Love Me Enough To Hurt Me

Chapter 9: Confronting the Past

After a twenty-minute drive, the cab pulls up in front of her childhood home. She really couldn't believe it when she was back at her grandmother's house. As she stares at the home she grew up in, she notices some things have changed. She had hope that not all things did. Not wanting to call her brother, she hoped the spare key was still in the hideaway space. The driver helps bring her bag to the front door; Nailani pays him and waits until he drives off before grabbing the key. She is happy to see that it indeed was in the hideaway spot and opens the front door. She turned the light on at the entrance, but strangely enough, the house still looked like it was lived in, even though she hadn't been here in years. She wondered if her brother or mother was renting the house; she wouldn't be surprised if they were. As she walked entirely into the house, she started to hear laughter. She paused. Maybe she shouldn't have come to the house; perhaps she should have contacted her brother or his wife. But the letter said the house was here for her to stay, so it should be fine. She followed the laughter toward the mid-section of the house where the old family room was. To her horror, there in the family room, once filled with her childhood memories, now accommodated her mother and the man she had never referred to as her stepfather. Her mother looked up just as Nailani entered the room, and their eyes met.

"What the hell are you doing here," Nailani says at the same time her mother says, "How the hell did you get in here?"

The room fell silent as her mother exchanged glances with her husband, seemingly taken aback by her unexpected arrival. Neither answered the other's questions. After what seemed like an eternity,

"I should be asking you the same question," her mother finally replied, attempting to compose herself. "We live here now. This is our home."

"Your home," Nailani whispered more to herself than a reply to her mother, "your home." She looked around the family room, noticing the changes they had made throughout the years. Pictures were taken down and replaced by others, mainly photos of the couple and their two youngest hung on the wall. Nailani didn't know where any of her awards and pictures were, but her anger intensified as she noticed the slight and unsubtle changes in her childhood home. She couldn't fathom how they could just erase the memories of her childhood home so easily.

"Your home? This is my home, not yours to take over. You can't just waltz in and claim everything." Nailani say

Her mother sighed, "We didn't think you'd come back. It's been years. We assumed you had moved on."

"Moved on? This is my past, my history. And you just waltz in here and erase and try to replace it?" she shouts, frustration evident in her tone. The tension in the room escalated as they confronted the unresolved emotions that had been festering for years.

"Well, if this is your past and history, it is mine. This was my parent's home. I was their child, so I could do what I want here," her mother says, gesturing around the house and starting to get loud.

Her stepfather said, "Look, we didn't think you'd care. It's been so long since we last heard from you. You made no contact with anyone after the funeral."

"That you dramatically left early," her mother adds.

"Is that how long you've been living here? I left, so you two decided to move your perfect little family into my grandmother's house, the house I grew up in." her mother moves to talk, but she has so many emotions that have been brought up during this confrontation.

"They may have been your parents, but you have no rights here. "This is my childhood home. You left, remember? You abandoned me, and now you've taken over the place I grew up in?" Anger fueled her words, and she couldn't comprehend the audacity of her mother's actions.