From Now On I Grow Toward Spring Chapter 19
After he hung up, he looked completely hollowed out.
I didn’t wait. I stood and walked toward the door.
Behind me, I heard his hoarse voice call my name.
I didn’t turn around.
Just as I reached the exit, an unfamiliar number called my phone.
I hesitated for a few seconds, then answered.
It was my mother, her voice thick with tears.
“Talia, you have to save Sofia! She’s your sister! If we can’t pay that money back, she’ll go to prison! You’re a lawyer, you have to help her!”
I said nothing.
She kept crying, pleading. “Matteo said the debts have nothing to do with him now that you’re divorced. Our family can’t afford this. We can only beg you…”
I paused, and when I spoke, my voice was flat.
“I can’t help her.”
“If she did something wrong, then she can wait for the court’s judgment.”
Then I hung up and blocked that number, too.
When I stepped outside, Ethan was already waiting.
He held a bouquet of daffodils.
“Congratulations on your new beginning.”
I took the flowers and smiled.
From that day forward, I treated it as my new birthday.
The past was over.
And every year from now on, I would remember to celebrate myself.