“I guess I have an actual birthdate,” I murmur.
“I got to keep you for the longest,” she says with a smile. “Until you were 3 years old. That’s when I had to go with Steve and leave you with the Hamiltons. I made Colleen promise she would look after you as if you were hers.”
“She did.” I leave out the part about almost dying of malnutrition.
It seems like that was on Barrister. Colleen still did whatever she could.
I know I wouldn’t have survived if she hadn’t helped me.
I could have been sold to a creep.
That didn’t happen.
“After that …” she sighs. “I don’t remember everything. I’ve been in this room for a long time. Almost 24 years, I guess. I’ll be 47 on my next birthday. I know that.”
That means she had me when she was 20 years old.
She was so young when she was stolen.
“When’s your next birthday?”
“It’s the 1st of January. The New Year’s Eve countdown always felt special to me.”
She pulls out a thin trenchcoat and slips it on over her dress.
“I wondered if I’d ever get to wear this again. Still fits like a glove.”
She pulls out the rest of the items from the closet and sets them down on the sheet.
Then, she moves around to where her baby is sitting ready to go in her carrier.
“I think that’s everything. I guess I should give you a new name, little one.”
She looks at the baby and for a moment I’m sure she’s about to cry.
It makes a lump grow in my own throat.
“I get to keep you. Thank God for that.”
She looks back at us. “Okay. Let’s get out of this basement. I never want to see it again.”
Falcon picks up her bundle of personal items, and I lead us out of the basement.
My mother seems so happy when we get outside.
She stops and looks up at the sky.
“It’s the moon, little one. What do you think about that?”
She sighs as she looks around. “It’s so pretty out here.”
“It’s even prettier in Cressidan City,” I tell her, making her smile.
“Wait. Is that where you live? Are we headed back to the city?”
She sounds so excited.
“It is. It might not be what you expect, but it is the city.
