CHAPTER 36: CHAPTER-36. (THE MYSTERIOUS ’SOMETHING’).

I blinked, trying to piece it together. Walter. Vivian. I just knew they were the names of Dave’s parents, but they were more like background noise in Dave’s world.

Not mine. I’d never really cared enough to dig deeper than knowing their role in his life. Our life.

His family drama wasn’t something I ever thought I needed to entangle myself in.

I just became their perfect daughter-in-law. I followed everything they told me to do and never had a mind or opinion of my own whenever I visited them.

I just wanted them to acknowledge me as their perfect daughter-in-law and had nothing to do with them beyond that.

Until now, apparently.

"And?" I asked, leaning forward, curious despite myself.

Linda’s fingers drummed lightly against the table.

"Something happened that day. Something big enough that it changed him.

But I don’t know the details. He never talks about it. And whenever Albert tried to bring it up, Dave would just... shut down."

I chewed on my lip, processing her words. "So you don’t actually know what happened?"

"I know enough," she said, her tone carrying a weight that made my chest tighten.

"I know he wasn’t the same after. He used to laugh, you know? Before that day. He used to be a child."

A strange ache twisted in me at that.

The thought of a...brooding, cold, sharp-edged Dave ever laughing like a normal kid didn’t fit in my head. It was almost laughable itself. And yet, Linda’s voice carried no lies.

I sat back, staring at my untouched plate. My appetite disappeared with her words.

"So that’s why he’s like this?" I muttered, mostly to myself. "That’s why he acts like the entire world is a burden he didn’t sign up for?"

"Part of it," she admitted. "The rest... is just him learning to survive in that world. You don’t know the things he’s had to endure."

I let out a humorless laugh. "Clearly, I don’t. Because he never let me in this whole time."

The air turned heavier, pressing down on me. For once, I didn’t try to fill the silence with sarcasm or stupid jokes. I just sat there, staring at my plate, my mind spinning.

In all these years, I thought I knew him. Or at least I convinced myself that I did.

His anger, his silence, the way he always managed to shut me out before I could even get close. I thought that was all there was to him. Nothing more. Just walls. Thick walls.

But maybe I was wrong. Maybe there was something behind them. Something I never even tried to look at because... well, why would I?

It was easier to just assume he didn’t care. Easier for me.

Linda reached across the table, her warm hand brushing over mine. "Don’t be too hard on him, Ele. He may not show it, but he’s fighting battles every day. Sometimes, food is the least of his worries."

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.

I wanted to argue.

To tell her how unfair it was for him to keep me out, to push me away even when I tried so hard to stay close. But the words didn’t come. Because deep down, I knew she was right.

When I finally looked up at her, she was smiling softly, almost sadly. "Just... be patient with him."

Patience. The one thing I’d been running low on for years.

I nodded anyway. "Yeah. I’ll try."

After dinner, Linda cleared the dishes, humming a soft tune under her breath.

I sat there for a long time, staring at the table like it held all the answers I’d been missing.

My thoughts kept circling back to Dave. His eighth birthday. Walter. Vivian. The mysterious "something" that broke him.

I hated not knowing.

I hated that he carried this weight alone while I stood on the outside, clueless.

And most of all, I hated that I wanted so badly to break into his world, even if he slammed the door in my face every single time.

Later, when I finally crawled into bed, the house was quiet. Too quiet.

Somewhere down the hall, behind that closed door, Dave was probably still awake, drowning in his own silence.

I pulled the blanket up to my chin, closing my eyes.

But sleep didn’t come easily. Not when my mind was already wide awake, building stories of a boy who once laughed, and the man who forgot how.

And maybe...just maybe it was time I found out what really happened that day, but can I really know it, knowing well about his strong tall walls preventing.

But can I really know it, knowing well about his strong, tall walls stopping me every single time?

I don’t think so.

Dave is not the type to open up if I just go and ask. He would never sit there and tell me what broke him. He’d just shut me out like always.

Pretend I never asked. Pretend I don’t exist.

That’s his way. His only way.

Still, the thought kept eating at me. What if I knew? What if somehow I got past those walls? Would I even be ready to hear it?

Because if I knew... then I couldn’t ignore it anymore. I couldn’t joke around it. I’d have to face him. Face us.

And that scared me more than staying clueless. Adding that he was suffering from memory loss. It would be too difficult to get it out of him.

It would be too risky, as at this stage, anything could trigger him, making him suffer through another mental breakdown, which I clearly did not want.

Maybe tomorrow, I told myself. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try. Maybe I’ll knock on his door. Maybe I’ll get answers. It was a wish which could only happen in my imagination, though.

Moreover, deep down, I already knew the truth.

Tomorrow would come. Tomorrow will go.

Dave would still be locked in his silence.

And I’d still be here.

Waiting.

Like always.