The Day They Looked For Me, I Had Already Forgotten Them Chapter 09

The Day They Looked For Me, I Had Already Forgotten Them Chapter 09

Over those five years, Dad grew more haggard by the day, while Mom remained chronically ill and

bedridden.

Julian’s hair turned white almost overnight the year I disappeared.

The television was still reporting the latest developments.

“According to the latest reports, another possible sighting of Maya, the Bennetts’ long-lost biological daughter, occurred today on the west side of the city. The Bennetts and former Sterling heir Julian Sterling

have rushed to the scene…”

The footage cut to the airport! I saw two elderly, stooped figures and a man whose hair had gone gray.

Then the scene changed.

They were standing inside a police station, facing an unfamiliar young woman. The hope on their faces collapsed into crushing disappointment.

The reporter continued in a regretful tone, “Unfortunately, the woman was not…”

I pointed at the screen and turned to Cole Mercer.

“Cole, I’m the Bennetts’ biological daughter they’re talking about on television, aren’t I?”

His hand paused as he poured me a glass of water.

Cole smiled softly and gently slid the glass toward me.

“Yes. It looks like the surgery Dr. Ellis performed went well. You’re starting to remember.”

I took the glass and nodded,

“Yes. After I fell asleep last night, I remembered bits and pieces in my dreams.”

I remembered the piggy bank, the crooked handwriting in my journal, and the storm in which I had been

abandoned.

Cole watched me in silence for a moment before asking softly, “Do you want to go back and see them?”

“Your parents…and Julian. They’ve almost driven themselves insane looking for you.”

I shook my head, a mocking smile tugging at my lips.

“No.”

“What would be the point?”

I stood and walked to the window, looking down at the crowds moving along the street below.

“Mom and Dad would probably throw their arms around me, overcome with emotion. They would apologize

for the way they treated me and promise never to favor Olivia over me again.”

“Then Julian would take my hand with tears in his eyes, and we would pour our hearts out to each other. He

would tell me how much he regretted everything, say he had spent three full years searching for me, and beg

me to become his fiancée again.”

I turned to Cole, my eyes beginning to redden.

“Cole, I imagined hearing those words hundreds of times.”

“But even if they said them now, what would it change?”

I lowered my gaze to the ugly burn scar on my calf.

When Cole found me by the roadside, the wound had turned pale and inflamed after being soaked in the rain.

He found the best doctors and made sure I received the most expensive medication.

But the scar seemed carved into my bones. Nothing could make it disappear.

It remained there, constantly reminding me how unloved and disrespected Maya had once been.

“Cole, I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

“I don’t know whether they’re crying because they truly love me or because they can’t live with what they did.”

“But it doesn’t matter anymore.”

I raised my head and forced a smile, though tears pricked my eyes.

“Cole, thank you for finding me by the roadside three years ago ”

Cole smiled. His face, usually marked by a lazy, roguish charm, was now filled with tenderness.

He gently ruffled my hair, then pulled me into his arms.

“Don’t be silly. You never have to thank me.”

After Cole found me five years ago, I never enrolled at the college back home where I’d accepted an offer.

Cole immediately took me overseas for treatment.

“If you’re sick, you get treatment. College will still be there when you’re ready.”

The treatment lasted five years.

We had returned this time to get married at the courthouse.

We would only stay a few days before leaving again.

On the flight out, I casually opened a newspaper.

In the photograph, the woman who had once beaten and berated me now lay emaciated in a hospital bed,

hooked up to tubes.

I stared at the picture for several seconds, my fingers trembling slightly.

Cole immediately reached for the newspaper, afraid that seeing it would upset me.

I held his hand back and calmly turned the page.

Another headline in the corner caught my attention.

The accompanying image was a grainy photograph taken from the side.

Julian was kneeling in front of a newly erected gravestone.

There were no dates carved into it.

Only one cold line:

[Maya Bennett, Wife of Julian Sterling.]

I looked at the photograph and suddenly found the whole thing both absurd and laughable.

Beside me, Cole’s fingertips brushed gently across the back of my hand.

“Renee, how about New Zealand for our honeymoon?”

“The air is clean, and the ocean stretches for miles. It’s blueberry season right now. I’ll take you to a farm to pick some. It’ll be good for your recovery.”

I nodded, and our hands clasped tightly together.

The wedding band on my ring finger caught the light with a warm gleam.

Maya Bennett was dead.

I gave myself a new name: Renee Bennett. Renee meant reborn-the life I reclaimed after surviving the worst, and the new beginning I found beyond the darkness.

Another spring had arrived.

I rested my head on Cole’s shoulder and closed my eyes.

I never again dreamed of the girl who had written [Maybe no one loves me] in her journal.

Don’t search for me in the wind anymore.

I’ve already grown up all over again somewhere filled with sunlight.