Chapter 80 080
EMILY
I barely remembered walking out of Ryan’s hospital room.
Everything inside me burned.
My chest felt too tight, my head throbbed, and my hands would not stop shaking. Cecilia’s voice echoed in my mind like a threat that refused to die.
See you in court.
That was exactly why I had said it.
Because Cecilia had made sure I understood something very clearly before I left that room.
My first court hearing was in a week.
One week.
One week before strangers sat in a courtroom and decided whether I deserved to keep my own child.
The thought alone made my stomach twist violently.
I pushed through the hospital doors like the building itself was suffocating me. The cool air outside slapped against my face, but it did nothing to calm the storm raging inside my chest.
I heard footsteps behind me.
“Emily!”
Aaron’s voice.
I kept walking.
“Emily, wait!”
His hand grabbed my arm gently but firmly.
I spun around immediately, my anger exploding before he could even say anything else.
“I’m tired.”
The words came out harsher than I meant them to, but I did not take them back.
Aaron looked confused.
“What happened in there?”
I laughed bitterly.
The sound felt ugly even to my own ears.
“What didn’t happen?”
He frowned slightly.
Morgan finally caught up behind him, breathing hard.
“Emily, slow down,” she said.
But I was past slowing down.
Past reasoning.
Past pretending everything was okay.
“I’m tired,” I repeated, louder this time.
Aaron’s expression softened slightly.
“Tired of what?”
I stared at both of them.
“Tired of all of this.”
My voice cracked.
“Tired of Cecilia. Tired of Ryan. Tired of fighting people who seem determined to ruin my life. Tired of all these court threats.”
Aaron’s brows pulled together.
“What do you mean court?”
I shook my head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Emily.”
“I said it doesn’t matter.”
My chest rose and fell quickly as the anger kept building.
“You know what?” I said, my voice turning colder. “Ryan can go fuck himself.”
Morgan’s eyes widened.
Aaron blinked slowly.
I continued before either of them could respond.
“I don’t care anymore.”
The words left my mouth quickly, recklessly.
“I don’t care about Ryan. I don’t care about what he remembers or what he believes.”
My throat tightened painfully.
“I’m done.”
Neither of them spoke.
For a moment the only sound between us was my uneven breathing.
Then I turned.
I walked straight toward the parking lot.
“Emily!” Morgan called after me.
I ignored her.
I reached my car, yanked the door open, and climbed inside before either of them could stop me.
“Emily, wait!”
Morgan ran toward the car just as I started the engine.
But I was already pulling out.
She slowed to a stop in the middle of the lot, her hand still half raised like she had been trying to reach me.
For a second I saw her in the rearview mirror.
Standing there.
Watching the car disappear.
Then she was gone.
The hospital vanished behind me as I drove.
I had no idea where I was going at first.
I just drove.
My hands gripped the steering wheel tightly while my mind replayed everything that had happened inside that hospital room.
Ryan’s confused eyes.
The way he looked at me like I was nothing.
Like I was a stranger.
Like the last few years of my life had never happened.
My chest ached.
Then my mother’s voice echoed again.
She kept you from your daughter.
The lie made my stomach twist violently.
And the worst part was that Ryan believed it.
Of course he believed it.
Why wouldn’t he?
He had no memories.
No proof.
Just Cecilia whispering poison in his ear.
A tear slid down my cheek as I drove.
I wiped it away angrily.
“Stop it,” I muttered to myself.
Crying would not fix anything.
Crying had never fixed anything.
The road stretched ahead of me, quiet and empty.
Without thinking about it, I took the familiar turn that led outside the city.
The buildings slowly disappeared.
The traffic thinned.
Trees lined the road like silent witnesses.
Only when the cemetery gates appeared in the distance did I realize where I was going.
My chest tightened.
Vivian.
Of course I had come here.
I parked the car slowly and stepped out.
The air here always felt different.
Quieter.
Calmer.
Like the world slowed down just enough to breathe.
I walked along the familiar path between the rows of graves.
I had been here so many times that I could find Vivian’s grave with my eyes closed.
And when I finally reached it, the sight of her name carved into the stone made my throat tighten.
Vivian Stunner.
My foster mother.
The only person who had ever truly loved me like I belonged somewhere.
I knelt slowly in front of the grave.
The grass beneath my knees was soft and cool.
For a moment I just stared at the stone.
Then the tears came.
“I didn’t want to come here like this,” I whispered.
My voice trembled.
“I didn’t want to bother you with my problems again.”
The words felt strange in the quiet air.
But talking to Vivian had always felt natural.
Even now.
Even when she was gone.
I brushed my fingers lightly over the engraved letters of her name.
“You used to say I was stronger than I thought.”
My voice broke.
“But I don’t feel strong anymore.”
The tears fell freely now.
“I tried, Vivian.”
My chest shook as the words poured out.
“I really tried.”
I remembered the way she used to hug me when I came home crying as a teenager.
The way she would brush my hair and tell me everything would be okay.
The way she looked at me like I mattered.
Like I belonged.
“You were the only parent I ever had,” I whispered.
My fingers curled into the grass.
“You loved me like I was your real daughter.”
A sob escaped my throat.
“Sometimes I used to forget that I wasn’t.”
The wind moved softly through the trees around the cemetery.
For a moment it felt like the world was listening.
“I didn’t want to come here today,” I admitted quietly.
“I didn’t want to dump all my problems on you again.”
My voice shook.
“But I don’t know what else to do.”
Ryan did not remember me.
Cecilia was preparing to drag me into court.
And my daughter might be taken away from me.
The weight of it all crushed my chest.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
The confession felt small in the open air.
“I don’t know how to fight them anymore.”
Another tear slid down my cheek.
“I just want a sign.”
My voice trembled as I stared at the grave.
“Just one sign.”
The wind stirred again, brushing lightly against my face.
My lips trembled as I whispered the final words.
“A sign to show that everything is going to be alright.”