Chapter 16 - the morning after she finally stayed
The first few weeks after Elena came home were harder than anyone expected.
People imagined that once a missing mother returned, everything would immediately become normal.
It didn't.
Elena was home.
Sadie had her mother again.
Daphne was still beside us.
Corinne was gone.
But three years had happened between the woman who disappeared and the woman who returned.
Those years couldn't simply be erased.
Elena woke before everyone else.
Sometimes she sat in the kitchen for nearly an hour without touching her coffee.
Sometimes she checked every lock twice.
Sometimes she would stop in the hallway because a sound reminded her of the place where she had been held.
I never asked her to explain.
I had already taken enough from her by asking questions she wasn't ready to answer.
One morning, I found her sitting beside Sadie's wheelchair.
Sadie was asleep.
Elena was watching her.
"She's grown," she whispered.
I nodded.
"She missed you."
Elena swallowed.
"I missed everything."
I sat beside her.
"You're here now."
She looked at me.
"That's not the same."
"No."
She looked relieved that I didn't try to pretend otherwise.
"I don't know how to be her mother again," she admitted.
"You don't have to know today."
"What if I do something wrong?"
"You will."
She smiled faintly.
"You sound very confident."
"I've learned."
She looked toward Sadie.
"What if she remembers me differently?"
I reached for her hand.
"Then let her remember you slowly."
Elena's eyes filled.
That morning, we made a decision.
We wouldn't force a perfect reunion.
We would build a real one.
One breakfast.
One therapy appointment.
One bedtime story.
One ordinary afternoon at a time.
May you like
Because after everything Corinne had stolen, the last thing I wanted to steal from Elena was the right to heal at her own pace.
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