Chapter 19 — The Inn at the End of the Pass

A few days after the rainy and windy night searching for Gia Binh, the atmosphere in the family gradually became warmer, although there were still echoes of fatigue from the recent crisis. Gia Binh contacted the real estate broker to negotiate to cancel the contract. Although he had to pay a large deposit, he accepted it as the price he had to pay for his hasty decision.

One evening, when the whole family gathered around the dinner table, a rare warm atmosphere enveloped the dining room. Nhat Minh chirped about school stories, Thuy Duong occasionally intervened to tease his younger brother, and Gia Binh, although still quieter than before, also began to participate in the conversation more.

In the middle of the meal, Thuy Duong suddenly put down her chopsticks, her face seemed to be pondering something.

"Miss Thao, I have something I want to ask, but I don't know when I should ask." She said, her voice hesitant.

"What's going on, just say it." Thao replied, feeling the seriousness in her sister's voice.

"A few months ago, when I helped you check the bank book to pay tuition, I happened to see a sum of money transferred into your account every month, without the sender's name clearly stated, just a strange account code. I didn't dare ask right away, but I kept wondering... was that money sent home from my mother?"

The atmosphere in the dining room suddenly became tense. Thao put down the bowl of rice, her hands shaking slightly. She hid this secret for three years, partly because she wasn't completely sure, partly because she was afraid of re-inflaming the pain for her children, but now, when Thuy Duong asked directly, she knew she couldn't continue to stay silent.

"Yes, that's the money my mother sent home." Thao replied, her voice gentle but firm.

Gia Binh and Thuy Duong were simultaneously stunned, while Nhat Minh looked around bewildered, feeling the seriousness but not fully understanding the story.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Gia Binh asked, his voice both surprised and a bit reproachful. "It's been three years, you've been hiding this for three years?"

"I'm sorry." Thao replied, her voice low. "I didn't hide it because I wanted to deceive you, but because it took me a long time to fully understand the story, and I was afraid that if I told you when I wasn't sure, it would only hurt you more."

She took a deep breath, then told the entire story that she had secretly learned all these years. After Ms. Ha left the pass, about six months later, strange amounts of money began to appear in Thao's account, irregular in quantity but regular in frequency — once a month. At first, Thao thought it might be a bank mistake, but after silently searching, she discovered that the account number was registered under a strange name in a southern industrial city.

"It took me nearly a year to find out, even asking a former classmate who works in the banking industry to help verify discreetly." Thao continued, her voice monotonous as if trying to suppress her emotions. "Finally, I found out that the person who owned that account was Ms. Ha, but used a different name, perhaps because she didn't want to be recognized."

"So why didn't mom use her real name, didn't call or text us for all these years?" Thuy Duong asked, her voice choked up, tears began to roll down.

Thao was silent for a moment, then continued to tell the most important part of the story that she had kept hidden all this time. "I was able to contact Ms. Ha once, more than a year ago, through the phone number I found from an acquaintance. She told me the real reason she left."

The whole dining room was absolutely silent, all eyes were on Thao, waiting for the rest of the story that had been buried for so long.

"When her father was seriously ill, the medical expenses were huge, far beyond her family's ability. Ms. Ha borrowed from everywhere, including hot loans with high interest rates, to have money to treat her father, hoping to buy more time. But in the end, her father still did not survive, leaving behind a huge debt that she did not know how to repay." Thao said, her voice trembling with emotion. "Ms. Ha, in extreme despair and shame, felt she had completely failed in her role as a wife and mother. She did not have the courage to face her children, herself, amidst the pile of debt and the pain of losing her husband. She chose to leave, go to the city to work as a worker in a garment factory, silently pay off that debt gradually, and at the same time send more money to her sister to take care of the children, but did not dare to use her real name because she was afraid that if the children knew, they would resent her even more."

Tears rolled down Thuy Duong's face, mixed with shock that could not be expressed in words. Gia Binh sat still, his hands clenched into fists on his knees, his face changing through many emotions - from shock, to pain, to a vague anger that didn't know where to turn.

"So for the past three years, we thought our mother abandoned us mercilessly, while she was silently paying off debt, silently sending money back without daring to admit who she was?" Gia Binh asked, his voice shaking with pent-up emotions.

"I'm just as heartbroken as you guys when I learn this truth." Thao replied, her eyes were also red. "I was going to tell you guys right then, but Ms. Ha asked me not to, because I was afraid you would hate me more when you found out that I let debt push the whole family to this point, instead of finding a better way."

"But hiding it forever is not a good way, Ms. Thao." Thuy Duong said, her voice both reproachful and sorrowful. "We have the right to know the truth, no matter how painful it is."

"I know, and that's why today, when you asked, I decided to tell the whole truth, even though I promised Miss Ha to keep it a secret." Thao replied, her voice determined. "I think it's time for our family to face the truth, no matter how painful, rather than continuing to live in misunderstandings and unnecessary resentment."

She took out a small notebook from the wooden counter drawer, where she carefully recorded every amount of money and every date received over the past three years, as a way to silently retain traces of her stepmother who had left but had never really let go of responsibility for her children. "Here, I'll keep it all. The total is now more than one hundred and twenty million dong, which Ms. Ha has sent back regularly over the past few months, even though the worker's salary is certainly not abundant."

Gia Binh took the notebook, tremblingly flipped through each page, his eyes lingering for a long time on the meticulous notes, as if trying to visualize the image of his mother, skinny, struggling in a foreign land, silently saving every meager salary to send home to the children she did not dare to recognize as their mother.

The dinner that night ended in a heavy yet strangely relieved atmosphere, like a heavy rain that had finally cleared away all the dark clouds that had accumulated over the years. Each person in the family carries their own emotions and needs time to digest the truth that has just been revealed, but at least now, no one has to carry the burden of a silent secret anymore.

After the meal, Nhat Minh, although he did not fully understand what had just been told, still felt the heaviness in the family atmosphere and timidly pulled Thao's hand and asked quietly.

"So should we go look for Ha's mother now? I want to meet her, even though I don't remember her face very well."

The boy's innocent question made both Gia Binh and Thuy Duong turn to look at Thao, waiting for an answer, as if they were secretly hoping for the same thing but didn't dare say it.

"I think this is the right time for me to proactively contact you again." Thao replied, after thinking for a while. "But I want to ask everyone's opinion first, because this is the family's decision, not just mine."

Gia Binh pondered for a long time, his hands still clenched, then finally spoke, his voice less shaky than before. "I want to see my mother. Not to blame her, but to... tell her that we're okay, still trying, and we don't blame her like she thinks."

Thuy Duong nodded in agreement, tears still lingering on the corners of her eyes but her eyes shone with a new ray of hope. "I also want to see my mother. It's been three years, I think it's time for our whole family to have a real reunion, even though it may not be easy."

Thao looked at the children, her heart filled with an indescribable emotion at the maturity and tolerance that all three of her siblings had shown, even though just a few minutes ago, they were still in the shock of the newly revealed truth. She thought to herself, perhaps this is the clearest proof that, no matter how much trauma they have experienced, the hearts of children growing up in a patchwork family still have a vast space forgiveness and reunion.