Mom Could Remember One Daughter Each Month, but Always Chose My Sister Chapter 07

Mom Could Remember One Daughter Each Month, but Always Chose My Sister Chapter 07

Sophie’s hand stopped.

She spread the photographs and journals across the hospital bed.

“Mom, it’s Sophie.”

“I’m the daughter you’ve loved most.”

Mom flipped through a few pages, then closed the journal.

“I don’t know you. My daughter is Nora.”

Sophie’s face went pale. She tried to argue, but the doctor asked her to leave the room.

Her shouting echoed down the hallway.

“Why did you choose Nora?”

“She’s married and gone now. Why is she still coming back to take things from me?”

Mom heard every word from her bed.

In the past, Sophie’s tears had always made her heart ache.

Now, listening to a stranger throw a fit over losing one month of favoritism, Mom felt only exhaustion.

After she was discharged, Mom went home alone.

The house was dark.

There were no slippers by the door.

There was no warm meal waiting on the dining table.

Standing in the entryway, she called without thinking:

“Nora.”

No one answered.

She opened my bedroom door.

My bed and dresser had been removed.

Only a brand-new crib remained in their place.

The baby hadn’t even been born.

My place had already been cleared out.

Under the bed was a dusty storage box.

Mom dragged it out.

It was filled with medical records and payment receipts.

When she’d had her first episode, I had stayed with her in the hospital.

I had signed the papers for her first emotional-anchor treatment, too.

I had been seven years old that year.

A sheet of paper lay on top.

The handwriting was crooked and childish.

Dear Doctor, Mom is only sick. She doesn’t hate me.

On the back, a nurse had written a note.

Patient refused contact with older daughter. Child waited outside the room until early morning, repeatedly

asking when her mother would recognize her.

Mom covered her mouth.

Her phone suddenly rang.

A bank employee asked whether she had authorized a home-equity loan against the family estate for Logan

Price.

Mom immediately denied it.

The employee told her that Sophie had submitted the application using a power of attorney Mom had signed

earlier.

Mom rushed to the bank and revoked every authorization.

While checking the records, the employee said casually:

“Didn’t your older daughter usually come with you?”

“There was one time you were having an episode and wouldn’t let her near you.”

“She crouched outside the door for three hours and only came in to sign the paperwork after you fell asleep.”

Mom’s lips trembled.

“Why didn’t she leave?”

The employee sighed.

“She said you’d be scared if you woke up and couldn’t find anyone.”

Mom lowered her eyes to the application.

I was the emergency contact.

Sophie was the sole property beneficiary.

She canceled the credit card Sophie had as an authorized user.

Less than ten minutes later, Sophie stormed back into the house and slammed the card onto the table.

“Mom, what is this supposed to mean?”

“Forgetting me wasn’t enough? Now you’re cutting off my money, too?”

Mom looked at her coldly.

“Did you apply for the loan against the estate?”

Sophie’s eyes flickered.

“Logan only needs a little time to get back on his feet.”

“The house will be mine eventually anyway.”

She said it as if it were obvious.

Mom reached for the N-engraved bangle on Sophie’s wrist.

Sophie immediately covered it with her other hand.

“You gave me this.”

“The engraving isn’t your name.”

Mom forcibly pulled the bangle off.

The metal left a red mark around Sophie’s wrist, and tears sprang into her eyes.

“You forgot me for a few days. Is it really such a big deal?”

Mom stopped.

“You’ve only been forgotten for a few days, and you can’t stand it.”

“I forgot Nora for twenty years.”

Sophie’s face went cold.

“That’s not my fault.”

Mom stared at her and suddenly had nothing to say.

The daughter she’d loved for twenty years couldn’t even be bothered to apologize for what she’d done to her

sister.

Mom reclaimed the bangle and picked up the repaired wooden sign.

She found the Portland address on the gift box Ethan had brought when he first came over.

That evening, she got in the car and drove to Portland.

She thought that now that she had finally chosen me, I would still be standing in the same place, waiting for her, just as I had when I was a child.

But the little girl who had waited until dawn was long gone.