You became hope, even if you never realized it.
I blinked several times. Hope.
That wasn't a word I had ever connected with myself.
Somewhere another frightened child heard whispers that Asset Seven escaped and that child believed escape might be possible.
Another child fought one more day because of you. Another child refused to surrender because you survived.
The words shattered something inside me. For years I had viewed my survival as an accident. A cruel twist of fate.
I had asked myself countless times why I escaped when so many others didn't. The guilt had become part of who I was. But my mother had seen something entirely different.
She hadn't seen selfishness. She had seen possibility. She had seen hope. I finally lowered the letter and buried my face in my hands. The sobs
