CHAPTER 39: YOU CALL YOURSELF PARENTS. ⊙⁠.⁠☉

The rest of the train ride passed...

Sarah eventually fell asleep again, her head resting on Leo’s shoulder. He didn’t move around, keeping his arm around her, a protective gesture that did little to calm the emotions inside him...

He stared out the window, but he didn’t see the landscape rushing by...

He saw the blood in the sink, the fear in Sarah’s eyes, and the casual way her mother had admitted to hiding the truth...

Every time the train shook, he felt a flow of anxiety, a fear that she was more sick than she looked, that any sudden movement could kill her...

He was angry. He was furious with her parents for their deception, but a part of him was also angry with himself...

How could he have been so blind? All the little signs he’d dismissed... her occasional shortness of breath, the times she seemed overly tired... now replayed in his mind, each one a testament to his own ignorance. He had failed to see what was right in front of him, and the guilt was a heavy weight in his chest...

He kept repeating his thoughts...

When the train finally pulled into the station, Leo gently shook her awake. "Babe. We’re here."

She blinked, disoriented for a moment, before the reality of their situation settled back in. "Oh. Okay."

He helped her up, and they gathered their bags, moving with the slow, deliberate pace of the other passengers...

The station was smaller than the one they’d left, quieter. They walked out into the bright morning sun, and Leo raised his hands up in the air, calling a taxi...

He gave the driver the address to her parents’ house, a place he’d been to a dozen times before for holidays and weekend visits. Now, it felt like he was heading into hell...

The taxi ride was very short, only about fifteen minutes through quiet suburban streets.

Lined up with neat houses and well-kept lawns...

When the car pulled up to her house...a two-story house with a nostalgic front porch... it looked exactly the same as always. But today, it felt different...

Leo paid the driver, and they got out. He grabbed both of their bags, not letting Sarah carry anything. They walked up the stone road to the front door. Leo hesitated for a second, took a deep breath, and rang the doorbell...

It felt like minutes before the door was opened. Sarah’s mother stood there, her face was pale, and her eyes were blood red. She looked like she hadn’t slept at all. When she saw them, her expression changed with a mixture of relief and dread...

"Sarah, honey," she said, her voice thick. She reached out to hug Sarah, pulling her into a tight hug. Sarah melted into the embrace, burying her face in her mother’s shoulder...

Sarah’s father appeared from behind his wife, his face was dry. He was a tall, quiet man who usually had a friendly smile, but today, his expression was tense, his jaw set. He looked at Leo, his eyes filled with an apology that words couldn’t yet form...

"Let’s get you inside," her mother said, finally releasing Sarah and ushering them into the house...

Leo stepped inside, placing the bags on the floor. The house smelled the same...like cinnamon and old books...but the atmosphere was nostalgic...

"Why don’t you go upstairs and rest, sweetie?" her mother suggested to Sarah, her hand stroking her hair slowly. "You must be exhausted."

Sarah looked from her mother to Leo, her eyes wide with apprehension. She didn’t want to leave him alone with them...

"It’s okay," Leo said, his voice low and firm, speaking directly to Sarah. "Go on, babe. We need to talk."

Sarah hesitated, then nodded slowly and made her way up the stairs.

As soon as she was out of sight, Leo turned to her parents. The thin line of calmness he’d been maintaining finally cut loose...

"What were you thinking?" he asked, his voice sounded angry and at the same time full of pain...

Sarah’s mother flinched. "Leo, please. Let’s sit down."

"I don’t want to sit down," he said, his voice rising slightly. "I want to know why you thought it was a good idea to lie to me. To let her lie to me. She has a heart condition, and you let her go on a trip, movie sets, stay up all night, and pretend like everything was fine."

"She wanted to go," her father said, his voice rough. "She wanted to feel normal. She begged us not to tell you because she was afraid you’d treat her like she was made of glass."

"She should be treated like she’s made of glass!" Leo shot back, taking a step forward...

"She was coughing up blood in a hotel bathroom last night! Did you know that was a possibility? Did the doctors mention that might happen while she was off having a ’normal’ weekend?"

Her mother started to cry, covering her face with her hands. "We didn’t know it would get this bad, this quickly. The doctor said it was manageable. He said with medication, she could live a relatively normal life for years."

"For years? So you knew this wasn’t a cure. You knew this was just buying time," Leo said, the pieces clicking together in a horrifying picture. "And you just decided to keep that information to yourselves?"

"It was her decision," her father insisted, though his conviction was wavering. "She’s an adult. We tried to respect her wishes."

"Respect her wishes? Or were you just scared?" Leo challenged, his gaze unwavering. "Were you so scared of facing this that it was easier to pretend it wasn’t happening? To let her pretend? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you chose to be cowards instead of parents."

The word hung in the air, full of emotions. Sarah’s father recoiled as if he’d been struck. Her mother cried harder...

"That’s not fair, Leo," her father said, his voice cracking. "You don’t know what it’s like. To hear that your child, your only child, has something wrong with her that you can’t fix. To know that her future is uncertain. We were trying to protect her. And yes, maybe we were trying to protect ourselves, too."