Looking at Aaron, I continued, "So, I never hated her for abandoning me. When I knew that Andrea was her daughter whom she had been looking for for years, I was actually envious of her. I saw how she protected, nurtured, and loved Andrea. I admired her for having such a caring mother, yet I was the person she would unhesitatingly hurt."
I couldn't help but laugh, thinking about how pathetic and ridiculous this situation was.
Aaron looked at me with pain in his eyes. He took a deep breath and said, "Arianna, we shouldn't live in the past, yes?"
I knew that. Even so, the pain was there. It existed, and it hurt.
"Yes, which is why I didn't hate nor blame her because we're blood-related. I buried all the pain in my heart and relieved it myself." Looking at Aaron, my heart ached as if it was being scratched by a cat, "Aaron, I'm not some selfless, generous person. Do you know why I don't want to see you neglecting Yana? Because I used to be like her, pathetically loving someone."
"Because of my background, marrying Hendrix would also be my lifelong blessing, even when I knew that he treated Andrea differently. One night, when thunderstorms rumbled in the sky, he woke up in the middle of the night, worried about Andrea and if she would be scared of the thunder. He then drove hours over to her to comfort her. At the time, you had no idea how envious I was. I was also afraid of the thunder, but I could not call Hendrix because I knew that he had someone else to protect, so I could only curl up in bed and braved my way through that thunderous night by myself."
These past events were like an old video on a hard drive. If not mentioned, it would be forgotten, but once it was mentioned, acid memories would come.
Painful, bitter memories would come.
Aaron was about to comfort me, but with a glance from someone behind me, he immediately paused and said nothing.
When I turned back, I saw Hendrix. His eyes were dark and grim.
Aaron got up, said a few words, and left.
Anne went to the yard to play with snowballs, leaving the two of us in the huge living room.
I turned back and looked down at the phone in my hand. I didn't know how much he heard of what I said just now.
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