"Everything I remember from that moment was strange..."
"I remember... the pain..."
"Waking up startled without knowing what had frightened me so deeply in my sleep..."
"They finally told me what was happening..."
"It was strange... I couldn't bring myself to believe them... it couldn't be true..."
"It was too hard for me to take in... I collapsed... mummy Nifah made the decision to shield me from that pain... from that sadness... from that grief... that I could not bear..."
"What's ironic is that I remember the monster responsible for all of this, his face was burned into my mind... he haunted my nightmares... terrifying me from the deepest part of my being without me understanding why..."
"Despite mummy's good intentions... the truth can never truly be hidden... but it can be shaped..."
"...maybe that's what saved my life."
.....
A woman was running frantically through the hospital hallways, her face filled with worry. She finally found the reception desk and rushed straight to the receptionist without wasting a second.
Trying as best she could to catch her breath. She was there after the hospital had called her to inform her of her daughter's accident.
"Huh..."
She turned to face the doctors, not understanding the situation.
"You said my child had been in an accident..."
They looked at each other. It didn't take long for the truth to come to light.
"I am sincerely sorry, ma'am." The person in charge did nothing but apologize.
"A mistake... a mix-up?"
A mix-up whose cause was found very quickly. The father's name listed as the emergency contact for both children had led them to the wrong mother of the child currently between life and death in intensive care. The mother of that child was-
She didn't quite know what to do with that information.
From fear to confusion, she felt like she was on a rollercoaster.
Ring- Ring- Ring-
Beep
"What is it, Nifah?" She heard that voice, the one that made every hair on her body stand on end out of pure disgust.
She still couldn't understand how she had ever been so blind.
"Your daughter had an accident..., Damien..." she said after a moment, her voice dripping with contempt for the person on the other end.
"Oh really..." the man's voice was calm, cold, glacial. The disdain could be heard right through the phone.
Nifah composed herself, trying to stay calm, and explained the situation.
Just when she thought this man could not repulse her any more, his response proved her wrong.
"Oh... what wonderful news. Keep me informed of her death."
The call dropped. She didn't know who had ended it. All she was aware of in that moment was that she was currently vomiting into the nearby trash can.
...
"Imagine... waking up with strangers all around you. I was in bad shape, really bad shape. I was in pain, I was terrified. I didn't understand..."
"But I figured it out very quickly... I had been in an accident... with my m... mother?"
"I didn't know what they were talking about, who was talking to me. The diagnosis came back as partial amnesia... she was the only part I had forgotten. If I forced my brain to remember other things I could, despite the headaches, but her..."
"She was like a shadow from the past that I couldn't bring into focus..."
"Mummy decided to adopt me, finding me an orphan I had no one left... I had my paternal family but the traumas I had endured pushed me to reject that connection. I was all the more bound to mummy at that moment. I didn't want to be separated from her. It took me over a year to recover – not completely, but enough to function in daily life. Alex tried to earn my trust little by little, and it worked."
"The more time passed, the more my memories of the accident and of before the accident faded, as if they were being locked away one by one in a vault. That didn't make the therapy sessions easier later on. But I was healing... and here I am years later with memories that keep surfacing, tormenting my whole being endlessly..."
"...I carry the weight of her death within me and I cannot free myself from it..."
"To allow us to grow, and especially to allow me to grow. I found Chloé again. I met Jay. I lost Chloé again with the accident that took her parents. I then met Amari, who helped me get through the relentless bullying we were facing, only to lose her in the end...."
"Tragedy after Tragedy... the feeling of never being allowed a moment's peace..."
"Here I am, lost, with memories resurfacing... one nightmare after another... it truly never ends..."
"I can even picture being two years old and being hit by the sperm donor, for a reason I can't comprehend... my mother stepping in and ending up beaten for it..."
"I lived in constant fear... my mother protected me but I could do nothing to help her.... I was too weak..."
"On top of the abuse, I remember that the night before we left, I had reached my limit with all of it. I couldn't stand watching my mother suffer anymore so I stepped in. I questioned him on why he didn't stay out with those women and his friends, why he didn't act like the loser he was out there instead of coming home to hurt my mother."
"He was surprised."
"But I paid very close attention to details... unfortunately. It was no longer a secret. It hurt his ego to have his weakness exposed by me."
"The look he gave me that day, and I believe that's what finally pushed my mother to find the courage to run... to protect me from the monster who was my sperm donor."
"I was foolish, I was weak."
"You were just a child." The therapist said gently. Harmonie raised her head and looked at her.
"You were just a child. A baby." She repeated.
"Yes. I was just a child." Harmonie murmured. "That baby is now the main character of my nightmares..."