The Day My Daughter Celebrated Chapter 10

Life fell into a strange calm.

Stella and I lived under the same roof but seemed worlds apart.

We barely communicated.

She desperately tried to please me, to make amends.

And I rejected all her attempts with extreme coldness.

David was caught in the middle, torn both ways.

He tried to persuade me more than once.

"Monica, let the past be past."

"You're mother and daughter—what obstacle can't you overcome?"

I just remained silent.

Finally, after seeing Stella's eyes redden in front of me once again, David lost his temper.

"Monica! What exactly do you want?"

"She knows she was wrong! She nearly threw her life away over this! What more do you want?"

"This cold treatment of yours—how is it different from what she did to you?"

I looked at his flushed face and suddenly found it laughable.

"No different?"

"She took the most humiliating scar of my life and threw a carnival party, inviting the whole world to come look and mock!"

"She carved the words 'Joy Day' into my bones! Made every breath I take painful!"

"And now you're telling me there's no difference?"

My voice grew louder and louder, finally becoming a roar.

The grievance and anger I'd suppressed for so long exploded completely in that moment.

"Yes, she's my daughter! But she's also that rapist's daughter!"

"When I look at her face, I think of that monster! I think of how she used the most vicious language to torture me!"

"How do you expect me to get past it? Tell me—how exactly am I supposed to get past it!"

Crying and shouting, I swept everything off the table onto the floor.

David was shocked by my reaction.

Stella rushed out of her room, seeing this scene, her face deathly pale.

"Mom... don't... it's all my fault..."

She tried to hug me. I shoved her away viciously.

"Get out! Get out of here!"

I pointed at the door, hysterical.

"I don't want to see you anymore! Get out!"

She stood there, tears streaming down her face, her body shaking like a leaf in autumn wind.

Finally, she looked at me once, that gaze filled with infinite sorrow and desolation.

Then she turned and silently walked out of the house.