Chapter 218: You're My Family

Visiting my mum is never easy. She has a tainted history. It's dark and broken, and I can't fix it for her.

My father died on Christmas day fourteen years ago, and it d*mn near destroyed her. Every Christmas after that one had been almost unbearable.

For most of the following Christmases, she hadn't even left her bed to open presents with her children, let alone buy a tree. Then when I was sixteen, she'd tried to kill herself on Christmas Eve, and less than three weeks ago, she'd tried again.

I'd felt like that sixteen-year-old boy, completely out of his depth all over again. I couldn't fix my mum; I've never been able to fix her no matter how hard I've tried. I can't imagine giving up like that. I've always tried not to judge her for it, she's lost so much, but I just can't understand how she could leave me and my siblings like that.