The Day Our Promise Breaks

Chapter 527

Dahlia looked at Sandy, her tone icy and distant.

"Do you want to?" she asked.

Sandy nodded vigorously.

She couldn't stand living in this cramped, run-down apartment, and she didn't dare imagine what life would be like without her dad-her mom probably wouldn't even bother to smile at her anymore.

"Mom, can you teach me? What should I do so Daddy will come back to us?" Sandy knelt at Dahlia's feet, looking up at her with wide, hopeful eyes.

"What do you think?" Dahlia shot back, her voice sharp.

Sandy hesitated, understanding what her mother meant.

But...

"Mom, Dr. Carter said I can't get sick..." Sandy's voice trembled with fear.

She remembered overhearing Dr. Carter warning her parents: she couldn't afford

to get sick now, any infection could be dangerous-no one, not even the best doctors, could save her then.

She didn't want to die.

*Slap-*

Dahlia's hand flew up, striking Sandy's face.

"If dying was that easy, would you still be alive now?"

"Sandy, you need to understand without Charles, you're nothing."

"You've already been expelled from St. Catherine's Academy. From now on, you'll have to live in this shabby apartment and call Wesley, that useless man, your father."

had

her head

what she

expelled from St.

be her dad.

to

faded, replaced by her fear of returning

to living a life where everyone looked up to her. She couldn't

be afraid of? Mom was right-how could she die so easily? She'd survived kidney failure

ice water before. She'd ended up in the hospital-sure,

still weak, and Mom deliberately made her sick. When she woke up, the look of worry on Daddy's

Daddy loved her.

really bad, Daddy would be heartbroken. And if he

Mom could go back to the way things

herself in the memories of happier days. Each time she recalled Charles doting on her, her

Sandy took off her clothes and walked into the bathroom

own.

turned on the cold

room. There was no bathtub,

was still only seven. The freezing water hit her skin and she shrieked darting away from the stream, her lips quivering and her body shaking violently. She grabbed her clothes, trying

herself into

her trembling daughter, Dahlia's face hardened. She knew she couldn't

back in the

glare, Sandy edged backward, stepping under

it," Sandy whimpered, hugging herself tightly.

swell and her face turn deathly pale, her lips slowly shifting to a bluish

pretended not to

no more chances to make mistakes. This was her last

little sniffle or a small fever wouldn't move Charles. Only