“Eve, I know you’re angry that I didn’t look for you throughout the years. I just… I just didn’t know how to face you, so I-”
Isabelle’s remark was tantamount to pouring fuel on the fire. I jerked my head up and glowered at her resentfully even as I roared, “Just because you didn’t know how to face me, so you decided to avoid me? For that reason, you simply pretended that you have no daughter? If it weren’t for this party today that had us bumping into each other, were you planning to avoid me for the rest of your life?”
“No, that’s not it. Let me explain, Eve. I-”
“Then, tell me this—was it you I saw on the street three days ago?” I snarled, all my sanity obliterated by rage. After so many years, the image of my mother has become increasingly faded. Sometimes, when I dreamed of her at night, I even doubted that I actually had no mother and all those wonderful memories were just fantasies my mind made up because I was missing my mother too much.
“You’ve grown up, Eve.” The look in Isabelle’s eyes as she gazed at me radiated an indecipherable sense of sorrow. She stared at me intently. “I’m really glad to see that you’ve grown up well and are even so outstanding now. It seems that your father took good care of you. It turns out that he has some conscience, after all. As such, I can finally rest easy.”
Haha! Sure enough, she has never paid any attention to me throughout the years. Otherwise, why would she say such a thing? Nathan is good to me and took good care of me? That’s the funniest joke I’ve ever heard! If it weren’t for my memories verifying the fact that I’m truly a Tanner, a daughter of the Tanner family, I’d suspect that I was merely adopted. Thus, they then had reason to be apathetic toward me, and my father could also treat me worse than a stranger!
“You only need to tell me this—was it you I saw on the street that day?” I demanded through gritted teeth. “I don’t want to listen to anything else.”
Isabelle went silent for a moment. At my obstinacy, she finally nodded before heaving a sigh and admitting, “Yes, it was me.”
“Haha!” I inexorably burst into laughter, cackling so hard that I doubled over. “You shouldn’t have attended this party. And even if you did, you shouldn’t have asked for a meeting with me. Since you didn’t want to see me in the past, what’s the point of doing so now?”
“Eve, I just… just… missed you too much, so I came to see you. I’m sorry.” Isabelle sighed again. She seemed to be enveloped by great sorrow, making her entire person seem melancholic.
“Did you miss me so much that you didn’t even have the time to give me a call?” Inhaling deeply, I lifted my head and tried my utmost best to hold back my tears that were on the verge of falling. I don’t want to cry, nor am I willing to do so! If I’m the only one who’d been anticipating this reunion that had been a long time coming, why should I shed any tears?
“It’s not that I didn’t want to give you a call, but I couldn’t do so,” Isabelle murmured.
“Please stop putting up an act. The moment I reached eight years old, I no longer had a mother. When my father beat me, I didn’t have a mother to protect me. When Yvette picked on me, I likewise had no mother to shield me. When Crystal pushed me in the water, causing me to almost drown… and when my reputation was ruined after my husband was snatched away, pushing me to the brink of ending everything, no one around me cared about me. Where were you then?”
That was exactly how human nature worked—one might not really care when it was something unattainable, but when one came to possess it, one couldn’t accept the pain of losing it. I yearned to see her, but I didn’t expect that I could actually bring myself to say something so outrageous after seeing her now!
“Nathan wasn’t good to you?” Isabelle demanded furiously as she finally registered the meaning of my words.
I didn’t want to continue talking to her anymore, so I spun on my heels to leave. However, she grabbed my wrist. “Eve!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not all that close with you, Mrs. Goldstein. Please excuse me if there’s nothing else. I still have to attend the art exhibition and compete tomorrow, so I don’t have the time to tarry here.” Shaking off her hand, I bolted out of the room.
This time, Isabelle didn’t chase after me, and I couldn’t really tell whether I was more disappointed or sad. After leaving the room, I couldn’t help bursting into tears. I wailed at the top of my lungs.
