Letting go

Alanna

Sometimes, the truth you’ve been running from is the very thing that will break you.

The air felt too thick as I left my mother’s hospital room, every step heavier than the last. My mind spun, trying to piece together the fragments of the truth she had just thrown at me—truths I wasn’t ready for, truths that ripped at the foundation of everything I thought I knew.

How could she say I wasn’t her daughter? How could she look me in the eyes, in what were supposed to be her final moments, and drop that bomb on me? And my father, cold and distant, just asked me to leave. As if everything wasn’t already falling apart. I stumbled through the sterile hallways, trying to catch my breath, feeling like the ground was crumbling beneath me.

I needed to get out of here, out of this suffocating place, away from these people who suddenly felt like strangers.

But just as I rounded the corner, I nearly collided with Chloe. Her eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed as a sly, malicious smile