The woman in the bed turned too, and I froze.
She was worn down by time, but her eyes were unmistakable. She stared at me like she didn’t believe I was real.
“So this is where you’ve been disappearing to,” I said, my voice shaking with rage and disbelief. “To see the woman who wrecked my life.”
Daniel stood quickly, hands half raised, ready to catch me if I fell. “Mel, please.”
“You lied,” I snapped, eyes burning. “You let me think the worst.”
“I didn’t know how to tell you,” he said, voice raw. “I handled it wrong.”
“You could have tried. Instead you chose silence and let me rot in my own head.”
“I thought I was protecting you,” Daniel said quietly. “But I was wrong.”
“Melanie,” my mother whispered.
I turned to her, jaw clenched. “Don’t. You don’t get to say my name like it still belongs to you.”
Her mouth trembled. “I never asked Daniel to lie.”
“But you let him,” I said. “Just like you left me without looking back.”
She dropped her gaze.
“You don’t get to rewrite the ending,” I continued, voice tight, “just because you’re running out of time.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. “I regret everything,” she whispered. “I called once. I didn’t know how to talk to you. Daniel answered. He came to see me, and then he kept coming.”
I laughed once, bitter. “You didn’t know how to talk to me? You had years.”
My mother’s hands trembled on the blanket.
“You made me believe I wasn’t good enough,” I said. “You made love feel like something I had to earn, and when it got hard, you vanished.”
“Mel…”
I held up a hand. “No. Let me finish.”
I looked at her, and seeing her like this didn’t erase what she did. It didn’t soften the memories. It didn’t heal the part of me that learned too young that people can leave and call it ‘complicated.’
“I didn’t come here to make peace. I came here because my husband broke my trust, and I needed to know where he was going.”
My mother nodded, trembling. “I understand.”
I turned to Daniel. “How long?”
“Seven weeks.”
