Second Life, First Time I Chose Me Chapter 09
While the Holloway household was tearing itself apart, I was
already in the airport lounge with Liam.
More messages popped up. My parents asking where I’d gone,
why I’d left the keys.
Dad: [If you want to change your name, go ahead. Grace is nice.]
Mom apologized, said she’d been bewitched, that she’d make
it up to me, cook for me, care for me after the baby came.
Even Soren, who’d barely ever texted me, sent a message:
Soren: [I won’t hold the appliances against you. I bought Mom
and Dad new ones. The past is the past–are you really going
to stay away forever?]
I only laughed. A murderer telling the victim to forget it.
I didn’t reply. I blocked them all.
In Finland, the climate was a change–but Liam and I
adjusted well. We were freer, happier than we’d ever been at home.
The only annoyance was the endless messages. My parents
had found out from the nanny that I’d gone abroad. They
asked, every day, in every way they could think of, when I was
coming back. How was the morning sickness? Did I want
Mom to make me some dried fruit and mail it?
Every message ended with the same regret: “It’s all our fault.
We made you suffer.”
I only laughed.
In my past life, until the day I died, they’d never thought they
were wrong. Twenty years of cruelty–could they suddenly
develop a conscience in one night?
If I hadn’t exposed Simone, if I hadn’t cut off their retirement,
would they be groveling now?
Maybe they felt some guilt. But ninety–nine percent of it was calculation.
Soren was even blunter. He apologized–grudgingly–said he’d
been wrong, had wronged me many times over, and offered to
apologize publicly, just to get me to let his restaurant keep
supplying ours.
“We’re siblings after all. I’ve kicked Simone out of the family.
She can’t cause trouble anymore. Come back–we’ll be a
loving family again.”
I read that and threw up so hard I saw stars,
Liam rushed over. “Morning sickness? I’ll call a doctor.”
I stopped him. “Not morning sickness. Just disgusted.”
Liam: ? Me?
Six months later, I gave birth to Tessa.
She was beautiful and lively–everyone adored her. In this
life, without my mother’s interference, Tessa grew up healthy and strong.
When she was eighteen, Liam.and I were both nearing fifty.
He busied himself with preparations for her coming–of–age,
wiping away tears as he worked.
“Just yesterday she was a baby in my arms. How is she already grown?”
I was about to comfort him when he added, “I’m having her
take over the business when she turns twenty. Then we retire
and travel the world, okay?”
Tessa overheard and shouted from across the room: “No! I
won’t even be graduated! I want a gap year too!”
Liam collapsed onto the couch with a howl of protest.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Thankfully, in this life, everyone I loved was right here with me.
END