Meet Me Where the Oak Tree Grows novel Chapter 32

They said Jonah was a troublemaker, but he never lashed out without a reason. Sure, he gave others tattoos, but he never got one himself. He was obsessively clean, maybe a bit OCD, and he was sharp, doing really well in school.

Officer Cooper used to call him "Captain," and they'd often reminisce about their college days. Sometimes, memories of those times just pop into my head.

I once overheard at the station that Officer Cooper was a top student from a prestigious academy. So it was pretty clear—Jonah was a student there too. If things hadn't gone sideways, he'd probably be a cop now, just like Officer Cooper.

I don't know exactly what happened, but I do know his mother wished for Jonah to have a stable life, and Jonah wanted his mother to find peace. My dad's presence was a thorn for both of them.

I regretted it all, not because of what I did, but because I didn’t plan it well enough to put my dad away for good. I was just being a cocky troublemaker, and Jonah had every right to be mad.

I sniffled and tried to reassure myself. It was okay. Things were just going back to how they used to be. I had been happy for a while, and it’s important to appreciate what you have because I started with nothing.

I thought Jonah wouldn't come back. So when he showed up at the door with a thermos, I was shocked. I thought I was imagining things. He walked in and set the thermos on the bedside table.

In a slightly annoyed tone, he said, "When a kid misbehaves, you teach them a lesson, but you don’t just abandon them, right?"

I stared at him, tears slipping down my face without me even realizing. He turned to look at me, his lips twitching a bit before he finally said, "Stop those tears. You'll cry away all your luck."

He raised an eyebrow, his voice calm, "Now you're worried? Too late. Guess who made this soup?"

Sometimes, when someone’s not angry, it’s scarier than when they are.

When Aunt Marie saw me, she didn’t say a single harsh word. She just cried, heartbroken, blaming herself for not looking after me better. She said if anything had happened to me that day, she'd spend the rest of her life in guilt. She asked if she hadn’t done enough, if she hadn’t made me feel secure, and it left me speechless with guilt.

Lying there, covered in blood, I didn’t regret a thing. Even when I misunderstood Jonah’s feelings, I didn’t regret it. But seeing Aunt Marie cry, that’s when regret hit me hard. Because for the first time, I truly saw the self-blame and worry of a mother in her—emotions I had never seen in my own mom.