Mrs. Protich mentioned her past, which inadvertently reminded Winifred Dawson of Leland Burns’ mother.
She was also a miserable woman, just like Mrs. Protich, subjected to domestic violence from an alcoholic husband. Mrs. Protich had it much better; at least she had escaped that family and was living a better life with her daughter. At least she was physically healthy, and her daughter had never been abused.
Unlike that woman, who was paralyzed and unable to do anything.
Previously, Winifred Dawson had no feelings towards Leland Burns’ mother; she was just a stranger, someone unrelated to her no matter how pitiful her situation was.
She was merely an observer, watching the tragic experiences of Leland Burns and his mother without any sympathy. She even found it like watching an interesting tragedy.
She stood from a god’s perspective, self-righteous, casually pointing fingers at others’ lives. She believed Leland Burns’ mother was just a burden. Since she was paralyzed, it would be better if she died. She also thought Leland Burns was useless, restrained by such a family, controlled by an abusive man for the sake of his mother. If he couldn’t protect himself, how could he protect his mother? Wasn’t this just inviting suffering and abuse?
When she was a child, once she set her sights on something, she wouldn’t easily let go. Just like Leland Burns, since he couldn’t leave his family, she would “help” him.
Wouldn’t it be better if his mother died? Being paralyzed and having no freedom, living a miserable life wasn’t as good as death. Moreover, she couldn’t help Leland Burns at all; she would only become a burden to him. Sure enough, once his mother died, Leland Burns was freed from that “cage”.
When Leland Burns knelt down and begged her to save his mother, she immediately thought to herself, why should she save her? Wouldn’t it be better if she died? After all, she was just an insignificant person to her. Although she could help out casually, she simply didn’t want to.
…
She actually knew all along that Leland Burns resented her for not saving his mother back then.
But she had helped him so much; wouldn’t years of kindness be enough to outweigh one life?
Now that she had heard Mrs. Protich’s words, one life couldn’t possibly outweigh everything else. She was the only person in the world who had truly loved Leland Burns at that time.
If her mother were Mrs. Protich and had been killed by someone’s indifference as an onlooker, she would also hold grudges and seek revenge.
She had indeed made a mistake back then.
If she had saved Leland Burns’ mother, perhaps things wouldn’t have turned out like this. Gregory Dawson wouldn’t have died; she wouldn’t have to hide all the time and unexpectedly lose a child.
Winifred Dawson gently placed her hand on her abdomen.
“Miss Dawson…” Mrs. Protich looked at Winifred Dawson’s slight movement and softly called out to her.
Winifred Dawson snapped out of her thoughts and quickly moved her hand away from her abdomen. She broke free from her memories and stared at Mrs. Protich for a long time before saying, “I wish my mother could be like you.”
Mrs. Protich hadn’t actively asked about Winifred Dawson’s family situation before, but now that Winifred Dawson brought it up herself, Mrs. Protich followed along and asked, “Where is your mother?”
“I don’t know; maybe she’s already dead. I have no family left.”
Mrs. Protich felt a pang in her heart as she looked at the fragile Winifred Dawson. “Miss Dawson if you don’t mind, you can consider me your family…” She immediately felt that what she said wasn’t right. Winifred Dawson was her employer – young, beautiful, and wealthy – what right did she have to consider herself family? It would be taking advantage of her without any self-awareness.
Mrs. Protich felt embarrassed; her face turned red as she didn’t know how to look at Winifred Dawson anymore.
However, Winifred Dawson said, “Mrs. Protich, can you hug me?”
“I… Of course I can…” Mrs. Protich stuttered but felt somewhat relieved that Winifred Dawson didn’t mind what she had said earlier. The only concern was that Mrs. Protich was still wearing an apron; Winifred Dawson might smell the odor of cooking oil when hugging her or notice that Mrs. Protich hadn’t washed her hair today.
Mrs. Protich had thought about many things on her own until Winifred Dawson’s soft body leaned against hers and wrapped around her tightly.
Mrs. Protich’s body stiffened for a moment but eventually reached out and hugged Winifred Dawson back.
Winifred Dawson rarely hugged someone like this before; Mrs. Protich’s embrace was just as soft and warm as she had imagined it would be. It gave her a sense of security amidst her anxious heart.
She couldn’t be greedy with such an embrace; once she got used to it, it would be hard to let go.
Mrs. Protich had a daughter; she belonged to someone else as their mother and not to Winifred Dawson.
Just a little longer… let this sense of security stay for a bit longer so that maybe Winifred Dawson could endure a little longer.
“Your daughter is very lucky to have such a good mother.”
Winifred Dawson smiled as she let go of Mrs. Protich and nestled in her arms for a moment before fixing her slightly messy hair.
“Everyone deserves happiness; they just have different paths,” Mrs. Protich said while smoothing out Winifred Dawson’s stray hair on her forehead.
Although these words seemed ordinary, Winifred Dawson felt a twinge of sadness towards the end of the sentence but tried hard to suppress it and keep the sour pain in her heart hidden away as she replied in a muffled voice, “Mrs. Protich, can you say something to me?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Just say that everything will be okay.”
Mrs. Protich tousled Winifred Dawson’s hair and said, “It’s alright; everything will be okay.”
Mrs. Protich spoke from the bottom of her heart with sincerity and without any falsehoods, making Winifred Dawson feel warmth.
With those words from Mrs. Protich, she felt like she could truly overcome anything.
For dinner that night, Mrs. Protich prepared a light meal: boiled shrimp and vegetables with a small ear of corn. Previously they ate separately but ever since they returned from the hospital they ate together at the same table. Winifred Dawson had a small appetite which affected Mrs. Protich’s own appetite as well; she lost quite a few pounds because of it.
Mrs. Protich asked what Winifred Dawson wanted to eat tomorrow.
In recent days, Winifred Dawson had been following news about the Burkhart family closely; knowing that it wouldn’t be long before the Burkhart family disappeared from Peachshire Town meant that time was running out for her.
She had already planned how to leave: taking a car would easily lead Leland Burns to find her; flying wasn’t an option since Leland Burns had taken away her passport previously – getting it replaced would take too much time – so she decided to take a boat instead.
Winifred Dawson had taken care of everything around herself: the money in her account couldn’t be withdrawn or used in this lifetime so it would be wasted if left untouched; therefore, she contacted a lawyer online and wrote up a will just to be safe.
She also took care of insurance for Mrs. Protich so that if anything happened to her in the future or if she fell ill there would be no worries about medical expenses.
When Mrs. Protich asked what Winifred Dawson wanted to eat tomorrow, Winifred Dawson decided that tomorrow would be the day for her departure.
Now that she knew Leland Burns wasn’t dead yet, once she disappeared he would definitely investigate and eventually find out about Mrs. Protich’s involvement – so revealing any information about herself to Mrs. Protich wasn’t an option.
“Mrs. Protich, I’ve been thinking about going out for some fresh air these past few days… maybe go on a trip.”
“At this time?” July and August were the hottest months; everywhere issued heat warnings with temperatures rarely dropping below 30 degrees Celsius – most cities were hitting 40 degrees Celsius now – where could one go for travel during such weather?
Winifred Dawson feared getting sunburned; even when it was hot outside during walks in daylight hours were avoided because of this reason alone – with delicate skin like hers even slight exposure could cause sunburns – so what if heatstroke occurred during travel?
Mrs. Protich wasn’t reassured: “Miss. Dawson… where do you plan on traveling? Maybe I should accompany you.” With Mrs. Protich around at least there would be someone to prepare refreshing drinks during the summer heat or take care of Winifred Dawson if she fell ill – ensuring three meals were ready every day as well.
Mrs. Protich always believed homemade food tasted better than what they could get outside; Winifred Dawson had picky taste buds so finding good food outside was truly difficult – it took quite some time for Mrs. Protich herself to figure out what suited Winfred’s taste buds exactly right now too.
“No need; I want to go out alone and explore the world outside… If you accompany me I’ll feel uneasy… Besides I’ll be gone for quite some time… The signal might not be good outside either… Don’t you need to contact your daughter every day? What if we lose contact for one week or even one month? Can you bear with that?”
“We’ll lose contact? That’s too dangerous.” Nowadays everyone has cell phones; there are also landlines at home – there should always be some way to contact each other – losing contact like this is no different from disappearing entirely! So Mrs. Protich persuaded Winfred: “Miss. Dawson… how about not going out? I really can’t rest assured if you go out alone… Even if you want to travel somewhere go somewhere with good signal reception… Send me texts or give me calls every day… If we lose contact suddenly like this I’ll worry myself sick… It’ll affect my sleep too.”
As Mrs. Protich spoke those words her eyebrows remained furrowed without relaxing at all while wrinkles seemed deeper on her face than usual.
Knowing how worried Mrs. Protich was about her made Winfred take hold of Mrs. Protich’s hand: “Don’t worry… I’ll join a tour group when I travel… There will be many people around me so nothing will happen.”