Echoes of a Forgotten Home

Chapter 7: Echoes of a Forgotten Home

As Camille walked through the house, she felt more and more alone with every step, unable to stop thinking about how much everything had changed. This was the place where they once lived. The old walls now reminded her of a warm and peaceful home that had once been a safe haven for her, a place where her mother laughed and her father made jokes. But now, everything was different. All that remained of those days were cold walls and an empty house. It had become a silent bridge between her and the past. The silence that had crept into every corner of the house dragged Camille deeper into an abyss. Her mind was filled with swirling questions.

"How did my father become this way? Why didn’t he tell me anything?"

The fact that her father had become unrecognizable to her in the last few years suffocated Camille. But this suffocating feeling also carried the cold sting of betrayal. Who was my father? Why did he become a stranger to me? she wondered. Left alone with her loneliness, Camille was filled with the traces of a bond that was slipping away with each passing day. After the death of her mother, her father had turned into a stranger. The warm father she had once known was now a distant, work-obsessed man. As she walked slowly, Camille questioned herself about the cause of this change. Her father had once been a well-known doctor in their town and Camille’s idol. He had always been disciplined, strong, and wise. But in the past few years, that strong figure had disappeared. The foreign look in her father's eyes confused Camille. "Dad, I don't recognize you anymore..." A question that went unanswered echoed in her mind. Where had that comforting man gone? Who was this person?

Her sorrow quickly turned into anger. After her mother's death, the gradual loss of her father's attention had created a deep wound in Camille's heart. The man with whom she had once shared her life had now become a stranger, which both frustrated Camille and made her longing for love grow stronger.

She slowly made her way to the corner of the house and sat in a chair. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to recall the memories of the past. There were times when everything had been so different…

When she was a child, everything had been different. Back then, Camille’s world was small, but her heart was big. The warmth of her mother, the attention of her father… Everything had been perfect. Young Camille was so happy then. When her mother Eleanor would say with her soft voice, “I love you so much, my dear,” Camille thought that everything in the world was beautiful. "The time we spent together… how peaceful we were." The best memory of their home was the conversations at the breakfast table in the mornings.

Eleanor would smile every morning and say, "Let’s see how today will go?" Camille would happily respond while looking at her mother’s hands. Her father would always smile, sometimes adding a little humor by making small jokes to Camille. Those days were so warm that Camille would lose herself between her parents. At that time, Camille had not realized anything about her mother’s illness. Every morning and evening, when her mother smiled, it was like a thread tying Camille to life. But as the hospital visits increased, Camille's world slowly began to change. Those days when everything was beautiful, when everything was right, suddenly disappeared.

"Everything is so beautiful with you, Camille," her father had said. "Growing together, watching you grow... These will always be precious memories."

Camille's eyes would shine. Back then, everything was so simple, so joyful. Just being together, laughing together, was enough. But those days were too short-lived. Everything began to change.

One day, Camille noticed that her mother was growing weaker. There was something that Camille didn’t fully understand as a child, but she felt it in her heart. Her mother’s illness, her father’s disappearing affection and love, was a sign that something was going wrong.

"Camille," her mother had said one day in the hospital, holding Camille's hands, her face still smiling as always. "These will be tough days, but we will get through them together. I’m proud of you, and I love you, my little angel. Never forget that."

But every hospital visit was growing Camille’s fear. Her mother was getting weaker, and every day she seemed to be breathing a little less. Camille feared she would hear the news of her mother's death each time she visited. The fear a child feels when they go to the hospital, made even stronger by her mother's worsening illness, had taken on an entirely new dimension. Those hospital corridors, the cold walls, and the voices of masked doctors had become frightening memories for Camille.

The bond between her parents also began to break after those days. Camille noticed that her father was growing colder and more distant. The warm father she had once known was gone. And this was a shock for Camille. That comforting man was lost. That lost father left a growing void in Camille’s heart with every passing day. This emptiness grew deeper with her mother’s illness.

Camille was so young that she never thought she had much of a journey ahead to understand the meaning of life. But there was one thing she remembered clearly. When her mother was hospitalized, Camille had felt more alone than ever. That day, she had decided to look into her mother's illness. "Mom, I’ll heal you. I promise," she would say every time. But one day, her mother opened her eyes for the last time, and weakly, she said, "I will always be proud of you, Camille." Camille witnessed her mother’s final moments through her tears. Before she passed, her mother had once again said, "I love you so much." And that moment, Camille’s world had gone completely dark. That moment, the deepest emptiness inside her had opened up. She had suffered so much, doing everything she could to save her mother, but nothing had been enough.

Her mother's death marked the beginning and the end of everything for Camille. Camille had achieved great success at a young age, winning many awards in science. But no achievement could bring her mother back. From that day on, Camille made a decision. She wanted to create a world where no one would suffer like her mother, Eleanor. Camille dedicated her life to science, driven by the regret of not being able to save her mother. Every day, dozens of people were dying, and Camille wanted to heal everyone. She succeeded to some extent. Camille became one of the most loved and successful scientists. Her determination and her smile made her beloved by the people. Camille healed every patient with a smile, no matter how much pain or sadness she felt herself. She always wore a painful smile, just like her mother had done. Her mother, Eleanor, who fought her illness in the hospital and drew closer to death every day, had also always smiled. She never shared her pain or sadness with anyone.

"Did healing every patient make me a little bit better?"

Her father had only wanted more work and success from her. Camille’s heart had emptied with this pain. And now, here, today… Camille looked at her father and felt the emptiness within her deepen. Her father’s eyes held an emptiness when it came to Camille. Once, her father had guided her in everything, but now he was just a distant stranger. Camille worked harder every day to earn her father’s approval, but she could never get closer. As time passed, her father became more of a shadow. Camille realized she would never find that love again.

"Dad, why was I never enough in your eyes?"

The answer to this question only deepened the emptiness inside Camille. No matter how many people she healed, no matter how successful she became, she could never find a way to reach her father. This emptiness grew larger with each passing day. Camille felt like a half-human. A failed daughter, a successful scientist, but never a daughter her father could be proud of.

"Dad, I lost you," Camille murmured, trying to hide the tears that flowed from her eyes. But no one would hear.

All these efforts were dragging Camille into a deep void. This emptiness changed Camille’s perspective on happiness and success. "No matter how much success I achieve, I can never bring my mother back. I can never make my father happy. Then why am I living?"

But one day, years later, when she met Luca, everything began to change. Luca was the missing piece Camille had been looking for. A person who could fill the emptiness inside her, someone who would remind her of the meaning of life again. When she met Luca, Camille felt like she was truly alive again. A light appeared in the darkness inside her. Maybe this was a chance to rediscover life, to love again, to smile again. Luca had lied to her, and Camille still couldn’t accept that, but perhaps Luca could give her the love and peace she needed to live.

From that day on, Camille decided to fight not just with science but with life itself. While healing others, she would also heal the pain inside her.