You Looked Down on Me Once, Now You Look Up. novel Chapter 268

The café was quiet, sunlight spilling through the windows and painting soft patches of light across the table. Patricia sat across from her grandmother, trying not to show how tense she felt. A server brought over a latte and set it down in front of her, the steam curling up in lazy spirals. Patricia barely glanced at it, her gaze fixed on the old woman across from her.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you for a while now,” her grandmother started, voice gentle, polite as always. “But somehow, I never found the right moment.”

Patricia gave a small, tight smile but didn’t say a word.

There it was—the same old routine. Grandma always opened with kindness, but she never forgot to bring her daggers.

“Pattie, I’ve always seen you as my own granddaughter. I worry about you, you know?” Her grandmother’s voice softened, almost as if she could convince Patricia to believe her. “Three years ago, what happened—I really had no choice. If you were in my position, watching your family suffer, maybe you’d have done the same.”

If Patricia hadn’t pushed so hard back then, maybe things would have been different. At least, that’s what her grandmother seemed to think.

Patricia looked up, arching an eyebrow in disbelief. “So what, are you saying someone forced your hand? Held a knife to your throat and made you do it?”

She let the silence stretch, then added, “Are you actually admitting you started that fire three years ago?”

Her grandmother’s face stayed calm. She was ready for this—Patricia could see she wasn’t about to fall for any tricks.

“Patricia, what’s done is done. You’ve picked yourself up, haven’t you? Why not just look forward? Life has to go on.”

Patricia turned her coffee cup slowly in her hands, her voice cool and steady. “It’s easy to move on when you’re not the one who got hurt. The only reason you can say ‘let the past go’ is because you weren’t the victim.”

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