Chapter 2
But now Grandma was gone.
She’d jumped in to save a neighbor’s kid from drowning and got water in her lungs.
Pneumonia set in, She was bedridden for a long time.
Right before she died, she told me, “Chloe, honey, stop being stubborn with your parents.”
“Deep down, they know they messed up.”
They just need a way to save face.”
They feel too guilty to deal with you, that’s why they left you here with me.”
No. They weren’t guilty at all–I’d always knew that.
ust at my second week at the local school, a new friend noticed my hearing wasn’t normal.
Grandma took me to the hospital, and that’s when we found out I was deaf in one ear.
Too late for treatment. I’d need a hearing aid for life.
refused to wear it.
‘d rather get by with one ear than let everyone see I was disabled.
Grandma called my parents and ripped them apart.
After she hang up, she told me, “When they get here, Grandma’s gonna hit them back for you.”
But they never came.
Even knowing they’d made me deaf, they didn’t show up.
Because of work. Because they had to drive Layla to school.
They were too busy to get away for me.
Bottom line: they just didn’t like me. I didn’t matter.
Grandma said, “Honey, in this life, a lot of things don’t have winners and losers.”
In the end, you just have to forgive yourself.”
Let it go, Chloe. Just let it go.”
Ten years. I never called them Mom and Dad once,
wen when they visited Grandma on holidays, I wouldn’t say a word to them.
Ten years, and I never shed a tear over them.
But when Grandma said “let it go.” I broke down sobbing.
I wasn’t ready to give up.
They never apologized, never got punished, never made it up to me.
Why should I just let it go?
But Grandma was running out of time.
So to give her peace, I made a promise,
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Chapter 2
“Don’t worry, Grandma. I’ll go home with them.”
“It’s been so long–1 don’t even care about that stuff anymore.”
It was a lie.
How could I really not care?
Even if I wanted to stop caring, my ear wouldn’t let me.
Sometimes it rang–not painful, just this endless noise I couldn’t shut off.
It drove me crazy.
I wasn’t trying to hold grudges or cling to old pain.
The pain from ten years ago had never let go of me.
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