At just eight years old, Renee could decipher people's expressions and was acutely attuned to their thoughts.
At this moment, Renee, with a pale face, tried to comfort me like an adult, "Daddy... Mommy won't come...If it hadn't been for picking me up, Grandpa and Grandma wouldn't have had an accident. I am... a jinx..."
I turned my head, quickly wiped away my tears, and smiled to comfort Renee, "Nonsense! My Renee is a lucky star. You will live to be a hundred years old!"
But Renee's expression told me that she didn't believe it.
The image of the car accident was etched in my memory, and even the pungent scent of disinfectant in the operating room could not mask the overpowering odor of blood that lingered on Renee.
"How much pain she must be in!" I thought.
"Daddy... you should divorce Mommy, I'm leaving... you don't have to sacrifice yourself for me... gamblers won't... change! Grandpa and grandma came to pick me up... back to the hometown..." Renee told me the last truth she had never revealed, then closed her eyes.
I scarcely had the moment to process the shock and fury coursing through me before the sorrow in my chest swiftly permeated every inch of my being.