Everyone in My Family Remembered What I Did, Except Me Chapter 03

Everyone in My Family Remembered What I Did, Except Me Chapter 03

At the restaurant, Simon ordered enough food for eight people without blinking.

Our parents complained that he was wasting money, but they didn’t say much beyond that.

I watched the two of them eat like they hadn’t seen food in a week, and it got harder and harder to sit there.

Simon drank in silence.

Every so often, he’d push another dish toward me.

“Maddie.”

“Don’t take what I said earlier to heart.”

“Stop sending money home. Things aren’t easy for you out there either.”

“I don’t make much, but if I tighten up I can take care of them.”

What he said left me deeply uneasy.

My parents were hiding things from me. Simon flipped his attitude in ten minutes.

It gave me the strange feeling that I had some terminal illness and didn’t have long, and that was why they were all handling me so gently.

“Simon, can somebody in this family please just say it to my face?”

“I honestly don’t know what’s been happening here.”

“If I didn’t want to take care of Mom and Dad, I wouldn’t have sent $5,000 in the first place.”

“Why would I send it and then take it back? And I don’t even remember.”

“That’s enough, Maddie.”

Simon cut me off again.

“Mom and Dad don’t blame you, and neither do I.”

“Let’s treat it like it never happened and never bring it up again.”

Then he waved the server over.

He ordered fresh portions of the dishes our parents liked and had them boxed up.

I watched the three of them act like nothing was wrong, and it felt like there was air trapped in my chest that wouldn’t come out.

Out of nowhere, I’d been branded a daughter who neglected her parents.

And out of nowhere, I’d been magnanimously forgiven.

It made me feel like a clown somebody had been playing with.

That night at my parents’ place, I turned over and over and couldn’t sleep.

All of it was too strange.

It was as though a completely different version of me had taken over half of my life.

I finally made it to morning and got up with my head heavy and my legs unsteady.

The second I stepped out of the bedroom, I saw my parents and Simon sitting in the living room discussing something.

They all went quiet at the same time when they saw me.

“Maddie, you’re up.”

“What do you want for breakfast? I’ll make it.”

Sylvia took my hand affectionately and sat me down.

But the unnatural look on Gordon’s face, and on Simon’s, told me everything.

Whatever they’d been talking about behind my back had to be about me.

For most of that morning, the apartment was full of a peace that all three of them were faking.

My head was a mess.

I thought back to those video calls.

They’d mentioned a few high-end restaurants they loved, and they’d said they even had house accounts there.

So I decided to go ask for myself.

“I’m heading out for a bit.”

“An old classmate heard I was in town and wants to have lunch and catch up.”

My parents traded a look, then smiled and told me not to be out too long.

I walked out of the building.

Then I looked up the reservation line for one of those restaurants.

“Hi, I’d like to reserve a table for three this afternoon.”

“You can put the hold on the house account. The name is Sylvia Shaw.”

There was a burst of typing on the other end.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. We don’t have a house account under that name.”

My chest tightened, and I gave them Gordon’s name instead.

The answer was the same.

I wouldn’t let it go. I called every restaurant I could remember my parents mentioning and did the same thing.

Not one of them had an account on file.

I even had the ridiculous thought to try Simon’s name, and that got me nothing either.

The helplessness came over me like a tide, and it nearly closed over my head.

I was ready to give up for the day.

Then a few familiar figures appeared outside the hospital across the street.

It was my parents and Simon.

The three of them were clustered around a visibly pregnant woman.

The careful way Simon steadied her said everything about what they were to each other.

I stood there and watched them walk into the expensive restaurant next door.

It took one second.

A thought landed in my head that turned my whole body cold.