4

Celix’s Flashback –

That night, after Nevan handed me the money, I ran. My legs moved faster than they ever had. The money clutched tightly in my shaking hands, heart pounding with a mix of panic and desperate hope. I remember how the air felt—cold, heavy, like it already knew something I didn’t.

By the time I reached the hospital, my mother was struggling to breathe.

She looked so pale. So small in that bed, surrounded by wires and machines that beeped steadily—reminding me every second how fragile she had become. I rushed to her side, the notes still gripped in my hand, and collapsed beside the bed.

“Maa… I got the money,” I whispered. “Everything will be okay. I promise…”

She turned her head slightly, her lips trembling in a soft smile. Even in that state, she still looked at me like I was her whole world.

“Celix,” she breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. “Come… closer…”

I leaned in, tears burning behind my eyes.

“I don’t have… much time,” she said slowly. “Listen to me, baby…”

“No,” I choked, shaking my head. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll get more money, I’ll—”

“Shh…” she gently placed her weak hand on mine, silencing me. “You’re… strong. Smarter than you think. Don’t waste your life. Don’t let them… break you. Study hard. Make a life. In a real school. Not like this place…”

“Maa, please…” My tears started falling, one by one. “Don’t go. Please…”

“I’ll always… love you,” she said, her voice now a whisper against the wind.

And just like that… she was gone.

A long, empty silence followed. The machines stopped beeping. The world felt like it had stopped breathing with her.

That moment shattered me.

It was the first time I had truly lost something I couldn’t live without. I wanted to scream. I wanted to disappear. But I couldn’t. Because she had told me to live. To study. To make something of myself.

So I did.

I buried her with the help of a few kind strangers. I went back to that hellhole of a house, where my stepmother wouldn’t even look me in the eye. Where my step-sister mocked me and laughed behind closed doors. Where my father pretended like I didn’t exist.

But I held on to her words.

I finished middle school with top grades, studying late into the night when the rest of the house slept. I gave up meals to buy notebooks. I endured every insult, every slap, every cold stare. Because I had a promise to keep.

And eventually… my chance came.

A scholarship. One that felt like a miracle. A prestigious high school in the city—Nevan’s school. I had seen it in magazines and online, but never thought I’d walk through its halls.

Yet here I was.

No one knew my story. They just saw me as the quiet, polite kid who studied too much and spoke too little. No one knew I still wrote letters to the boy who had unknowingly helped me save my mother’s final moments. Letters I never signed. Letters that carried all the things I could never say.

I still didn’t know if he remembered that night.

But I remembered everything.

And no matter how much time passed, Nevan would never stop being the reason I kept going.

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