Chapter 18
A week later, I received a mysterious phone call.
“Hello? Is this Zoe?”
The voice on the other end was soft and calm, like a gentle spring breeze.
“It’s me, who’s calling?”
Suddenly, the woman burst into loud sobs.
It’s your mother, it’s your mother,”
Mother? Such a familiar and yet foreign word.
If I’m not mistaken, I haven’t heard that word in years.
I answered in a flat tone, “Uh, what do you need?”
After a long pause, the woman finally spoke,
“Zoe, I’ve wronged you all these years, but I never wanted it to be this way…”
“I’m apologizing to Olivia on your behalf.”
“Don’t!”
I shouted hysterically.
“She made the mistake, she should apologize. You made the mistake, you should atone!”
“Please don’t say that, Zoe, please…”
The voice on the other end was a broken mess of sobs.
Se explained that Dad had been a compulsive gambler and had an affair.
In the end, she gave up and had an affair with her boss too.
I begged her on my knees, begging her not to abandon me.
But she still left me, choosing to stay with Olivia’s father.
She tried to find me, but Dad had moved.
All these years, she wanted to make it up to me, but she could never find me.
It was thanks to Olivia that she finally got my contact…
I couldn’t forgive her, just like those scars–forever part of me.
I blocked her number.
Talso burned the only photo of her wearing the gold necklace.
I heard that Olivia eventually aborted the baby.
