I’m Ren, a college senior living on my own near campus. My parents were always head over heels for each other, but three years ago, my dad died in an accident, leaving my mom living alone in my childhood home. Now, things have gone from bad to worse—she’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She recently confessed that before she married my dad, she was married to someone else. Apparently, I have a half-sister named Ran. My mom’s dying wish is to see her daughter one last time. I wanted to make that happen for her, so I reached out to Ran’s family home. But she told me she had no intention of seeing her mother and hung up.
I truly believed that my mom loved Ran from the bottom of her heart and that she’d spent every day regretting that she left her behind. That’s why I wanted to help… or so I thought. But after hearing Ran’s side of the story, my perspective started to shift. My mom kept saying she “never forgot” about her, but was that actually true? I wanted Mom to tell Ran she loved her—I wanted Ran to know she was cared for—but is it all just too little, too late? The more I think about it, the more my mother’s words start to feel like a lie.