Chapter 4

Sleep was a fickle mistress that night. Every time I closed my eyes, fragments of the past flashed behind my eyelids-a blinding flash, the screech of tires, the smell of burning rubber, the sickening crunch of metal. The memories were a relentless tide, pulling me back into the abyss. And with each wave of recollection, the cold, hard knot of hatred in my chest grew tighter, more suffocating.

To escape the torment, I started moving, tidying my small, dilapidated room. It was a futile effort, a desperate attempt to impose order on a life that had none. In a forgotten corner, beneath a thin layer of dust, sat a cardboard box. It was taped shut, proclaiming in faded marker: "Memories." A cruel joke.

I heaved the box, its contents shifting with a soft thud. As I set it down, something heavier inside clunked against the side, then tumbled out. A picture frame. It hit the concrete floor with a sharp, sickening crack. The glass shattered, splintering into a thousand shards, each one reflecting the dim light of my room like a broken promise.

It was a family photo. Me, Jace, and Annamarie. My Annamarie. We were smiling, posed awkwardly in front of a brightly lit Christmas tree. A relic from a life that felt like a dream, or a nightmare.

Annamarie wasn't my biological child. Jace and I had been married for two years when he decided he didn't want children, claiming he was "too sensitive to pain" to witness childbirth. I respected his choice, even got a tubal ligation to show my commitment. We were meant to be a family, just the two of us. Until that snowy Christmas Eve.

I found Annamarie in a dumpster behind the hospital. A newborn, umbilical cord still attached, crying with a weak, desperate whimper that clawed at my soul. Jace had recoiled, pulling me away, muttering about "not getting involved." But I couldn't leave him. Not a living, breathing being, discarded like trash.

I wrapped the tiny, shivering bundle in my coat, holding him close, trying to transfer my body heat into his fragile form. I ran through the biting snow, back to the hospital, pleading for help. They saved him, barely. But his legs were twisted, a congenital defect that would forever mark him.

I brought him home, named him Annamarie. I told Jace, told myself, that this was our child. Our only child.

Jace never truly warmed to him. He saw Annamarie's disability as a burden, a social blight. He worried about what people would say. But I loved that boy with every fiber of my being. I scoured every hospital in the city, searching for a cure, a treatment for his legs. All the doctors could offer was painful, expensive physical therapy, with no guarantee of full recovery. At night, when the pain made Annamarie cry, I walked the floors, holding him close, singing lullabies until he finally drifted off. I taught him his ABCs, carried him on my shoulders to see the stars, whispered to him every day that he was the best, the bravest boy in the world, to make sure he never felt inferior because of his legs.

And then, one day, he called me "Mom." That single word brought a joy to my heart that I hadn't known was possible. A pure, unadulterated happiness. I poured everything into Annamarie, every ounce of my love, my time, my meager savings. He was my world.