They Forgot My Name, They Forgot My Ticket, They Forgot Me Chapter 07

They Forgot My Name, They Forgot My Ticket, They Forgot Me Chapter 07

Yasmin’s fingers went white around the report, crushing it.

Head down, tears streamed down like broken beads, splashing onto the paper and smearing the words.

“It’s fake.

She screamed and ran out the door.

Cedric started to follow-but Dad stopped him. “Let her be alone. This is hard for her too. She needs

time. She’ll come back once she’s come to terms with it.”

He nodded, about to leave-but found himself walking toward the attic instead.

He pushed open the door. Hot air hit him.

It was the first time he’d really looked at the place Jocelyn had lived for six years.

The old fan on the floor was blowing hot air too.

He remembered that day-the weather just as brutal-he’d ordered iced Snapple for Yasmin ahead

of time. But he’d forgotten Jocelyn was up here in this oven.

They’d sat in the air-conditioned room, sipping cold drinks, and he knew she must have heard

them.

But she hadn’t cried. She hadn’t made a scene.

By then, she had already given up on him entirely.

He’d pressured her to give up her job. He’d fobbed her off with cheap gifts.

He started searching the attic for any clue of where she’d gone.

He opened the plastic bin she’d used as a closet. Only his gift was there-but all her clothes were

gone.

He remembered that on the day he’d thrown away her documents, her packed suitcase had only

held a few items.

She’d been ready to leave for a long time.

He just hadn’t noticed.

Cedric slid down the wall, hand over his face. Tears of regret leaked through his fingers.

“What have I done to her? She’s the one who grew up with me-I promised I’d marry her…”

His other hand brushed against something uneven on the floor.

He looked down.

By the bedside, words had been carved into the wood with a knife.

“Cedric said he would give me a home.”

That was the promise he’d made the day she was sent to the attic.

She’d clung to that one sentence all these years.

And Cedric had broken his word.

He’d long forgotten he ever said it. At first he’d protected her, but then he’d started feeling sorry

for Yasmin-believing that everything good Jocelyn had came at Yasmin’s experrse.

Gradually, he’d favored the wrong girl. He’d stopped using Jocelyn’s name.

And now,

Yasmin’s true identity had made a mockery of everything.

Not long after Cedric left, Mom came up to the attic with Dad.

She saw the crystal ball on the table and froze.

“Lreally was so cruel….”

Dad held her shoulder, looking around the tiny space. Barely fifty square feet. Five feet high-they could only crouch. They’d barely lasted five minutes, already feeling suffocated.

Jocelyn had lived here for six years without a single complaint.

Dad squeezed her shoulder. “Let’s buy a new place. Three bedrooms. She’ll have her own room

when she comes back. This place isn’t fit for living.”

Mom cried. “Let’s look at houses today. Buy it right away. If she has a room, she’ll come home.”

They comforted themselves, reaching for their phones to call a realtor.

Then the police station called.