127: Family Dinner (Part 2)

WINTER:

The room full of people suddenly went silent. If a needle would drop, all of us could hear us. The deafening silence felt like there was an ongoing funeral.

They gawked at us as if we were complete individuals who trespassed their houses.

I clenched my fist and put them in the back. This felt like meeting his parents for the first time. I had already forgotten their names as well as some of their faces.

I was right. I should have never come to this house.

Cali grabbed my hand and squeezed them tight as if giving me assurance that he would never leave me. That he was at my back, willing to back me up.

Open your mouth, Winter. Say something. Don't look like a fool there.

Why would I be the first one to talk? Am I the one who was at fault in the past? It was not me. It was their son who left me. When their son divorced me, they did not say anything at all. But now that I am here, they should talk now.

Why are you bringing the past again?

Why not?

For all these years, I kept