My Family Stole My Run I Returned A Leader Chapter 25
“Bella said she liked it, so I gave her the necklace.”
“Not one of us remembered Paloma’s birthday.”
Bella whipped around to look at him.
“You gave it to me yourself!”
“She never even wears jewelry! She never fights for anything—so what was wrong with giving it to me?”
The instant those words came out, the area fell silent.
No one needed an explanation.
She was used to me not fighting for anything.
So my plane ticket, my suitcase, my jacket, my birthday gift—even my future—could all be taken away as casually as if they were nothing.
The last trace of color drained from my mother’s face.
She turned on Bella.
“Why did you have to livestream this?”
“Now you’ve told everyone our family business!”
Bella stared at her in disbelief.
“You were the one who took Paloma’s ID card.”
“And you were the one who said that only if she didn’t go would it count as a real family trip.”
Tony, standing to the side, suddenly gave a short, bitter laugh.
“Stop pushing it off on each other.”
“I’m the one who handed Bella the suitcase, and I’m the one who sent that voice message about the apartment.”
“None of us are clean.”
Right there on camera, they began to tear open the secrets each of them most wanted to hide.
I watched for only a few seconds before handing the phone back to Lena.
“Save the recording and send it to the ethics committee.”
“I don’t need to see the rest.”
Suddenly, an alarm went off farther down the hall.
The stress from the livestream and the argument had driven Bella’s shifting impulse higher.
Her nails lengthened, her breathing losing its rhythm.
My mother called my name on instinct.
I didn’t go over.
The treatment team assigned to Bella had already arrived.
They separated the onlookers, dimmed the lights, and had her follow the breathing sequence she’d learned during her evaluation.
For the first time, no one demanded that I sacrifice my own boundaries to prove I was kind.