2
15.12
“I wasted my life raising you,” my mother cried, pointing a trembling finger at Mandy. “I wasted all my love on you. I lost my son because of you, and this is how you repay me!”
She collapsed onto the floor, shaking uncontrollably. To be betrayed by the child you treasure most… there ist
no greater pain.
Ten years ago, Mandy fell into the river. My older brother, Leo, jumped in to save her. Mom jumped in, too.
But Leo couldn’t swim. Soon, both he and Mandy were on the verge of drowning.
As Mom hesitated, unsure who to save first, Leo, ever the little hero, sputtered, ‘Mom, save Mandy first! I’m a big boy, I can hold on.”
Mom listened to him. She chose to save Mandy.
But by the time she dragged Mandy to the shore, Leo was gone, swallowed by the river.
His body surfaced two days later. The guilt nearly destroyed my mother. She’s suffered from insomnia ever since. She was on antidepressants and sleeping pills for eight years, only stopping in the last two.
After that, with just the two of us girls left, a heavy cloud settled over our house. My father, busy with work, cried his eyes out for a week after Leo died, and then he threw himself back into his career. I never saw that grief in his eyes again.
He even tried to comfort my mom. “It was an accident. Nobody wanted it to happen. But it did, and the living have to go on living. We still have two daughters. You can’t let this destroy your health.
My mom was a small business owner. She ran a chain of ten successful bakeries. After Leo’s death, she shut them all down. On the surface, she seemed to recover, but I knew she was still trapped on that riverbank.
Her pillow was always dry at night and soaked by morning. For the last ten years, we’ve bought pillowcases by the dozen.
But even in her deepest pain, she never once blamed Mandy.
