They Have a Family Group Chat, I’m Not in It Chapter 04
I forced myself to walk to the street and hailed a cab.
“To the airport.”
Noticing my pale face and fresh injuries, the driver asked if I needed to call the police.
I just shook my head.
Outside the window, streetlights passed by one after another.
It reminded me of the old days when Mom held my hand and counted them with me.
Back then she always said, “My sweet girl, you’re such a good child, and Mom loves you the most.”
How ridiculous.
When I got to the airport, I still had more than four hours until my flight.
I found a seat in the corner and sat down.
The bruise on my knee was still throbbing.
I pulled up my trouser leg and saw it was badly bruised and swollen.
I went to the bathroom and ran cold water over it.
It hurt so much I sucked in my breath.
The person in the mirror had red-rimmed eyes and dried blood at the corner of her mouth.
I rubbed hard to wipe it off. The more I rubbed, the redder it got.
Finally I stopped trying and just looked at myself.
Remember this, Hazel.
From now on, no one is ever allowed to make you cry again.
I bought iodophor and band-aids from a pharmacy and tended to my wounds simply.
After everything was done, my heart settled into utter calm.
When the boarding announcement came on, the sky was just starting to lighten.
I turned off my phone and walked through the gate.
The moment the plane climbed through the clouds, sunlight poured through the window and made me squint.
Below the clouds was a gray sky. Above them was brilliant blue.
Turns out if you fly high enough, even an overcast day turns sunny.
A little over three hours later, the plane touched down.
Jenna was waiting for me at the exit. The moment she saw me, she froze. “Hazel, your face…”
I smiled. “It’s nothing. I just fell. Let’s talk about the project in detail.”
She looked at me for a long few seconds and didn’t ask anything else.
She took my hand and said, “Come on. Let’s get you something to eat first.”
Jenna was always perceptive. She never pried when she knew I didn’t want to talk.
She booked me a hotel and took me for lunch.
After lunch, she sent over all the project documents.
She said I should rest for a day and start tomorrow.
I shook my head. “I don’t need rest. I can start now.”
She stared at me for a while, then sighed. “Alright. Come with me to the office this afternoon.”
The office was downtown. It wasn’t big, but it had everything it needed.
Jenna runs an e-commerce business.
She’d been at it for two years, and her team already had more than a dozen people.
She’d been trying to get me to join her for a long time. She always said I was the most business-minded person she’d ever met.
I used to say no because I didn’t want to leave home.
Now I thought to myself—what was I even unwilling to leave?
A family that had dinner together without me?
Or the people who treated me like an outsider?