Chapter 8
So even when she couldn’t hear me, she just assumed I was in the car.
Even when I wasn’t right next to her, she figured I was still tagging along quietly.
All those automatic assumptions messed with her memory, making her believe I’d been there the whole time just being my usual silent self.
couldn’t help but sigh.
floated over to the police officer and whispered:
Please don’t be too hard on Mommy, okay? They didn’t mean to leave me behind. They just thought I was being too loud.”
he officer couldn’t hear me, obviously.
is face was all scrunched up as he pulled out another photo:
Did you know Emma was being bullied at school?”
y your stepson, Jake.”
om’s head shot up.
blinked, totally shocked.
at photo was from when Jake blocked me from getting to the bathroom.
le cop looked genuinely confused as he continued:
he’s been getting picked on by older kids since she started school, and your stepson was leading the pack. You all live under the same roof – you seriously
ver noticed?”
om’s hands were shaking.
le stared at the picture of me crying my eyes out, recognizing the outfit I was wearing.
could see it clicking – she remembered Jake laughing and telling her I’d wet myself, how gross and unsanitary I was.
e’d just gotten home from work that day.
eing me all dirty and disheveled made her lose it. She smacked me around pretty good.
en she changed my clothes while acting all annoyed about it, and made me kneel on the balcony to “think about what I’d done.”
went to bed hungry that night.
ecause Mom said that was my punishment for being “unsanitary.”
felt all fuzzy and confused thinking, So it wasn’t just “being mean” – it was called “bullying”?
id that mean… my family had been bullying me this whole time?
Iom started sobbing again.
he seemed to really love me now, saying “sorry” over and over, saying she didn’t know, begging me to forgive her.
¡ut she sure didn’t act this way when she was calling me a burden.
My chest felt all tight and achy.
wiped my eyes, not wanting to stay here anymore, so I drifted into the next room where Dad was.
The second I got there, I heard his voice – completely broken and hoarse.
…It’s my fault. I saw that accident footage on my phone in the car. Why didn’t I watch the whole thing?”
“We really didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I don’t know what the hell got into me, throwing her out on the highway like that.”
I watched him make the same guilty, ashamed face as Mom.
That tight feeling in my chest got even worse.
They didn’t understand why it happened.
But I knew exactly why.
Because they never loved me.
I couldn’t stop myself tears kept pouring out of my eyes and I started crying really hard.
Daddy loved Jake, so he always remembered to turn on cartoons for him and buy him cool superhero cakes and action figures.
Mommy loved Madison, so she got her pretty dresses and braided her hair like a princess and played pretend games with her.
But they didn’t love me.
They never remembered that I liked my bunny, they didn’t know that seafood made me all itchy and sick, and they didn’t care about anything I did.
was like their helper who had to do stuff whenever they said so.
had to be really, really good all the time.
had to help Mommy clean up, rub Daddy’s feet when he was tired, and make dinner when Mommy was sad.
did so many things just to get a little tiny bit of love.
¡ut even when I got just a little bit, Jake and Madison got really mad at me.
hey said I was taking their mommy and daddy away.
ut they were supposed to be my mommy and daddy too.
