20
Grandma Eleanor spoke to Dad, but he didn’t respond.
Grandma Eleanor gave Dad a hard slap. “You didn’t cherish her when she was alive. Now that she’s dead, who are you putting on this show for?”
“How much longer will you be like this? Are you abandoning the company? Are you not raising your child?”
Then Grandma Eleanor roughly placed me into Dad’s arms “Vou made this mace
YOU
clean it up. Don’t expect me, a legless old woman, to do it.”
“I warned you back then. Celeste is Celeste, Anya is Anya. But you wouldn’t listen, you were like a man possessed.”
“Now she’s gone. The only thing you need to do is raise your child with her properly.”
Grandma Eleanor left after scolding him, leaving Dad and me alone at home.
That evening, our neighbor Ms. Davis brought us food. She was crying too.
She said she was out of town at the time and saw me knocking on her door through the surveillance camera. She thought I was just coming to play and didn’t think much of it.
“I really regret it,” Ms. Davis cried, choked with sobs. “Why didn’t I ask more questions
then?”
Everyone had asked one question too few, everyone had been one step too late.
After Ms. Davis left, Dad suddenly remembered something.
He went to his study, opened the computer, typed a few things, and then Mom appeared
on the screen.
It was our home surveillance. Mom said it was installed when I was born.
Dad didn’t like having others in the house, so after I was born, there wasn’t even a nanny
at home. The surveillance was for him to see me constantly, afraid I might have an
accident.
On the computer, it was nighttime.
Mom sat quietly on the living room sofa. The TV was playing a comedy show, and the audience was laughing loudly.
Mom, who loved to laugh, wasn’t laughing.
She picked up the phone several times, but then put it down.
Then I rubbed my eyes, walked out, and nestled into Mom’s arms, falling back asleep.
Mom held me, looking at me for a long, long time.
