21
While Dad watched the surveillance, I fell asleep beside him.
When I woke up, Dad was still watching. On the computer, Mom and I were lying on the bed, and Mom was telling me a story from the photos sent by the photo studio.
This was Mom’s last living moment.
“Mommy, how did you and Daddy meet?” I asked Mom in the video.
Mom tucked her soft long hair behind her ear. “We, my dear, were an unavoidable
destiny.”
I didn’t understand.
Then Mom taught me to be brave, not to be afraid, saying that even if she turned into rain
or wind, she would always protect me.
I fell asleep in Mom’s arms.
After who knows how long, Mom suddenly sat up and looked at the air, her face pleading. She was talking to someone, but the surveillance suddenly lost sound right there.
All we could see was Mom painfully falling off the bed, picking up her phone, and dialing a number, but it was quickly hung up by the other side.
She typed out another line of text, then collapsed, unable to hold on any longer.
But she struggled to climb up again, crawling toward me on the bed.
Inch by inch, she finally crawled to my side and collapsed, pulling the blanket over my little tummy.
Finally, she tried to caress my face, but she listlessly lost all strength and drew her last breath.
But me, I knew nothing, just sleeping sweetly beside her.
Dad furiously pounded the computer, but it was useless.
I thought for a moment, then told him, “I know what Mom said. I heard it.”
Dad immediately asked me, “What did Mom say?”
“Mommy said, ‘It’s not time yet, how are you here?“”
“My daughter is only three, let me make a call and arrange things for her.“”
“And… “I couldn’t quite remember. I was so sleepy back then.
Dad cupped my face, looking into my eyes. “Lily, think hard.”
I tried hard to remember, and finally, I recalled that Mom’s last words were: “I regret falling in love with Julian. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come here at all.”
Dad listened blankly. Then he pushed me away.
He angrily said I was lying, that I was a child and couldn’t possibly remember so many words, that I made it all up.
I angrily said, I remember, Mom really said that.
Dad stopped talking. He found Mom’s phone.
He scrolled through Mom’s phone, and I don’t know what he saw, but in the end, he cried
too.
I had never seen Dad cry.
It turned out he was just as sad when he cried.
