No one remembered her when she was little, but once she started earning, her parents suddenly reappeared.
Her parents spent her entire childhood wondering where to place her. She came into their family at the worst possible timethey never wanted her. At first, her grandmother helped with her care, but after she had a stroke, there was no one left to raise the little girl. Their modest pension and wages werent enough to look after a sick woman, let alone a child. After a few months, they made the decision to send little Emily to an orphanage temporarily.
“Youll stay here for a while, while your father and I try to make some money,” her mother told her.
Emily truly believed them and waited, because life in the orphanage was no fairy tale. There was no private room, no tenderness, no careit was almost like a prison. She couldnt befriend the other children; the teachers barely noticed her. To survive, Emily buried herself in books, the rare ones that charities sometimes sent to the home.
She always got good marks in school, and when she was accepted to university, she was thrilled to move to a new city. She had almost no money to start with, but she found a part-time job and saved every penny to start her own business. People laughed when she opened a tiny online shop selling homemade candles.
“What kind of job is that? Youll never make real money,” they said.
But the little business grew. She was one of the first in the market doing it, and customers kept coming. A young man helped with deliveries, and eventually, he quit his job to make candles with her. Slowly, it became a family business. The orphanage staff heard about Emily when she became the face of the shopand so did her parents, thanks to the publicity. Under the pretence of making a purchase, they reached out, and once they received their order, they showed up at her doorstep uninvited.
Emily wasnt pleased to see them. They had forgotten her, and she had forgotten them. Perhaps it was rude, but she threw them out, with her husband backing her up.
They hadnt bothered to raise her or even check on her, and now, suddenly, they pretended to love her. Too late. They should have looked for her sooner, should have taken her back home. Now Emily is grown, a mother herself, and she doesnt need parents like that.
Some wounds never healsome absences can never be forgiven.
