When the Forgotten Daughter Rises Chapter 05

When the Forgotten Daughter Rises Chapter 05

Mom’s hand freezes in midair, her fingernails almost digging into the seams of her phone case.

Mr. Wilson’s voice continues through the speaker.

“Her scores are among the best our school has ever seen. I even gave her a special commendation at the

time. Her Yale acceptance letter was mailed to your home in mid–July. You didn’t receive it?”

Mom opens her mouth, but no words come out, “Mrs. Reeves? Are you still there?”

“I’m here.”

Her voice sounds as though it’s being dragged out from the deepest part of her throat, dry and hoarse.

“Mr. Wilson, you’re talking about my daughter Ellie? Elena Reeves?”

“Of course. Elena Reeves. She doesn’t talk much, but her grades have always been excellent. You’re her

mother. You really didn’t know?”

The shock in Mr. Wilson’s voice has given way to outright disbelief.

Mom doesn’t answer. She simply hangs up.

When she lowers the phone from her ear, the call screen is still displayed.

12:47 a.m.

Dad notices that something is wrong with her expression. He puts down his glass and sits up straight.

“What happened?”

Mom turns to him, her lips trembling slightly.

“Ellie took the SAT this year.”

“What?”

“Ellie already graduated high school. She scored 1520 on the SAT. She’s an SSS–Rank wolf.”

Dad looks as if someone has just dumped a bucket of ice water over his head.

First comes confusion, then disbelief, and finally an expression so complicated that even he can’t seem to

understand it.

“That’s impossible. She doesn’t take it until next year…”

“She took it this June!”

Mom’s voice rises sharply, panic breaking through.

“Her Yale acceptance letter was delivered in July! It came to our house! We didn’t know anything!”

The room instantly falls silent.

Three seconds later, Lily’s voice comes from the bedroom next door.

“Mom? What’s going on? Why are you yelling?”

No one answers her.

Mom suddenly gets out of bed and runs barefoot to her suitcase, digging around for her phone charger. Her

fingers are shaking so badly that she misses the charging port several times.

Finally, the phone lights up.

She immediately calls my number.

It’s off.

She calls again.

Still off.

She tries one more time.

The cold automated message plays again and again.

“Her phone is off…”

Mom murmurs the words, then suddenly crouches down on the floor, her voice barely audible.

“She blocked me.”

She looks up, her eyes empty, “She blocked all of us.”

Dad stands beside her, silent for a long time.

Eventually, he asks, his voice tight,

“What about her college acceptance letter? Did she say where she was going?”

Mom looks up at him, her eyes already red.

“She didn’t say anything.”

She desperately tries to remember what happened before they left.

“She was standing by the door when we left. I told her to remember to take out the trash and water the

plants.”

She pauses.

“She said okay.”

“Just one word. Okay.”

Dad’s expression slowly changes.

Mom continues, “I even told Lily to tell her to try for a good community college next year.”

The moment the words leave her mouth, Mom freezes.

A good community college next year.

Her daughter has already scored 1520, earned an SSS–Rank rating, and received an acceptance letter from

Yale.

Yet when they left the house, all four of them had stood by the door and told her to try to get into a good

community college the following year.

And she had quietly answered, “Okay.”

Lily pushes open her bedroom door and walks out, still wearing a cartoon headband and a face mask.

“Mom, what’s going on?”

Mom looks at her and suddenly asks, “Lily, did you know your sister took the SAT this year?”

Lily tilts her head, “What? I thought she was taking it next year.”

The room falls silent again.

No one knew.

In this family of four, three people didn’t know that the fourth had already taken one of the most important

exams of her life, earned an extraordinary score, and received an acceptance letter from one of the best

universities in the country.

They didn’t even know that she had already slipped quietly out of their lives.

Mom slowly stands, gripping the edge of the bed as her legs go weak.

“We have to go back.”

“Now?”

Dad glances at the time. It’s already eleven at night.

“The earliest flight is six tomorrow morning.”

“Then we’ll fly back tomorrow morning.”

Mom’s voice is no longer trembling. Instead, it is frighteningly calm.

It’s the kind of calm that comes when someone finally realizes that something has already happened, and no

matter what they do now, they can’t turn back time.

She walks to the window and looks out at the ocean beneath the Miami night sky.

Far in the distance, the waves roll against the shore again and again, like a dull, slow heartbeat.

Then she suddenly remembers the graduation party.

Uncle Mark had asked Ellie, “How did you do on the SAT?”

What had she said back then?

“She’s taking the SAT next year.”

Those were her own words.

Her daughter had been sitting right there in the corner.

While everyone ignored her, she had earned a 1520.

And as her mother, she had smiled and told every relative that her daughter wouldn’t be taking the SAT until the following year.

Mom slowly closes her eyes.

Outside, the ocean breeze grows stronger, making the curtains billow.

Yet she feels cold.

Not from the Miami night air.

It’s a cold that seems to seep slowly out from between her bones.