I swallowed hard. “I’m… I’m your—”
“My brother,” she finished gently.
The word hit me like a wave.
Brother.
Family.
All the years I had lost came crashing back at once.
“Is she…?” I couldn’t finish.
Lily nodded, her grip tightening around the cake box. “She’s waiting.”
That was all I needed.
“I’m coming,” I said.
We went together that evening.
The house was smaller than I remembered. Or maybe life had just made me bigger, heavier with things I couldn’t undo.
When I stepped into her room, time seemed to stop.
My mother lay in bed, frail, her once-strong frame reduced to something fragile and quiet. But when she saw me—
She smiled.
That same smile I had carried in my memory for sixteen years.
“I knew you’d come,” she whispered.
I crossed the room in two steps and fell into her arms.
“I’m sorry,” I choked out. “I’m so sorry.”
She held me as tightly as she could. “I forgave you a long time ago.”
We stayed like that for what felt like both a second and a lifetime.
