Staying Bothered: Find Your Passion, Commit to Action, Change the World by Jamie C. Amelio and Adam Snyder

Author:Jamie C. Amelio and Adam Snyder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prowess Publishing

I forwarded Cherry’s email to Bill and sobbed on the phone while he comforted me. I was much more upset than he was. He mostly felt bad for me.

Savy’s betrayal hurt me the most. Our relationship had always been so solid—or at least that’s what I thought. I wrote a blistering email to him but, heeding Bill’s advice, I waited until the weekend before doing anything.

My friends and the CFC board members were sympathetic, but none of them really understood my reaction. Looking at the situation from thirty thousand feet, what was the big deal? Their attitude—understandably, I suppose—was, “Why are you so upset? Because the girls are cousins?” They didn’t understand how it felt to realize that every Cambodian I had trusted had been deceiving me every day for nearly a decade.

Confronting the Truth

In Cherry’s email, she begged me not to tell Savy that I knew the truth. I didn’t want to betray Cherry’s trust, but my hesitation only delayed the inevitable. I don’t think Cherry had given a lot of thought to what would happen after she emailed me. She had been focused solely on finally unburdening herself. I explained to her that sooner or later, the lie would have to be exposed.

A few days later, unable to hold off any longer, I fired off an email to Savy that was only slightly toned down from my original draft. I told him how angry, humiliated, and betrayed I felt. I was upset, and I didn’t hold much back.

When Bill returned on Friday evening, he immediately did the same thing I had. He went to Cherry’s room and told her we loved her unconditionally and understood how difficult it must have been for her to keep this big, complicated lie to herself all these years. Ever since she was ten years old, Cherry had seen her world continually turned upside down. She had faced challenge after challenge as she transitioned to life in a foreign country—and all the while she had to keep this silly secret. When Cherry sent that email to me, she was finally able to shed some of that burden.

In between sobs, Cherry also described a side of Rathana I had suspected but never fully seen. According to Cherry, Rathana had been bullying her for years. Insisting that she maintain the lie was just a small part of it. Rathana often belittled her and ostracized her at school. When Rathana had friends to the house, she wouldn’t let Cherry join them, insisting that her cousin go to their bedroom to study. Now I was not only feeling brokenhearted, but guilty as well.

The lie may not have constituted serious criminal behavior, but with so many people asking for money for the same dying person, it did feel like a low-stakes swindle. In the spring, Chok Dary had asked me for an extra $150 to help pay for her sick mother’s medical bills, Rathana had asked for fifty dollars to send to her grandmother, and I had given Davy fifty dollars to help her sick mother.

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