She even pulled out the formal dress she had cherished for over a decade.
I tried to convince her that the weather was too cold and it wouldn’t be suitable for the New Year.
With a gentle smile, she assured me it was fine. She could wear a coat over it and with the cars picking us up and dropping us off, she wouldn’t catch a chill.
Besides, the formal dress had been a gift from my father on their wedding day.
Wearing it, she said, would be her way of honoring him.
Tears shimmered in her eyes as she spoke.
I fell silent for a few seconds, no longer trying to change her mind.
On the way to the Ellis Family’s ancestral home, my mother chatted and laughed with Leigh, her voice light and full of warmth.
But when Leigh’s phone rang, Wendell’s name flashing on the screen, her smile disappeared as if it had been wiped away with a single stroke.
She suggested we take a cab ourselves, but I refused.
In this heavy snow, hailing a cab seemed impossible and I couldn’t bear the thought of my mother enduring the cold.
My mother caught the sudden shift in Leigh’s mood and gave me a knowing look.
Always the dutiful son, I couldn’t go against her wishes, so I finally stepped out of the car.
Who could have known that less than a minute later, my mother, unable to endure the bitter cold, would collapse from a heart attack?
The more I replayed that moment in my mind, the colder my heart became and the deeper the ache settled within.
I wanted to slap myself.
If only I had been firmer, maybe my mother wouldn’t have died.
Seeing my silence, Leigh finally snapped, her patience thinning.
“Harris, I’m so disappointed in you,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain.
“Fine, since you’re so stubborn, I’ll let your mom decide who’s right and who’s wrong.”
As she reached for her phone, a ringtone sliced through the air, a distinct, familiar tone, one I’d heard only on New Year’s Eve.
Leigh’s expression faltered for just a moment before she quickly stepped onto the balcony to take the call.
Faint voices filtered through, but they were distant, muffled.
“Who are you…? What? Wendell’s drunk and passed out on the roadside?”
“…Alright, thank you. I’ll be there right away!”
Leigh rushed out, not even sparing me a glance or offering an explanation.
It was the same decisive, almost callous manner she’d shown when she abandoned my mother and me that night.
A bitter smile tugged at my lips.
No matter the situation, Wendell would always occupy a sacred spot in her heart.
If that was the case, it was time for me to leave.
My mother’s most cherished wish was seeing me marry and have children, had always been to visit Luxembourg.
It was where she and my father first met, a place filled with memories too beautiful to capture in words.
Yet, in all these years, I’d failed to make that wish come true, too consumed with taking care of Leigh.
Now, I had made up my mind. I would set off on a journey around the world with my mother’s ashes and Luxembourg would be the final stop.
As I delved into the details of the trip, Wendell’s social media updates caught my eye once more.
I had no intention of looking, but somehow, my fingers betrayed me, clicking on the screen.
The first photo showed Leigh, someone who had never so much as stepped into a kitchen, cooking noodles.
The second photo captured her feeding the noodles to Wendell, her face glowing with concern, tenderness and warmth I had never known her to show me.
The third photo was of her cleaning stains off the carpet and sofa with meticulous care.
A wave of bitterness and sorrow flooded my chest.
Last year, during the Autumn Luminary Festival, I had drunk three bottles of red wine with a client for a key Ellis Group project, vomiting until my head spun.
When Leigh found me passed out on the sofa, she was utterly at a loss, eventually calling my mother for help.
While my mother worked tirelessly to care for me, Leigh stood at a distance, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of my sickness.
But when Wendell was in need, there wasn’t a trace of disgust in her eyes, only care that seemed to surpass the duties of a real wife.
Leigh didn’t return that night, nor did she show up the next few days.
