I ran to the window. Philip was throwing his suitcases into the car.
He didn’t look back.
Not once.
For weeks after that, Mom was gone. They said she went on a trip. I stayed with Uncle Thomas and Aunt Cynthia.
Chloe, my younger cousin, kept asking me to play dolls with her. She didn’t understand that I didn’t want to play. My chest hurt all the time, and I didn’t know why it wouldn’t stop.
So I studied.Every day.
I wanted to make sure I still had the best grades… so when Philip came back, he’d see I was as smart as ever.
Always hislittle Maya.
Mom said she would bring him back. I believed her.
At school, our teacher asked us to write about someone we admired. I wrote about Philip, how he always listened when I talked about my essays, how he made people smile, how he said I was smart. I got the best grade in the class. There was even a gold star on top of the page.
When Uncle Thomas said Mom was coming home, I waited by the window all afternoon, clutching that paper in my hands.
I thought Philip would be with her. But when the car pulled up, she stepped out alone.Uncle Thomas went outside and they talked in low voices, too low for me to hear. Then Mom started crying. He hugged her, and she didn’t stop.
Aunt Cynthia called me into the kitchen and gave me cookies and milk with Chloe. Chloe laughed about something. I didn’t.
When we finally went home, Mom didn’t talk much.
She looked tired. Not like after a long day… tired in a way that made her eyes dull and empty. Like she’d left something behind and didn't know how to get it back.
Two weeks later, I found her in her bed. She wasn't moving.
She wasn't breathing. Her hand was cold when I touched it.
And that’s how I learned that love can kill you.
“My mother—my mother killed herself. That’s what your father’s love did to her."
I say it and wait for something, anything, to happen. She just stands there, studying me like a broken thing someone set on a shelf.
“She put on the last dress Philip gave her. Took a whole bottle of pills and lay down to die.”
I was the one who found her the next morning. There was no sound coming from the kitchen. No breakfast, no clatter of pans. Just emptiness.
“I called for her. Shook her. Shook her again. She was cold. I grabbed the phone and called your daddy. The first name that came to my mind—because he was the one whopromisedhe would take care of us.”
I pause because the pain doesn’t fit a neat sentence.
“Do you know what he did? He ignored every call until he finally picked up. He said,“ ‘Don’t ever call me again,’and hung up."
I remember curling into a corner with the phone slipping from my hand. For hours. Until I called my uncle.
Cecily cuts in, eyes wide and accusing. “I’m sorry for what happened to your mother. I can’t even imagine the pain you went through.”
She pauses. “But all of this… you wormed your way into Colin’s life just to punish my father?”
She asks the question in a low tone, but there’s nothing soft about it.
“How sick do you have to be to ruin a family over someone else’s choices?”
