Time passed. My house improved thanks to the money she sent. Everyone said I was fortunate. But how can you be happy eating alone every day? Every Christmas, I set a place for her. I would cook her favorite stew and cry in silence. Twelve years. It’s too long. Finally, I made a decision: I was going to Korea. I didn’t tell her anything. For a sixty-three-year-old woman who had never left the country, it was madness. But I bought the ticket with trembling hands and went.
I arrived and took a taxi to her address. A two-story house, quiet — too quiet. The garden was nice but lifeless. I knocked. No answer. The door wasn’t locked. I walked in. The house was clean, too clean. No signs of a man living there. No men’s clothing. No smell of food. I went upstairs. One room with women’s clothes. Another like an office, barely used. And the last one — my legs gave out. Boxes, so many boxes, filled with cash. My mind went blank. At that moment, I heard the door open downstairs.
“Mom.”
It was her voice. I ran. There was Mary Lou — thinner, more tired, but still my daughter. We hugged without speaking for a long time. Then I asked: “What kind of life is this?” She replied: “Mom… I never got married.”
I felt the world shatter. The money wasn’t from a husband. She had given up twelve years of her life to earn it. She wasn’t a wife. She wasn’t free. She was a woman trapped in a contract — and she had two years left. If she broke it early, she would have to pay back nearly a million dollars. That was why she never came home. That was why the house had no life in it. That was why her eyes had changed.
That night we slept together for the first time in twelve years. I asked her if she was tired. “Yes, Mom,” she said. “But I didn’t want you to suffer.” I took her hand. “I don’t need money. I need you.” She cried quietly in a way that had clearly been waiting a very long time to come out.
The next morning, I made a decision. I sold everything I had — the improved house, the savings, all of it. We gathered what we needed. We went together to confront the man. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a confrontation full of shouting. I simply told him it was over, and showed him the money. He looked at me, then at Mary Lou, and said quietly: “It’s all over.” When we walked out, the sun was shining. My daughter took a long, deep breath and said: “I’m finally free.” Those three words were worth every cent.
