The room became unbearably quiet.
Not the peaceful kind of silence.
The cruel kind.
The kind that forces pain to sit in front of everyone without mercy.
Leon stood frozen beside the bed.
Still smiling slightly.
Still waiting for his father to recognize him.
But Gabriel only looked confused.
Nothing more.
“…Whose child is that?” he asked again weakly.
Naomi felt something collapse inside her chest.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Like a final thread finally snapping after years of holding too much weight.
Eleanor immediately turned away, covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes again.
Even the doctors looked uncomfortable now.
No one knew what to say.
Because there are some pains words only make worse.
Leon slowly looked toward Naomi.
Confused.
Afraid.
“Mother…?”
That one word nearly destroyed her.
Naomi forced herself to move.
Forced herself to breathe.
She walked toward Leon carefully and gently pulled him against her side protectively.
“It’s okay,” she whispered shakily.
But nothing about this was okay.
Gabriel watched them silently.
Trying to understand why the atmosphere suddenly felt so heavy.
“I’m sorry,” he said weakly. “I feel like I should know you…”
Naomi looked at him.
Really looked at him.
The same face she loved.
The same voice she waited years to hear again.
And yet…
he felt farther away than ever before.
Because losing someone to death is painful.
But losing someone while they’re still alive?
That kind of grief is different.
Crueler.
The doctor cleared his throat carefully.
“Mr. Baker suffered severe neurological trauma,” he explained gently. “Memory loss in cases like this can be unpredictable.”
Unpredictable.
Naomi almost laughed bitterly.
After everything life had already taken from her…
of course it would take this too.
Gabriel looked toward her again.
“Were you… close to me?”
The question stabbed straight through her...