Chapter 9
“Riley, I was wrong. I’ve wronged you all these years. I was a fool.“]
He said with a sad expression.[]
Seeing him sitting there drinking by himself, noticing the gray hairs on his head, I felt a moment of sympathy. I sat with him and had a couple of drinks. Just as I was about to speak, I started feeling dizzy.
A terrible feeling washed over me. He was tricking me again!]
“Dad, you lied to me!”
“Riley, don’t blame your father. Your sister wants Liam, and I have to help her. I’ve failed her too many times. After this, I promise promise I won’t bother you people again.“]
I was trembling with rage. How could he do this? How could he…]
Before losing consciousness, I managed to smash my plate to the floor, but no one came. My heart sank
When I woke up, I was in a hospital room. Liam was by my side, his eyes red from crying, his hand wrapped in bandages. 1 jerked awake in panic. “What happened?“]
Liam was livid. “They drugged me too–they were trying to force… you know. Thank God your mom showed up! She smashed your dad’s head open and kicked Casey over to save me. I can’t believe this. We need to leave right now and never come back to this place!”
I nodded and didn’t hold back this time–I called the police.
My dad was charged for drugging me and assaulting Liam. He gota suspended sentence. The news about Casey spread through town, and everyone laughed at her outrageous entitlement. Casey couldn’t handle the humiliation and got into a screaming match with Dad at home that nearly gave him a heart attack
Before leaving, I didn’t go see Dad again. Instead, I brought Grandma to live with us in our city.
After graduati
After graduating from college, Liam and I got married.]
Dad showed up at our wedding. After several years, he’d aged considerably and lost a lot of weight. When he saw me, his lips trembled as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. He just sat in the back row with tears in his eyes.
That night, when Liam and I returned to our new apartment, Casey suddenly appeared, frantically pounding on our door.[]
When I saw her, I didn’t bother hiding my irritation
“This better be important!”
“Hiley! Listen–if I can’t have what I want, neither can yout I’ve always been Daddy’s princess. What makes you so special?1“]]
“You were born to be a servant! How dare you marry so well?“]}
She pulled out a bottle and was about to throw its contents at me when Liam kicked her wheelchair out from under her!]
The liquid spilled all over her instead. She immediately started screaming in agony. Hearing her cries, Dad burst in from outside. He stood frozen in shock as Casey’s face was being eaten away by sulfuric acid.
Dad wept uncontrollably as we rushed to the hospital. We called the police again.
Casey’s injuries were severe. Though she survived, her face was completely disfigured–she looked monstrous.
She begged Dad to make me come back, crying and shouting. For once, Dad didn’t give in to her demands. Instead, he took her back to our hometown.[]
Years later, Grandma passed away, and I returned for her funeral.]
From a distance, I spotted a woman completely wrapped in black cloth. The local children called her “the ghost lady.”
It was Casey, secretly watching me from the shadows, angrily tearing at the tree bark beside her.
Dad knelt at Grandma’s grave, sobbing inconsolably.
By then. I finally learned that after Casey returned to our hometown, she’d either physically or verbally abused him constantly.[]
And Grandma, who had moved back because she missed her home, had died of a heart attack after one of Casey’s particularly vicious tirades.]
When I learned the truth, I was furious. I shoved Dad aside hard. “Dave, you’re a complete monster! You failed your own child but refused to take responsibility. Instead, you dumped everything on me. Now Grandma’s dead because of her tool”
I stormed over to the “ghost lady” and slapped her face over and over.
She could only cower as blood trickled from her mouth, “People like you belong in hell! Let the flames have you!“]
When Casey turned her disfigured face toward me, her burned eyelids fused together in grotesque lumps, she snarled at me, but ! ignored her completely.
Six months later, Casey died. She drowned in a puddle.
Dad couldn’t take it anymore. Even when he heard her cries for help, he didn’t go save her. Casey stopped breathing in that filthy water.]
I didn’t attend her funeral. Mom went, though. When she came back, her eyes were red from crying. She told me Dad was consumed with regret.
But what’s done is done. You can’t unring that bell. And I would never go back there again.[]
