The Pack Left Me Behind, So I Claimed My Future Chapter 04

The Pack Left Me Behind, So I Claimed My Future Chapter 04

That night, I lay on the rusted metal bed in my alcove and used a job app to find three temporary jobs.

I still had six days. If I worked hard enough, I could earn the roughly $1,500 I needed for Grandma’s custom hearing device.

At four the next morning, I left for work. I worked the dawn shift at a pack diner, ran deliveries through the day, and waited tables at a smokehouse at night.

It was already one in the morning when I returned to the packhouse. I leaned weakly against the door to the family wing and nearly fell asleep standing there.

I searched my pockets for my key, then searched them again. I had rushed out so early that morning that I must have left it behind.

I braced myself and knocked. When no one answered, I knocked harder. A door behind me opened, and one of the neighboring pack members leaned out.

“Stop knocking. They went out and haven’t come back.”

“When did they leave?”

“This morning.”

The neighbor pulled back inside and shut the door.

I sent a message to the family group chat.

Me: [Mom, Dad, where are you? I forgot my key.]

No one replied. I called all four of them, but no one answered.

My legs were swollen and aching, so I sat on the floor, leaned against the door, and fell asleep.

My alarm woke me at four in the morning. I checked my phone, but there were still no messages.

Throughout the day, I called them dozens of times whenever I had a spare moment. I grew increasingly afraid that something had happened to them. Mom finally replied in the family group chat that evening.

Mom: [We’re staying with Aunt Victoria in the next city over. Find somewhere else to sleep.]

Me: [Why didn’t anyone tell me?]

She never responded. It was always like this. Nothing I said ever received an answer.

The smokehouse owner let me sleep at the restaurant for a few nights. I had no idea when my family returned because no one contacted me.

The day before my departure, I finished my final shifts at all three jobs and took my earnings to Grandma’s house. I planned to have a custom hearing device fitted for her.

From a distance, I saw a crowd of familiar people gathered outside. My heart lurched, and I quickened my pace and pushed open the gate.

My family and Aunt Victoria’s family were all there. Through the open door, I could see a framed portrait of Grandma in the main room.

My heart skipped a beat, and my breathing grew heavy as I forced myself toward the portrait, one leaden step at a time.

“When did it happen?”

“Her heart failed suddenly three days ago. She was buried today.”

For once, someone answered the first time I asked.

My legs gave way, and I dropped to my knees.

“Grandma…”

I bowed my head as tears streamed down my cheeks, dripped from my chin, and splashed onto the floor.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We forgot.”

I forced myself to my feet and screamed at them.

“You forgot? You always forget! Was I born just so all of you could forget I exist?”

Dad raised his voice too.

“Why are you shouting? Even the pack healer couldn’t save her. What good would telling you have done?”

What good would telling me have done? In his mind, there was never any reason to tell me anything—not even when his silence cost me my last chance to see Grandma.

“We’re overwhelmed every day. Can’t you be more mature and stop causing trouble?”

All I had wanted was the chance to say goodbye to Grandma. How did that make me a burden?

I knew none of them cared about me. I had already done everything I could to avoid disturbing their family of four. Was I not even entitled to know that Grandma had died?

I said nothing else. I stayed beside Grandma’s portrait while everyone gradually left the house without sparing me another thought.

Night fell, and dawn came. It was time for me to leave.

I returned to the Blackwood packhouse, collected my packed canvas duffel and all my identification documents, and prepared to go. For once, Mom noticed me before I reached the door.

“Where are you going? Back to Grandma’s house?”

“Yes.”

I gave her that single word, opened the door, and left without looking back.

At Grandma’s house, I placed the custom hearing device I had just bought beside her portrait and gently stroked the photograph.

“Grandma, you’re gone, and now I’m leaving too.”

After checking the flight itinerary from my faculty adviser, I called a cab and went to the airport.

Just before takeoff, my phone chimed with a message in the family group chat.

Dad: [Maeve, stay at Grandma’s house for a few days. We’ll come by in seven days.]

Dad rarely reached out to me, but what he said no longer mattered to me.

I muted the family group chat and turned off my phone.

The plane slowly climbed into the sky. Everything on the ground grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

On the seventh day after Grandma’s death, the four of them went to her house. Mom pushed open the closed gate and called out.

“Maeve, we’re here.”

No one answered.

The four of them searched the entire house and found a note beside Grandma’s portrait.

[I’m gone. I’m done being invisible in your family.]