15
After Michael left, the grandparents made no move to speak with Patrick alone.
The four of us just sat there in the living room, staring at each other in awkward silence.
wenty minutes of this passed.
Then, his grandfather stood up and told Patrick to go offer a stick of incense for his mother. I gave Patrick’:
irm a gentle push.
Go on. I’m right here.”
A small altar was set up in a corner nook, a short distance from the living room. I watched them from the
sofa.
At first, everything was calm. So calm, in fact, that when Patrick’s choked sob reached my ears, it took me a noment to register it.
His mother’s framed photograph lay shattered on the floor.
My breath hitched. I froze in my tracks.
The second Patrick saw me, he ran into my arms, crying uncontrollably.
His grandfather slammed his fist on the table, the sound echoing through the apartment. “You ungrateful little brat! We raised you for nothing! You’ll follow anyone who gives you a scrap of affection, won’t you? You’
re just a worthless little animal!”
Patrick was sobbing so hard he could barely breathe. And then I remembered what he had told the cat.
After she has her babies, she’s going to die.
His grandparents had been telling him, his whole life, that he was the one who killed his mother.
Because his mother died giving birth to him, he believed the mommy cat would die after giving birth, too.
A storm of emotions churned inside me.
Losing a child is a pain a parent never recovers from. But instead of channeling their love for their daughter into her son, they had channeled their grief into hatred for the child whose birth had taken her from them.
“Ma’am, I know you’re both heartbroken over your daughter’s death,” I said, my voice shaking slightly, “bu none of this is Patrick’s fault.”
Her eyes blazed with fury. She jabbed a finger toward Patrick. “How is it not his fault? If she had never gotter pregnant, if she had never had this child, would she have died? Why wasn’t it him who died on that operating table instead of my daughter?”
I pressed my lips into a thin line and covered Patrick’s ears with my hands.
I could understand their pain, but that didn’t mean I would let them tear this little boy apart.
“I am sorry for your loss. I truly am. But right now, I am Patrick’s legal mother.”
Patrick’s birth mother must have loved him so much. Now that she was gone, I would be the one to protec him.
