I Fell in Love with Someone I Shouldn't Have Fallen in Love with

Promise to Mother

Souji’s POV

My mother passed away after fighting her illness for five months.

She was 40 years old.

During the last month of her life, I took time off school to be with my mother. I was able to be there with her when she passed away.

The only remaining family I have is my grandmother, but she can’t take me in because she lives in a nursing home.

From now on, I will be taken care of by father, who abandoned me and my mother 15 years ago.

Since my childhood until recently, I was told that I don’t have a father.

My mother was unmarried when she gave birth to me and raised me on her own.

However, when my mother fell ill and received a terminal diagnosis at the hospital, she finally told me the truth.

She told me that she was divorced while pregnant with me.

She got married at the age of 24, and the man she married was a senior from her college. He is two years older than her.

His name is Toshio Mamiya.

Two years after getting married, while my mother was pregnant with me, my father had an affair with a woman in his workplace and got her pregnant. My father decided to abandon both me and my mother and remarried to his affair partner. According to my mother, I have a half sister who is the same age with me.

When my mother told me this, she handed me a bank account book under my name.

The bankbook has the alimony money that my mom received during her divorce, and 20 thousand yen of monthly transfer for 15 years.

The payee’s name is ‘Mamiya Toshia’.

It seems that my father pays 20 thousand yen per month for my child support.

‘Use this money for your tuition. I want you to get a scholarship and somehow go to university using this money.’

My mom said so.

My mother acted strong when she fought her illness and told me this story. She had never shown her weakness to me, but five days before she breathed her last…she revealed her true feelings with tears in her eyes.

‘I don’t want to leave you alone in this world alone, Souji. I don’t want him to take care of you. However, that’s the only way we have. Please forgive your mother who can only rely on the person who has betrayed us.’

I could feel my mother’s sadness.

I couldn’t help but wish to make my father who has betrayed and hurt my mother, along with the woman who has taken my father away from our family to feel the same amount of pain as my mother.

However, my mother immediately noticed my expression and said,

‘I’m sorry. Your mother just said something very foolish. You mustn’t hold any resentment or hatred towards them. If you do, you’ll only end up suffering like me. There is just one wish your mother has, I wish that you will become a respectable adult and find happiness.’

‘I understand mom. I promise. I’ll make sure that I go to college and become a respectable adult that you can be proud of.’

‘Yeah, it’s a promise, Souji.’

I wrapped my hands around my mother’s and promised to her.

Knowing that she didn’t have much time left, my mother had been considering my life after her passing and made various preparations.

Changing the names on the bank account, assets, approaching my father through a lawyer, and handling all the procedures related to inheritance taxes—even with her illness, she had taken care of it all.

It was really helpful to have access to the bank account.

Thanks to it, I was able to hold my mother’s funeral without using a single penny of my father’s money.

I don’t want to use the money of the person who has betrayed my mother for her funeral. I’m sure that she wouldn’t have wanted that also.

I held a private family funeral for my mother. Even though it was only my who came, there were still some costs involved, so I used the inheritance money I received from my mother.

I asked my grandmother who is in a care facility to take care of my mother’s memorial tablet.

Considering my mother’s regrets, there is no way for me to bring my mother’s memorial tablet with me to my father’s house.

The day after my mother’s funeral, I went to see my grandmother and met my father at the lawyer’s office.

My father got down on his knees as soon as we met.

Resisting the urge to stomp on his head, I spoke the words of forgiveness for my father.

I then continued with words of gratitude for the care I will be receiving from him.

I’m prepared to endure any amount of humiliation to keep my promise to my mother.