15
<
Dad came home from the hospital,
despondent and depressed. Zach wasn’t
capable of running the factory on his own.
Just when they were at their wit’s end, Chloe
and Finn came home. Chloe offered to help
Zach manage the factory.
Mom stared at Chloe’s face. Faint bruises
were healing on her delicate skin.
“What happened?”
Mom pulled Chloe into a room. After Mom
asked twice, Chloe started to cry. “After
Ashley died, Finn’s been treating me badly.
And after Dad said he was going to give the
factory to Zach, Finn and I had a huge fight.
<
factory to Zach, Finn and I had a huge fight.
He said it didn’t matter how much Dad loved
me, the family business would always go to
the son.‘
“He said Ashley wasn’t that bad, that if we
hadn’t lied to him, if I hadn’t snuck into his
room that night to seduce him, he would
never have broken up with Ashley.”
“He hit me, Mom. He said I killed Ashley by
deliberately ignoring her call.”
“Mom, how could he do this to me?”
Chloe had been pampered her entire life.
They never let her lift a finger. She’d never
experienced such pain. She looked at Mom,
tears streaming down her face, expecting her
to take her side.
But Mom just stared at her blankly. “Is he
wrong?”
Chloe froze, staring at her in disbelief.
“You hated Ashley. Ashley never contacted
you unless it was important, maybe even an emergency. You know what you were thinking
when you hung up on her.”
Mom walked past Chloe and left the room. I leaned against the wall, as if it could offer me some support. So Mom could be perceptive. She could see through Chloe’s manipulations
lain the bookshelf
く
She could see through Chloe’s manipulations,
expose her malice towards me. But why
hadn’t she seen it when I was alive? Why tell
me this now, when it was too late?
At dinner, they started arguing again, about
the factory. I’d never wanted it, but both
Chloe and Zach felt entitled to it. They
bickered, throwing accusations back and
forth, all somehow circling back to me.
Zach said, “You blamed Ashley for ruining
Mom’s scarf! How can you say anything
about me?”
Chloe retorted, “Why was Ashley bullied in
high school? Because you unhooked her bra
<
strap on the way to school and ran off, and
those thugs saw! And as soon as Ashley went
to college, you convinced Mom to turn her
room into your piano room! You have no
talent! You think we didn’t know what you
were doing?”
“You’re one to talk! You’re the one who
pushed Mom to make Ashley apply to local
colleges so she could be your maid! You’re
so lazy you wouldn’t even wash your own
underwear! You made Ashley do it!”
The argument escalated, ugly and vicious.
Mom’s face grew paler. She stood up
abruptly. “Enough! Ashley is dead! Can’t you
just leave her alone?”
<
This dysfunctional, decaying family, a
grotesque painting slowly unfurling.
Mom gripped the table, her chest heaving.
“Ashley died such a horrible death. Even our
neighbors, her landlady, cried when they
heard. But not one of you shed a single tear
for her. And now you’re fighting over this
nonsense, dragging her name through the
mud-”
“That’s enough,” Dad interrupted. “I
understand
e grieving, but aren’t
you
taking this too far, Carol? I’m in so much pain
I can’t sleep at night, and all you can talk
about is Ashley! You’d rather go home and
L
polish her photo than bring me breakfast at
the hospital!”
“She was bad luck! Dying on her sister’s
wedding day, how unlucky can you get? All
our bad luck now, it’s probably her fault.” He
paused, his voice cold. “I’ve consulted a
psychic. He said we need to move Ashley’s
ashes, build a well, and bury it in the deepest
part of hell to stop her curse. Then our luck
will change.”
“Even in death, she’s nothing but trouble.”
Mom fell silent, like a withered flower, all life
drained from her. Finally, she looked up, her
gaze sharp as a knife, slowly scanning the
faces of her husband, her children, and Finn,
who sat there, seemingly detached.
The seemingly happy facade of this family
had been rotting from the inside, riddled with
holes. When I was alive, their shared hatred
for me had been the glue holding them
together. Now, I was dead, my gruesome
death the catalyst that finally revealed their
true faces.
Mom suddenly calmed down, her voice
unnervingly gentle. “You’re right. Ashley was
the unlucky one. We shouldn’t fight because
of her. Sit down. Let’s eat.”
