It felt thick and heavy.
How cruel.
The thought came slowly.
I was separated from my family.
How cruel.
My vision blurred, but I didn’t notice until something warm slipped down my cheek.
Pierce moved first.
He crouched beside the bed, close enough that I could feel the quiet steadiness of his presence.
“I’m sorry that we lost you,” he said softly. “And I’m grateful that you walked back into our lives.”
His voice was gentle, but it carried something deeper.
Something real.
His words settled somewhere inside me, quiet but heavy. For a moment, none of us spoke. I didn’t even know what to say. There were too many years between us. Too many things that couldn’t fit into words.
Hayes straightened slightly.
“How… have you been living all these years?”
The question lingered.
It was
