My heart skipped a beat when I saw my mother weeping. It was safe to assume that Steven must have been gravely injured.
As I dragged my way over to the ward, I saw Steven lying on the bed. He was completely drenched in blood with a plaster cast applied to both his legs.
There was no way I could stand seeing him in such a state no matter how much I was irked by his actions. After all, at the end of the day, he was my only sibling.
I strode toward his bedside, staring at him, and noticing that he was bruised all over, especially his face. Although my parents hadn’t sustained any serious injury, they weren’t exactly fine.
What the heck is wrong with that brutal bunch? They didn’t pull their punches at all! How dare they beat Steven up to a pulp? Aren’t they afraid of being arrested?
“M-Mom…”
Overwhelmed by emotions, I was unable to finish my sentence.
Torrents of grief streamed down my cheeks. I approached my mother and looked at her with my face scrunched up in guilt.
Although it was Steven’s fault for getting himself involved, I felt bad as I wasn’t of much help. If only I was capable enough to turn the tables around, Steven wouldn’t have ended up heavily injured.
When she heard me, she stopped weeping and glared at me in the eyes. A few seconds later, she stood up and marched over in my direction.
“Mom, I’m so sorry—”
I wanted to express my utmost apology, yet I wasn’t even given a chance to finish my sentence. She slapped me in the face without holding back the moment she reached my side.
“Get the hell out of my sight at once!”
She yelled at me with a pair of teary eyes and bellowed at me to leave the ward immediately.
Seconds after I returned to my senses, I looked at her with my eyes widened in disbelief. I had a hard time fathoming the rationale behind the brutal slap.
Staring at my mother’s scrunched-up face, my eyes started brimming with tears. The emotions I had been holding back almost came flooding out, but I knew I couldn’t afford to be vulnerable.
Irked, Natalie had to resist the urge to confront my mom. She tried her best to maintain her composure and asked, “Hey, how could you slap Anna?”
Sniffling, I expressed my apology once again, “Mom, I’m so sorry—”
“Get out of my sight immediately! You’re not my daughter!”
She couldn’t be bothered by my apology at all. Instead, she dragged me out of the ward with all her might, indicating she deemed me liable for Steven’s injuries.
“Mom, how can you say that? I’ll always be your daughter! How can you chase me away when you need someone by your side?”
Although I wasn’t of much help, I wasn’t the one at fault! I can’t believe she’s chasing me away! Has she never thought of my feelings?
“Where are you when we need you the most? Since you can’t be of much help, stop considering yourself a member of the family! I’ll just consider it a waste of my time and effort raising you over the past two decades!”
It was evident that she held a grudge against me for not being able to resolve the issue on the family’s behalf. In another word, she held me accountable for everything that had occurred.
Is she implying that I’m the one at fault for the family’s current situation? Does she think I’m having a great time when they’re having it tough?
In an attempt to defend myself, I looked at her in the eyes and repeated, “Mom, haven’t I made it clear? I don’t have the required sum! Over the years, I have given you everything! I don’t even have a single cent left!”
It wasn’t fair to hold me accountable for the things that had occurred.
“Don’t try to deceive me! You have been working for years! I’m sure you’re able to make more than a few hundred thousand within a year! You’re just selfish and unwilling to help your brother!”
There was nothing I could say that would convince her otherwise since she had already decided that I was the one responsible for the misery that had befallen Steven.
My heart went cold when I caught her staring at me with contempt. I wondered if she would react the same if I was the one heavily injured instead of Steven.
All these years, I was the breadwinner of the family, yet an accident was all it took to nullify my contribution over the years.
That’s so unfair! Steven is their child! But so am I! Are they taking things out on me just because I’m a female?
Natalie couldn’t stand my mother’s arrogant behavior anymore. She tried her best to suppress her wrath and enunciated her reply, “Are you telling me you’re not aware that Anna has transferred more than half of her monthly wages home? What do you expect from her when she’s just an executive-level employee? She has been trying her best to cover Steven’s debt over the past two years! What makes you think she must bear the consequences of his actions?”
Natalie’s statements took my mother by surprise as she interrupted our conversation. However, seconds after my mother returned to her senses, she began taking her frustration out on Natalie.
“Who the heck are you? What makes you think you’re in a position to interfere when I’m trying to teach my daughter a lesson? Why are you even here in the first place?”
In spite of being relatively straightforward, Natalie had never once mispresented the facts. Nonetheless, that wouldn’t work with someone like my mother.
“I’m just telling the truth! To be honest, I can’t stand it anymore! I’m supposed to show you some respect since you’re Anna’s mom, but I don’t think you deserve it at all! Don’t you know she’s going to feel bad as well? How can you blame her when she’s not the one at fault?”
Natalie went on and on without paying heed to my mother’s fury.
“Natalie, that’s enough! I’m sure Mom is just frustrated because of the things that have occurred over the past few days!”
My mother had always been an unreasonable person. As such, I was afraid that Natalie would get herself involved in another fight, so I tried to stop her.
“Anna, they’re holding you accountable because you have always tolerated their nonsensical demand! I’m well aware of the things you have gone through over the past two years! It’s fine even if they don’t appreciate your effort, but I can’t believe they’re blaming you when you’re not even involved in this! They don’t deserve to call themselves your parents!”
Natalie was never afraid of blurting out the things she had in mind. Therefore, she didn’t bother to rephrase her sentence even when she was conversing with an elder like my mother.
Never would I bring up something of that sort in front of my mother, however, for I knew she would reprimand me for being unfilial and ungrateful if I did.
“Anna, is this your friend? Has she no manner at all?”
Unable to defend herself, my mother glared at me in the eyes and started picking on me instead of Natalie.
