I Bet My Soul on My Mother’s Love Chapter 09

I Bet My Soul on My Mother’s Love Chapter 09

My nose tingled with a phantom ache as I watched her breakdown.

Mom had spent years stubbornly refusing to say those simple words to me. During the final moments of my life, my chest had been so incredibly tight with bitter, suffocating resentment.

So when the Grim Reaper told me he was going to force his way into her mind and expose the entire truth, my spirit had actually felt a wicked surge of triumph. I was ecstatic that my name would finally be cleared. I wouldn’t leave this world branded as an entitled, ungrateful child who only knew how to throw tantrums and

demand favoritism.

But watching her completely fracture under the weight of her own guilt didn’t make me feel any better.

I had been resentful, yes, but my soul was actively dissolving into nothingness. What was the point of holding onto anger when you were about to cease to exist?

Mom, I begged you so many times.

But you couldn’t bring yourself to save me just once.

A simple “I love you the most” would have kept me breathing. But even that was too high a price for you.

When Lily saw how broken and detached Mom had become, a deep, frantic panic settled into her chest. She already knew I was dead, and her frail, teenage heart couldn’t handle the crushing weight of the atmosphere. She collapsed to her knees, sobbing as she confessed everything.

“Mom, I’m sorry! A lot of the times when I got sick, I was just faking it!”

“On Chloe’s twelfth birthday, my heart wasn’t actually failing. I forced myself to hyperventilate so you’d look

at me.”

“And yesterday, on her eighteenth birthday… I did it again.”

“I’m so sorry, Mom! I just wanted to make sure I was your absolute favorite child. I’m so sorry…”

Mom remained entirely silent, looking down at Lily’s weeping form with complete, unnerving detachment. For the first time in Lily’s life, her tears didn’t move Mom to action. She didn’t reach out to soothe her.

Even when Lily clutched her chest, whimpering that her heart genuinely ached, Mom didn’t blink. She just stood there like a statue, watching her youngest daughter desperately repent for every calculated manipulation.

Finally, Mom reached out, her hand moving with a slow, mechanical precision as she stroked Lily’s hair.

“Lily, do you want to know a secret?”

“The only reason Mommy and you are walking this earth right now is because your sister traded her very

soul to buy our lives.”

“We made her lose her wager. And now, she is never coming back.”

Lily stared up at her blankly, the sheer horror of the words hitting her as a fresh wave of violent sobs

wracked her thin frame.

“But it’s too late for apologies now. It’s far too late.”

Hearing Lily’s desperate wails, Dad slammed the door open and rushed into the room. He shot Mom an incredibly disapproving look, shaking his head in anger.

“Chloe is already dead! What do you think you’re accomplishing by pointing fingers and placing blame?”

“Did you honestly think a strict military reform academy was going to be a walk in the park? You knew exactly what kind of place it was.”

“Stop playing the grieving, perfect mother now that she’s gone. I warned you years ago that a facility like that would break a child’s mind.”

“But you were the one who insisted Chloe was inherently flawed, that she was selfish and lacked basic empathy because she kept trying to compete with her sick sister. You demanded she be sent away.”

“You run this household, and you made the final executive decision. My hands were tied.”

Mom froze, her breath catching in her throat.

She realized she had no one left to hate but herself. She wanted to scream at Dad, to blame him for using his corporate connections, but Dad had never actually cared enough about either of his daughters to feel true malice. To him, children were simply an insurance policy for old age. He had just gone along with whatever parenting decisions Mom made.

Mom closed her eyes, finally accepting the blood on her hands.

She had let absolute, blinding rage dictate her choices six years ago. She had shipped me away to a living hell. She knew I would suffer, yes, but she had never imagined the sheer, systematic brutality of what happened behind those closed doors.

“I am so incredibly sorry, Chloe,” she wept, her voice cracking into a jagged whisper as she begged the empty air. “I didn’t know they were doing those horrific things to you. How on earth did you survive six years of

that?”

“You kept telling me I refused to show you any favoritism.”

“But in my heart, I thought I loved both of my daughters equally. Lily was born an invalid, and I genuinely believed that to keep things fair, I had to dedicate all my energy to keeping her alive.”

“I completely neglected you… If I had just swallowed my pride and said those simple words yesterday, you would still be here. Why didn’t I just believe you?”

Mom’s speech became completely fragmented, her mind spiraling so quickly that Lily began to scream in

terror.

Dad quickly stepped between them, thoroughly convinced that his wife had suffered a total psychotic break.

After all, the Grim Reaper had only targeted Mom’s mind.

A supernatural wager with Death was a concept far too bizarre for the real world. No one else would ever

understand.