They Promised Every Birthday, They Kept None Chapter 09

They Promised Every Birthday, They Kept None Chapter 09

Thank you to the old Liam, for making me laugh when it hurt the most.]

The third was for Derek.

[Derek, I remember you holding my hand and promising to spend every birthday with me. I really believed you. And I waited a long time.

Thank you to the old Derek, for walking with me through those dark nights.]

I paused for a long time after that.

The wind stung my eyes, but I had no tears left.

I took out one final sheet.

This one was a goodbye.

[I made it to Lake Serenity. That’s all I wanted for my twentieth birthday, so I have no regrets.

Don’t bother with doctors. Don’t blame anyone.

I knew my body better than anyone. Getting here was already borrowing time I shouldn’t have had.

I don’t hate you anymore. Hate takes too much energy, and I’m too tired.

The people I brought here were the ones you used to be.

The ones you are now-I don’t want them.

Mom and Dad must have been waiting for a long time.

I’m going to find them now.]

When I finished the last word, the first light of dawn broke over the horizon.

I tucked the letters under a flat stone by the water.

Then I swallowed the last two pills in the bottle.

I didn’t have the strength to stand anymore.

“Ethan, Liam, Derek. Look. Lake Serenity is beautiful, isn’t it?”

The wind brushed past my ears.

I closed my eyes and whispered, “Happy birthday, Mia. You’ll never hurt again.”

Just before the darkness swallowed everything, I thought I saw my parents standing in a soft light

far away, their voices warm as they called my name.

“Mia. Come home.”

I let myself fall into that light and didn’t wake up again.

They arrived after the sun had fully risen.

The shore was empty except for the wind and the water.

Derek spotted me first.

He froze.

Ethan stumbled forward and fell to his knees beside me.

“Mia? Don’t do this to me. Come on, I’ll take you home. Please.”

But I couldn’t answer him anymore.

Derek found the letters under the stone.

His hands trembled so hard he could barely unfold them.

When he read the last line he collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

[The people I brought here were the ones you used to be. The ones you are now-I don’t want them.]

Ethan and Liam held me, their voices breaking into pieces.

“Mia, your brother’s here. Open your eyes. Just look at me. I swear I’ll never leave you again.”

But the wind off Lake Serenity was too loud, and none of their words ever reached me.

After that day, the wind at Lake Serenity became a nightmare they could never escape.

Ethan knelt by the shore with the letters for hours, trembling as the pages fluttered in his grip.

They were only paper, but they broke him completely.

Liam ran along the water’s edge, screaming my name over and over.

“Mia! Come back! I was wrong-hit me, yell at me-just don’t leave me!”

His legs gave out.

He hit the ground hard but didn’t seem to feel it.

He just knelt there, sobbing into his hands.

He used to hate it when I cried.

He said I was dramatic and that I played the victim.

Now he was the one who couldn’t stop.

Derek stood like a hollow shell.

He reached out once, as if to straighten my wig where the wind had messed it up.

But his hand stopped in midair and pulled back, shaking.

They took my ashes back to the city.

Nobody told Ashley.

She was still waiting in the penthouse, expecting them to come home and comfort her.

When they walked in, she ran up with red-rimmed eyes.

“Ethan, Liam, Derek-you’re back. Is Mia still mad at me? I can go apologize if—”

Ethan looked at her.

“As of today, you’re no longer a Carson.”

Her face went white.

“What?”

Liam dragged her suitcase to the door.