I Saved My Sister, So They Drowned Me Chapter 02
After Lily had fully recovered, Mom invited a group of friends over for a celebration dinner.
“Let’s celebrate! We finally made it through these past seven months. We made it!”
I helped her from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon.
After everything was cleaned up, she looked me up and down.
“Forget it. You can just wear this, no need to change.”
“When they come over, just don’t talk too much. Bring them something to drink if they need it.”
The relatives arrived one after another.
Lily wore a floral dress and light makeup.
Mom held her hand at the door, greeting every guest as if she was showing off a precious treasure she had gotten back.
“Wow, look at our Lily. Doesn’t she look so much better now?”
“Oh my, she’s gotten so much prettier. She looks like a completely different. Looks amazing!”
Mom smiled from ear to ear.
“Of course. The medical bills cost us a fortune.”
“Her dad and I saved every penny we could to pay for it.”
“It was worth it. As long as she’s healthy again, we don’t care how much we spend.”
At the dinner table, Mom started telling everyone about her “battle” over the past seven months.
“You have no idea how hard it was.”
“When Lily was at her worst, she cried in the middle of the night saying she didn’t want to live anymore.”
“I stayed up with her night after night. I lost handfuls of hair from all the stress…”
I put down my fork.
The person who stayed by Lily’s side all night was me.
“Lily only got better because her mother fought for her with everything she had,” Aunt Claire said emotionally.
Mom wiped the corner of her eye.
“I had to keep going, even when I couldn’t anymore.”
“She’s a part of me.”
Aunt Rachel suddenly looked at me.
“Nina must have had a hard time too, right?”
“I heard she stayed home and took care of Lily the whole time.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
“Her?”
Mom didn’t even stop eating.
She simply picked up a shrimp and placed it on Lily’s plate.
“She only helped here and there.”
“I was the one who carried most of it.”
“What could she even do?”
“She can’t even carry a glass of water properly.”
A few people laughed.
I gripped my spoon so tightly my knuckles turned white.
Seven months.
Two hundred and ten days.
Every night I crouched beside Lily’s bed.
Every time she said she didn’t want to live, I was the one who pulled her back.
“Mom.”
The words were forced out of my throat.
“For these seven months, I was the one who stayed with Lily every night.”
“I was the one who handed her tissues when she cried.”
“When she woke up in the middle of the night, I was the one who got up to bring her water.”
“When the cup broke, you only heard the noise.”
“You never saw the blood on my hand.”
The table went completely quiet.
“Do you know she gets worse whenever the seasons change?”
“Do you know she has to eat before taking her medication?”
“Do you know that when she wakes up at night, she can’t turn on the main light?”
“She can only use the little night-light.”
My voice trembled.
“You don’t know any of that.”
“All you know how to do is cry in front of other people.”
Bang—
Mom slammed her fork onto the table and stood up.
“What? What the hell are you talking about?”
“I raised you all these years, and now you’re humiliating me in front of the family?”
“Have I ever not cared about either of my daughters?”
“Just because I asked you to take care of Lily, you’ve decided to hold a grudge against me?”
She turned toward the relatives sitting around the table.
Tears streamed down her face.
Uncle Robert slammed his hand on the table.
“Nina, do you even know how much your mother has done for this family?”
Aunt Claire shook her head.
“Taking care of Lily was your responsibility!”
“And now you want everyone to thank you for doing what you were supposed to do?”
No one asked why I had said those things.
From beginning to end, not a single person asked if I was okay.
Lily never looked up.
She quietly peeled shrimp shells.
As if my breakdown was nothing more than an inconvenient interruption during dinner.
Dad took a sip of his drink.
“Enough. Stop making a scene.”
“If there’s something to say, talk about it privately.”
“Everyone should leave now. Let your mother rest.”
Let your mother rest.
Not me.
After everyone left, a pile of dishes covered the kitchen sink.
Mom walked past the kitchen without stopping.
Her voice drifted in from the hallway.
“You’ll never be able to make up for the shame you caused today!”