When My Parents Charged Me by the Minute for Their Love I Left Chapter 09

When My Parents Charged Me by the Minute for Their Love I Left Chapter 09

Three months later, Dad finally found my name in an article about an international academic competition.

I was standing in the back row of the photo.

My hair was shorter, and I was holding an award certificate.

The article listed the name of my university beneath the photo.

The next day, they booked the earliest flight available.

After the long journey, they finally reached my university.

But when Mom stood outside my dorm building, she suddenly couldn’t bring herself to go upstairs.

They waited downstairs until nightfall.

I was coming back from the library when I spotted them at once.

I stopped in my tracks.

Mom’s eyes immediately turned red.

“Madison.”

I tightened my grip on my backpack strap.

Dad spoke first.

“We didn’t go into your dorm, and we didn’t ask the university for any of your personal information. We just

waited here.”

He spoke slowly, as though one wrong word might frighten me away.

“We’re not counting the minutes today.”

I almost wanted to laugh.

“I know. There isn’t a three-hour rule anymore.”

Mom took a step towards me.

I instinctively stepped back.

She stopped at once.

Her half-raised hand hovered in the air before slowly falling back to her side.

“I won’t touch you. We just wanted to see you.”

She took a bank card out of her bag.

“We bought back everything you pawned. We’ve also put the amount you got from selling those gifts onto

this card.”

I didn’t take it.

“Those things aren’t mine anymore.”

Mom’s face went pale.

“How can they not be? We gave them to you.”

“Exactly. Which means I had the right to sell them.”

My voice was quiet.

“You always told me that once a gift was mine, what I did with it was my choice.”

Dad pressed his lips together.

He looked as though he wanted to argue, but in the end, he said nothing.

The wind was bitterly cold.

Mom’s fingers had turned red.

There had been a time when I worried whenever she got cold.

Whenever she came to pick me up in winter, I would plan those three hours down to the minute.

The drive couldn’t take too long.

We couldn’t linger over dinner.

I had to write down everything I wanted to say in advance.

That way, I could spend a little more time with her before the minutes ran out.

Now she had been standing outside my dorm for three hours, and she still felt like a stranger to me.

“Madison.”

Mom finally broke down.

“I know I was wrong. From now on, we’ll be there for your birthdays, your graduation, and whenever you’re ill.”

“We’ll stay as long as you want us to.”

I looked at her.

“But I already know how to spend my birthdays alone.”

Her sob caught in her throat.

“When I’m ill, I can take myself to hospital. And there won’t be any more parent-teacher conferences.”

“I’ve already learnt everything you wanted me to learn.”

Dad’s eyes slowly turned red.

“Is there anything we can still do?”

That question left me silent for a long time.

When I was younger, I had countless answers.

Take me to an amusement park just once.

Come to one parent-teacher conference.

When I had a fever, stop looking at the clock.

When Grandma died, let me hold on to you both a little longer.

But each of those things had its time.

Once that time was gone, it wouldn’t come back.

I shook my head.

“I don’t know.”

Mom raised a hand to cover her mouth as tears slipped between her fingers.

Someone called my name from the dorm entrance.

My roommate ran towards me under an umbrella.

“Didn’t we say we’d have dinner together tonight?”

I turned and called back to her.

She slipped her arm through mine.

“And these two are…?”

I paused,

Mom and Dad were both watching me.

For a moment, my throat tightened.

In the end, I only said, “Some people I know.”

Mom’s face instantly lost all colour.

I didn’t look at them again.

I walked away with my roommate towards the restaurant.