I’ve read a lot of stories about family, but some are harder to accept than others. Not because they’re unrealistic—but because they feel too real. This is one of those stories that makes you question what love is supposed to look like… and what happens when it’s never given at all.
When my brother and I got into a car accident, I needed emergency surgery. But my mother, the hospital director, called every available doctor to my brother’s room. He only had a few scrapes, yet she ordered a full body scan for him while I lay there bleeding out. I begged her to help me, but she snapped, visibly annoyed.
“Can’t you stop fighting for attention for once? Your brother almost injured a bone.”
In the end, I lost consciousness on the operating table… and never woke up.
But after news of my death broke, my mother—who had always hated me—completely lost her mind.
In the final three minutes of my life, my soul drifted to my mother’s side. She was sitting beside my younger brother Felix Goodman’s hospital bed, her face filled with worry as she prayed, “Felix, please don’t scare me like this. Wake up, okay?”
My father stood nearby, his face twisted in fury. “If Sean had done his job and protected him, Felix wouldn’t be in this state! Just wait—I’m going to beat him to death.”
I stood silently at the side, bitterness rising in my chest.
“Dad, there’s no need for that. I’m almost gone—not that you guys would care.”
At that moment, the doctors gathered around Felix’s bed in a circle. After confirming that his injuries were only scrapes and nothing serious, one of the older doctors finally dared to bring me up.
He asked cautiously, “Miss Blanchard, are you sure we shouldn’t check on Sean? His injuries from the car crash seem very serious.”
My mother’s gentle expression instantly twisted into disgust as she roared, “What’s he trying to pull now? Pretending to be dead? Doesn’t he realize what he’s done to his brother?”
I stared at her, stunned. Though my heart had already stopped, it still somehow throbbed with pain. I was their son too. Did they really not care about me at all?
Suddenly, Mom picked up her phone and dialed my number. A nurse brought the phone to my ear, and instead of hearing the concern I had hoped for, all I heard was contempt.
“Sean Goodman, when are you going to crawl out of bed and apologize to your brother?”
My heart instantly turned cold as whatever hope I had left withered away. Of course, she never cared about me.
Come to think of it, when I was first brought into the hospital, I begged Mom to save me, but all she said was, “Do you have to fight for attention even at a time like this? Don’t you realize your brother nearly broke a bone?” Then she turned and walked away without a second glance, taking the entire medical team with her to tend to Felix.
How could she possibly have the capacity to love me?