked at the scattered petals on the ground and knew it was my mom comforting me.
She couldn’t bear to see me sad.
Even the toys I had brought for my brother, which I had left neatly arranged, were now in a playful pattern.
I couldn’t help but laugh through my tears.
As the sky darkened, I gathered my things and said goodbye to my mom and little brother.
“Goodbye, Mom. Goodbye, little brother.
“I’ll come back to visit you soon.”
As I walked down the hill, I spotted a familiar figure in a sweater in the nearby woods.
My heart sank as I thought back to what had happened earlier.
But I didn’t look at him. I lowered my eyes and turned away.
His late apologies did not deserve forgiveness.
