Chapter 9 - Hospital Garden
One year after the corridor assault, Mara brought Oliver to the hospital garden.
Not the main lobby.
Not the executive wing.
A small courtyard patients used when they needed sunlight without an audience.
Adrian met them there with coffee.
He handed one cup to Mara.
She raised an eyebrow.
“No spilling?”
He looked pained.
“Too soon.”
She smiled.
Oliver sat in the stroller, chewing on a soft blue toy with intense concentration.
Adrian crouched in front of him.
“Hello, Dr. Oliver.”
Mara laughed.
“He’s not becoming a doctor just because you want a legacy.”
Adrian looked up.
“I want him to become kind. If he’s also brilliant, that’s genetics.”
“Modest.”
“Accurate.”
Oliver threw the toy onto the path.
Adrian picked it up immediately.
Mara watched them.
Her father, once unreachable behind hospital walls.
Her son, alive because one day the wrong woman put her foot on the wrong body in the wrong corridor.
Mara touched the scar of memory beneath her ribs.
May you like
Not visible.
But there.
