Isabelle was quiet for a long time, but she eventually answered sadly, “Of course, I love you, my child. But you’re too soft. You break down from the slightest comment. I’m your mother. I’m doing this for your own good.”
“Hah! What a joke!” I shook my head tearfully. “If you really love me, you wouldn’t have left me to rot in the Tanner family. If you really love me, you wouldn’t have taken Crystal back to the Goldstein family! If you love me, you wouldn’t have forced me to do the things I don’t like time and again. If you love me, you wouldn’t have let Crystal mock me like I’m trash!”
Neither Isabelle nor I could stay calm when it came to Robert’s death. We could never take a step back, nor could we ever come up with a compromise. Julia didn’t kill him, but she was definitely related to his death. Yes, every irrational decision made by Isabelle would make it harder for me to deal with the case, but I wouldn’t get angry at her.
I was only mad at her because she tolerated Crystal. Crystal could mock me all she wanted, and Isabelle wouldn’t even do a thing. Instead, she would praise Crystal for calling me trash. Isabelle was my mother. She should be protecting me from any harm, but instead, she was enabling the abuse.
Even until this point, she didn’t realize her unbridled tolerance toward Crystal had hurt me on more levels than one.
“I think you really need to calm down. Just come back for lunch, and we’ll talk about it once we handle your father.” Isabelle was quiet for a moment again. “All right, that’s it. I still have something else to do.”
What does she mean by ‘handle’ Dad? I was annoyed by how she phrased that, and her hanging up on me only frustrated me more. I wanted to vent, but I had no outlet to do that.
At some point, it became impossible to communicate with Isabelle. There was a great gap between us that was difficult to bridge. I had to lie back on the sofa and stare at the ceiling for a long, long time to get rid of my depression.
Sabrina came to invite me to a shopping session. She wanted to get her child some new clothes, and she wanted me to get used to taking care of a baby. I would have been delighted to do that any other time, but I just couldn’t get myself motivated to go with her. As we chatted, I would space out and miss what she was talking about from time to time.
“What happened to you? You’ve been spacing out a lot. Did something happen? Did you get into a fight with Christopher?” Sabrina put the clothes down and poked my head.
“I wish. That’d be a lot simpler than what I’m dealing with.” I shook my head. “Besides, he won’t argue with me. Even if I want to, he’d settle matters fast enough that I can’t even get mad at him.”
“Ah, I’m guessing the evil queen wants to break you two lovebirds up again?” She blinked. Sabrina wanted to joke, but she kept her mouth shut when she realized I wasn’t looking too happy. A while later, she whispered, “Judging from your looks, it’s more serious than you first thought, isn’t it? I thought your mother’s a kind, gentle, and reasonable woman. So why is she so hard on you when it comes to Robert?”
Is she really hard on me? I didn’t really care though. The only thing I minded was that she took Crystal’s side when I was bullied. I thought she should be protecting me.
“That’s part of the problem, but it’s not the whole picture.” I massaged my temples to soothe my headache. In the end, I dragged Sabrina to a coffee shop and got a glass of warm milk, but it didn’t help one bit. I asked the waiter to get me some lollipops, and finally, it soothed me a bit.
“What is it? Don’t just sigh by yourself. Tell me!”
Sabrina picked her kid up and put the kid on her shoulder. Since she looked exhausted, I offered to help her out. “Here, let me hold you. Aren’t you adorable?”
The child cooed happily, and I smiled for the first time in ages. “Sabby, do you think Crystal’s going to be my nightmare for life? She’s like the bane of my existence.”
