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One of them.
A new family. A new home. A new life.
It sounds good. Too good. Can I really have it?
“What if my memories come back?” I ask Mitch. “I might not be able to stay then. Then everything you’ve spent on me, all the time and money, will be wasted.”
“I don’t think so,” Mitch says. “Something tells me you’ll be worth it.”
My eyebrows furrow. So he’s making such an important decision based on a gut feeling?
“All children leave eventually. If you do, then you’ll be just like the rest of them. But at least you’ll have experienced the warmth of a family and made some happy memories by then. Or do you want to wander around and waste your life while you try to remember who you are? What if you never do? Or what if you do but it’s not who you want to be anymore?”
Those are exactly the fears that have been plaguing my mind.
“It seems to me like you have a choice, Antonio. What happened to you was out of your control, but now your life is in your hands. Are you going to keep wandering like a ghost dwelling in the past, or are you going to make the most of this second chance you’ve been given and start living again?”
I gaze past the window as I withhold my answer. I’m still confused, still afraid. I still don’t know what I should be doing with my life. But Mitch is right. I’m alive. I’m in control. I have a choice. I don’t know who I am, but I can decide who I want to be and how I want to live my life. I can give myself a reason to live and a place to belong. Aren’t those really what everyone needs? Aren’t they what I want?
I won’t just throw away my past, of course. I’ll keep looking for answers. But I also have to move forward. Time doesn’t stop. My life can’t just end here.
I have to keep living.
I draw a deep breath, straighten my shoulders and turn to Mitch.
“Have you made up your mind?” he asks me.
I meet his gaze squarely as I nod.
“I choose to live.”
Chapter One
Triss
Thirteen years later…
Die.
The body falls to the ground. A glass vase shatters. The puddle of cloudy water merges with the pool of blood. It spreads all over the floor, oozing through the gaps between the tiles and painting them a sickening shade of red. It flows on and on and on until it almost reaches my bare feet. I’d move but I can’t. I’m frozen in place and the sea of blood keeps inching closer.
Closer.
It seeps under my toes. Still, I can’t move. I can’t even scream.
Someone help me. Someone… please…
“Hey!”
A voice snaps me into consciousness at the same time a hand shakes my shoulder. I open my eyes. As the haze of sleep gradually fades, I find myself staring at a man wearing a cap and a dark vest over a collared shirt. The familiar logo of a bird with spread wings embroidered on his vest jolts me back to reality.
Right. A bus company. I’m in a bus. On my way to… well, wherever this bus is headed.
“You said you were getting off at the end of the line,” the bus driver reminds me. “Well, this is it.”
I glance out the window. Sure enough, I realize that the bus has stopped. Past the mist that’s starting to fade in the morning sunlight, I also see a sign that says ‘Welcome to Summerset’ hanging above a bench in the empty bus stop.
Summerset? I’ve never heard of it. Not spelled this way, anyway. I take that as a good sign. This means I won’t be easily found, which is exactly what I want.
A place I’ve never heard of filled with people I don’t know. Perfect.
I get on my feet and pick up my backpack. As I slip my arm into one of the straps, my gaze falls on the bassinet in the seat next to mine. In it, a baby wrapped in a pink blanket sucks on her thumb. When she sees me, she stops. Her blue eyes grow wide.
I, too, freeze in shock. What is this baby doing here? I know her father asked me to watch over her earlier at the bus stop. He said he was just going to go to the restroom. I didn’t want to. I was sleeping, actually. But it seemed everyone else had already left the bus and he had already set down the bassinet on the empty seat next to mine, wedged between two armrests. The baby was asleep, so I said yes. I was sure he wasn’t going to take long, so I went back to sleep too. I thought the baby would be gone not just from my side but from the bus by the time I woke up. And yet, she’s still here. Right beside me. Right where her father left her.
