Mom Could Remember One Daughter Each Month, but Always Chose My Sister Chapter 10

Mom Could Remember One Daughter Each Month, but Always Chose My Sister Chapter 10

A year later, Ethan and I opened an animal rehabilitation center.

I named the first treatment room Waffles.

On opening day, Linda arrived before dawn.

She thought the flowers outside looked crooked and ordered Ethan to move the sign.

“A little to the left.”

“Too far. Bring it back.”

Ethan stood on a ladder and couldn’t help sighing.

“Mom, you’ve made me move it ten times.”

Linda planted her hands on her hips.

“It’s my daughter’s first business. It can’t be crooked.”

I stood in the doorway, laughing.

When she saw me, she immediately came over to straighten my collar.

“What are you nervous about?”

“You’re the boss today. Stand up straight.”

Then she pushed a thick envelope of cash into my hand.

I started to give it back, but she glared at me.

“Your mom gave it to you. Don’t you dare return it.”

I hesitated.

“Thanks, Mom.”

She answered loudly.

“You’re welcome.”

Across the street, Margaret was watching us with a bouquet of white camellias in her arms.

I hadn’t seen her in a year. She had lost a lot of weight.

All year, she had chosen me every month.

At first, Sophie had gone to the hospital and made a scene more than once.

Later, Mom canceled the authorized-user card and revoked the property power of attorney, so Sophie moved

out with Logan.

Before leaving, she threw the keys at Mom’s feet.

“You chose Nora, didn’t you?”

“Then let her take care of you in your old age.”

After that, she never came back.

Mom no longer had to choose between her two daughters.

Her favorite daughter refused to acknowledge her.

And the other daughter had already found a new family.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the guests gradually left.

Only then did Mom cross the street.

She set the white camellias in front of me and took out a jewelry box.

Inside were the two heirloom bangles Grandma had left behind.

Under them was a notarized property settlement.

“I divided the estate and the money your father left behind again.”

“You won’t lose a single dollar of what belongs to you.”

I accepted the settlement.

I would not give up anything Dad had left me again.

But I left both bangles where they were.

The smile faded from Mom’s face.

She took a journal from her bag.

My name was written across the cover.

“Your room has been restored.”

“The crib is gone.”

“I wrote down everything I could find in here.”

She opened to the first page.

My birthday, wedding date, and college were listed neatly, one after another.

Some entries still showed signs of revision.

She must have asked a lot of people before piecing the information together.

But looking at the journal only made me sad.

Sophie’s twenty journals recorded a childhood Mom had personally witnessed.

This one about me looked like a late investigation report.

Mom held it out to me.

“Even if I get sick again, I’ll never fail to recognize you.”

I didn’t take it.

Her hand remained in the air for a long time before slowly dropping.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to come home.”

“I won’t force you.”

She looked at me with a careful, pleading expression.

“Could I see you sometimes?”

“Once a month would be enough.”

“I won’t come inside.”

“I could just see you from a distance.”

By the end, her voice was trembling.

In the past, I had lowered my expectations the same way, again and again.

I didn’t ask her to love me.

I only asked her to remember my name.

I didn’t ask her to attend my wedding.

I only asked her to come and see me off.

But I had backed myself into a corner, and she had never once turned back for me.

Now she was finally standing where I had once stood.

Ethan didn’t answer for me.

He simply stood quietly behind me.

I closed the journal and placed it back in Mom’s hands.

“Keep it.”

The light in her eyes went out.

“Nora.”

“I’ve chosen you every month.”

“What else do you want me to do?”

I looked at her.

She was finally willing to choose me.

But the little girl who had waited to be chosen had grown up on disappointment after disappointment.

“You don’t have to do anything.”

I spoke softly.

“Remembering me is enough.”

“Remember that on my wedding day, you recognized me and still took my wedding away.”

“Remember that the night Waffles died, you knew where he was and still didn’t tell me.”

“And remember that today, I’m the one who doesn’t want to see you.”

Mom’s hands shook around the journal.

She looked as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she could only force out one sentence:

“Is there really no chance left for me?”

I didn’t answer.

Linda poked her head out of the shop.

“Nora, the cake’s ready.”

“I saved you the first slice.”

I turned around.

“Coming, Mom.”

Margaret’s shoulders collapsed.

She stood there, watching Linda hand me the first slice of cake and Ethan wipe frosting from the corner of

my mouth.

The bouquet of white camellias was knocked over by the wind.

Petals scattered across the pavement.

She bent down to gather them.

When she finished, she crouched on the sidewalk, clutching the journal filled with my name, and began to cry.

This time, she knew exactly who I was.

She also knew that the daughter being loved inside that doorway would never go home with her again.

After that, she still chose me every month.

She remembered my name.

She remembered my wedding date.

And she remembered how she had lost me with her own hands.

I never had to wait for next month again.

Because from then on, someone chose me, firmly and completely, every single day.