- 11.
I heard about Chrissy again when we were
watching TV.
The housekeeper had just brought in a plate
of crab, telling us to dig in.
The phone rang.
Mom picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Mom! It’s me! It’s Chrissy!”
く
Chrissy’s voice came through the phone, and
Mom frowned.
“Mom, please help me, he’s going to kill me! I
was blind to leave you. He was so nice to me
at first, but since then he’s drunk and
gambles all the time, so he insults me when
he loses, he even laid his hands on me. Mom,
he’s going to beat me to death!”
“Those things I did to hurt Ashley were
because I was blinded by the devil. It was
Arnie’s idea. It wasn’t me. Did you see me
grown up for so long aren’t you aware of how
I’m a good person? I’m so sorry, I want to
come home again!”
Chrissy started crying. Mom looked at Jake
and Dad.
L
They seemed to have expected this, nodding
to each other.
“What does he want?” Mom asked.
Chrissy stopped crying. “Arnie said he’ll let
me go if you give him two million! We could
be reunited!”
“Arnie…” Mom repeated, smiling coldly. She
took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
When she opened them, they were cold, with
no love left.
“Chrissy, we raised you all these years, giving
you all of our love. Even when we found out
you weren’t our daughter, we didn’t love you
any less. We had you, once, injured our
L
She squeezed my hand, “Your sister hasn’t
blamed us. Her feelings toward us hasn’t
changed. While you… Chrissy, we gave you an
opportunity to keep the family together, your
choice not to care.”
Arnie’s voice came through the phone.
“Hey you, what are you saying? Are you
getting the money to me quick? No money
means I kill Chrissy. I don’t care if she’s
raised by you since she was a kid!”
Mom smiled, not reaching her eyes.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Arnie, she isn’t
our daughter. Do whatever you like. Don’t
expect the Cunningham is going to pay you.”
<
“MOM!!!”
Chrissy was still screaming, but Mom hung up
and pulled the phone cord out of the wall.
She stroked my hand calmly, saying, “It’s
okay, let’s watch TV.”
Jake was peeling a plate of crab, handing it
to me.
Dad smiled at us, turning up the volume on
the TV.
Everything was normal.
I looked at the food, knowing there are things
that my family is hiding from me because
they were afraid to scare me.
But they didn’t know.
The week before, I had a long dream.
In the dream, Chrissy framed me for stealing,
and the stolen goods were found in my bag.
Dad kicked me out of the house.
But he secretly put money into my bank
account, hoping I could just cool off.
I didn’t see the money and thought my family
abandoned me, so I decided not to go home.
On the third day after I left home, Arnie broke
into the house with some thugs to pay off his
gambling debts.
<
He tied up my parents and brother while they
were sleeping.
Chrissy could only cry. Her parents asked her
to call the police, but she stopped, looking as
though she was in deep struggle. “I’m sorry,
Mom, I don’t want Arnie to go to prison! I’m
begging you, Arnie’s still young, please don’t
call the cops.”
In the end, the family was tortured to death
by her boyfriend.
I finally understood why Mom and Dad had
suddenly changed.
They must have been reborn.
After everything they’d been through, the only
く
reason they let Chrissy stay in the house was
because they had memories of her.
