I Thought 'Home' Meant Warmth Nope, Just a Doghouse... Till I'm the HEIR, And It's novel Chapter 10

Chapter 2

The second Mom hung up, her phone rang again, the sound echoing through the empty hallway.

Grandma’s anxious voice came through:

“Dawn hasn’t come home since she left for school yesterday. I’ve been calling her phone-no answer…”

Mom didn’t even let her finish. She exploded: “That curse almost got Lily killed today!”

“Don’t ever mention her to me again.”

“Whatever happens to her is none of my business.”

Trankly, it’d be better if she were dead. At least then she wouldn’t be such a burden.”

Grandma went silent for a beat, then let out a long sigh.

Your father loved Dawn more than anything. If he could see you now, it would break his heart.”

“Well, he can’t see anything anymore. That little plague killed him.”

Mom’s voice was flat, cold, laced with disgust.

My heart went cold…

Grandpa died saving me.

At my eighth-grade graduation, Mom didn’t show up.

Once again, my hopes were crushed.

I saw on Lily’s Instagram that Mom was sitting at her bedside, carefully cooling down a bowl of soup.

The caption read: Ugh, woke up with a fever this morning. Thank God for my amazing mom who rushed me to the hospital and made me my favorite shrimp bisque.

I was so angry I smashed the bouquet Grandpa had brought me and ran out of the auditorium, tears streaming down my face.

At the corner, I crashed straight into a delivery truck.

I was covered in scrapes. My right arm and leg were both badly fractured.

Grandpa rushed me to the hospital and immediately scrubbed in to operate on me himself.

I made it through surgery and was wheeled into a recovery room. But Grandpa was so exhausted he collapsed right there in the OR and fell asleep.

That’s when a violent patient stormed into the hospital and stabbed him to death.

When my Mom heard it, she immediately threw me out of the house.

She wouldn’t even let me attend Grandpa’s funeral.

“Get out! I never want to see you again, you cursed thing!”

I stood outside the door, sobbing until dawn, watching the living room lights flicker back on, hearing Lily’s sweet voice as she chatted with Mom in the bedroom, smelling the shrimp bisque Mom was making for her in the kitchen…

The next morning, the door finally opened.

Mom walked out with Lily, who was freshly dressed and perfectly groomed.

They headed straight for the car without so much as a glance in my direction.

stayed there for three days and three nights.

1919

! Thoughts

Then, on a stormy evening, Grandma came and wrapped me in her arms, holding an umbrella over us both.

“Come home.”

“Come home with me.

“This isnt your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

I finally broke down in her arms, sobbing uncontrollably:

“It is my fault. I killed Grandpa.”

That day was supposed to be Grandpa’s award ceremony-he was receiving a major medical honor.

But he’d laughed it off, saying my graduation was more important, and showed up with flowers instead.

If I hadn’t been such a brat and run out of that auditorium, everything would have been fine.

“Lily is my only daughter. Don’t ever mention that curse to me again.”

Mom’s icy voice yanked me back to the present.

As I watched Mom’s retreating figure, a bone-deep chill of despair settled over me.

What do I have to do to make up for what I did?

What do I have to do for you to forgive me, Mom?