Chapter 5 - The Namesake
The hospital was once again my world, but this time, the walls didn't feel like a prison. They felt like a fortress.
I sat in the chair in the nursery. The baby—my baby—was in my arms. He was so small, so fragile, yet so resilient. He smelled of milk and clean cotton.
Rebecca Lin stood by the door, smiling. "He knows your voice, you know."
"Theo," I whispered.
I looked down at the blue 'T' stitched into the blanket. It was a symbol of a promise I had made to myself before the world went dark. A promise that no matter how much they tried to take from me, I would always leave a mark.
Evan was in custody. The investigation into the cabin, the embezzlement, and the attempted kidnapping was growing by the hour. My mother was here, sitting in the corner of the room, her eyes filled with tears, begging for forgiveness. I wasn't ready to give it, but I was ready to listen.
I looked out the window. The snow had stopped. The morning sun was hitting the glass, turning the frost into diamonds.
The doctor had told me the memory loss might be permanent. Some of the last six months—the cabin, the isolation, the fear—might never return.
"Is that a good thing?" I asked Dr. Shah when she came to check on us.
She smiled. "Sometimes, the brain protects itself. It deletes the files that don't serve the future."
I looked down at Theo. He yawned, his tiny hand curling around my finger.
I didn't need the last six months. I didn't need the cabin, or the lies, or the man who had tried to build a life on the foundation of my disappearance.
I had the present. I had the sound of a heart beating against my own. I had the name written in my own hand, a secret code between me and the child I had somehow saved from the dark.
The hospital was still the same, but the city outside was changing. People were waking up. Lives were being rebuilt.
I leaned my head back against the chair and closed my eyes. For the first time in a long time, the silence wasn't a void. It was a space waiting to be filled.
May you like
"Theo," I said again, the name grounding me, tethering me to the earth.
I was Hannah Vance, and I was alive. I was a mother, and I was free. And that was all I would ever need to be.
