> Time passed.
Like it always does — even when it hurts.
Even when you're not sure you want it to.
The aunt left.
No party.
No goodbye.
Just absence.
And for once, the air in the house felt breathable again.
But peace doesn't stay long in houses like mine.
---
This time, it came wearing heels.
A new wife.
Dad's third.
I didn't attend the wedding — I was at school, which was becoming my second home, whether I liked it or not.
But I knew who she was the moment I saw her.
There was a day, long before the wedding,
when Dad picked me up from school and made an unexpected stop.
He left me in the car,
went inside a gated compound,
and came back looking lighter.
> "Don't tell your mom about her,"
he said casually,
as if that kind of secret was something I could just lock away.
I said nothing.
Just nodded.
Another brick on my chest.
So when he finally made the relationship public —
I didn't feel surprised.
I felt numb.
---
She seemed nice, though.
At least for those three days we spent together before school resumed.
She wasn't loud.
She didn't pick on me.
She didn't pretend too much, either.
Just calm.
Maybe too calm.
And Dad — well, he had rented her a house.
Set her up comfortably.
Like a man who finally got tired of pretending.
---
Then I went back to school.
And this time?
It hit differently.
The teachers… the ones who used to act warm, now looked at me with something else in their eyes.
Jealousy maybe.
Or maybe discomfort.
Like my silence had become threatening.
Even students started acting different.
Whispers behind my back.
Avoiding me.
Making up stories I never heard fully, but always felt.
---
But somehow —
I handled it.
I didn't crumble.
Not fully.
I buried myself in books, survived the stares,
and when I finally returned home after the term...
> Mom was back.
---
Just like that.
No parade.
No dramatic movie-style reunion.
Just her.
In the house.
Like she'd never left.
And for the first time in so long —
I felt something like hope.
---
> A hope that maybe,
just maybe,
I wouldn't have to carry everything alone anymore.
And in that moment,
even though the house still held ghosts,
I smiled.
---