Stars In The Snow

Zach hated me, but he also felt guilty toward me.

Both of us lost our parents that night.

Since I was mute and deaf and since Zach’s mother said that I was the treasure she protected, Zach did not leave my side.

Instead, he took upon himself the responsibility of being my brother and brought me up, but I knew that he still hated me.

Over the years, whenever it was his mother’s death anniversary, he would get himself drunk and go alone to visit his mother.

I went with him once, but in his drunken state, he kicked me away.

He then grabbed my neck, and with a fearsome expression, said, “Stella, you’re not worthy of visiting my mother!”

But after he became sober, he hugged me and touched the bruises on my neck while apologizing to me. “I’m sorry, Stella. I just feel… really conflicted.”

I knew that.

He would even cover my face when he slept with me.

Honestly, I felt conflicted too.

I wanted to treat him as my brother and stay by his side forever, but things did not go my way.

After twenty years of being together, I still fell hopelessly in love with him, even though I knew that he would never love me.

Even when he said that he would marry me, it was on the condition that I would donate my kidney to the woman he truly loved.