"Yeah, Mom, you weren't well before and couldn't risk catching a chill. But you're much better now. Haven't gone to see them yet, have you?" Allison said.
Cemetery.
Allison laid down the flowers she was holding, and then she cleared away the weeds around the tombstone.
"Dad, Ricky, Mom and I came to visit you guys." Allison said softly. She picked a wildflower blooming next to Joshua's tombstone and tucked it in her bag.
At her side, Grace reached out and lightly touched the tombstone, "Ricky, Mom's here."
After saying a few words, she turned to Allison, "Allison, could you go to the cemetery guard and get a broom. I want to clear the dust here."
Allison borrowed a broom from the guard. Upon returning, she saw Grace talking to the tombstone. She didn't approach, just waited from afar. When she first arrived, she touched the tombstone, so she knew there wasn't much dust on it. She guessed that Grace wanted to have a private chat with Joshua.
...
"Joshua, would you blame me? After all these years, have you been holding a grudge against me?" Grace said, "Then just take me away. I’m alone in this world, sick and really lonely. But don't worry. I won't last much longer. I just want to see Allison get married, and have a child. Once I hold her child, I’ll come find you. I hurt you, but did you ever do right by me? Joshua, you were the first to deceive me. Poor Ricky! Although he wasn’t my flesh and blood, I watched him grow up. I treated him like my own son. Then he just left me. Joshua, you're really cold, just leaving with Ricky like that."
A gentle breeze ruffled Grace's gray hair. Her cheeks were thin, her gaze vacant and her body riddled with disease, like a flickering wick about to extinguish in the wind.
"Ricky, I'm sorry. You were a good boy. I ruined you." Grace said.
This child had called her mom for over a decade, but she had caused his death in a moment of recklessness.
Allison stood at a distance. She heard Grace's words intermittently. Biting her lip, she watched Grace's figure.
She looked up at the sky. There wasn't a cloud in the clear blue sky. The breeze was gentle.
Grace shivered, then whispered slowly, "I never dream of them. I wish I could talk to them in my dreams, but I never dream of them."
Allison clenched her lips, watching her mother. She suddenly realized that Grace seemed much older. She felt a wave of sadness. She stopped thinking about her father and brother. About her origins, her relationship with Christopher, and the cause of her father and brother's deaths, she no longer sought the truth. She only had her mother left. Without Grace, she would be alone in this world.
In the afternoon, on the way home.
Grace was resting with her eyes closed, leaning against the back of the chair. Allison stared at her, thinking, let the past be the past. She only had her mother left. She didn't want to think about the past anymore.
Even if Grace and Joshua had a secret back then, let bygones be bygones.
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