The Game They Played, The Life I Lost Chapter 08

The Game They Played, The Life I Lost Chapter 08

Back home, everything was falling apart.

My parents looked like they’d aged ten years overnight.

They both looked haggard and spent their days sighing.

Serena, in a fit of rage, had run off to a city thousands of miles away.

She’d packed up everything and left.

Before she left, she’d had a huge fight with my parents.

Dad was so angry he nearly had a heart attack.

“Leave and never come back! You’re older than Tara, and you’ve had everything handed to you for years. What more do you want?”

“I’ve spoiled you rotten. If you want to go, go!”

Mom was just as disappointed in her eldest daughter.

“Go wherever you want. We don’t care anymore.”

“We’ll be here waiting for Tara to come home. That’s what we owe her. And what you owe her too.”

Ethan didn’t say a word.

He just threw away everything related to Serena—every photo, every gift, every memory.

He was cutting ties for good.

Two weeks after that phone call, Ethan showed up in London.

—

I’d just gotten home from work.

That day, London was hit by a rare heavy snowfall.

He stood downstairs in a gray coat, dusted with snow.

The man who once thought driving from the north side of town to the south to pick me up was too much trouble.

Now he’d taken a red-eye flight across an ocean to find me.

I felt nothing.

Because all that love and hate had stayed behind the morning that plane took off.

There was nothing left.

“Tara! You’re back!”

I stopped walking.

I didn’t say a word.

Ethan’s voice was hoarse.

“I’m sorry. I got your address from your old coworkers.”

“Tara, I came here because I want a future with us.”

He fumbled in his coat pocket and pulled out the ring.

“Tara, I already bought the ring. I was just waiting for you to come back.”

Even now, he still believed I’d come running back to him.

—

I looked at him one last time.

“Ethan.”

His eyes lit up.

“Anything. I’ll do anything.”

“Five years is enough.”

“Everything that needed to be said has been said. Everything that needed to end has ended. You being here doesn’t change anything.”

“I used to wish you’d see me. But that was then. Now, you and this ring mean nothing to me. You’re a burden.”

“I’m not interested in the future you’re offering.”

Ethan’s face crumbled.

“Tara, do you mean that?”

The snow on the ground kept piling up.

“That day you all planned the engagement party behind my back—did you mean that?”

“Don’t come back here. You’re not welcome.”

I turned and walked away.

Ignoring the look on Ethan’s face.

Life was quiet after that. No more ghosts from the past.

In my third year in London, I had to return to the US for work.

—

I didn’t go back to that house.

I checked into a hotel instead.

But my parents caught wind of it somehow. Late one night, they were waiting outside the hotel entrance.

When I saw the two old people with their weathered faces, I almost didn’t recognize them.

Mom wiped her eyes quietly, wanting to come closer but not daring to.

“Tara, why didn’t you tell us you were back? We’ve missed you so much.”

Dad forced an ingratiating smile.

“It’s not often you’re back. Come home and see the place.”

Since we’d already run into each other, I couldn’t avoid them.

Inside, Mom handed me a new pair of slippers and hung up my coat.

She couldn’t stop smiling.

Dad poured me a glass of water and turned on the AC, worried I’d be too warm.

“Tara, sit down and rest.”

“Mom’s making dinner. You must miss home-cooked food after all those years abroad.”

I watched them bustle around, walking on eggshells.

—

I didn’t stop them.

Looking around, the house seemed unchanged.

But everything was different.

The walls were covered with my old awards and certificates from elementary and middle school.

They were tattered and worn—dug out from some forgotten corner.

They were trying so hard to fill the years they’d missed.

But everyone knew deep down—there was no going back.