Chapter14
Time had been the greatest healer.
Before I knew it, my first birthday had arrived.
So much had happened in that single year.
Linda Parker was sentenced to mandatory psychiatric treatment at Northcrest State Psychiatric Hospital.
The court ruled that her attempted assault, compounded by a diagnosis of severe paranoid personality disorder, left her unfit for prison.
For her, perhaps that was the best ending-at least she would no longer be consumed by hatred.
Brandon Harrington, my uncle, wasn’t so fortunate.
He was convicted for his bullying that had led to Jack’s death, along with later financial crimes. He was sent to prison. Harrington Holdings suffered a devastating blow, and my grandfather Edward seemed to age ten years overnight.
But within our small family, after all the storms, the bonds only grew stronger and warmer.
My first birthday party was simple—just the four of us.
Grandma Margaret prepared a table full of dishes.
Dad bought a beautiful birthday cake.
And Mom-Mom knitted me a sweater with her own hands, a soft buttery yellow with a slightly crooked
little duck stitched on the front.
“It’s time for the traditional first-birthday picking game. Let’s see what our birthday girl will choose for her
future!” Grandma laid out the items she’d prepared: a book, a paintbrush, an abacus, and, at Dad’s
insistence, a stethoscope.
I sat on the carpet, glancing at one item, then another.
And finally, under everyone’s eager gaze, I stretched out my little hand and grabbed… my mother’s finger.
I held on tight and beamed up at her with a grin as if I’d just found treasure.
“Mommy!”
It was the first word I ever spoke.
Clear. Bright. Undeniable.
Mom’s eyes instantly filled with tears.
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She scooped me up and hugged me so tightly it felt as if she could make me part of herself.
“Yes, sweetheart. Mommy’s here.” Her voice broke, her tears soaking into my hair. “Mommy’s here.”
Dad and Grandma both clapped, their eyes glistening as they laughed through their tears.
In the soft candlelight, Mom’s face glowed, soft and tender.
Her gaze held no shadows from the past, no terror of the future-only love and hope.
I knew then the so-called “death at three” had been shattered.
The moment Mom chose to protect me, fate’s path had been rewritten.
Two years later, on my third birthday, the sky was brilliantly clear.
Mom and Dad took me to Northcrest Fun Park.
Dressed in a princess dress Mom had bought me, I sat atop a carousel horse, waving furiously at them.
Mom stood in the sunlight, looking up at me with a gentle smile.
Beside her stood Dad, smiling just as warmly.
They looked like the happiest, most ordinary parents in the world.
And in that moment, the darkness and terror of my fall in my past life were erased-burned away by
sunlight.
I looked down at Mom and shouted, “Mommy, I love you!”
She froze for a heartbeat, then her face bloomed with a smile brighter than the sun itself.
Her lips formed the words back to me. Mommy loves you too.
When the carousel slowed to a stop, I leapt off the horse and threw myself into her arms.
“Mommy,” I whispered, burying my face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her familiar, comforting scent. In a soft, childish voice, I finally spoke the words I had carried across two lifetimes. “Thank you… for giving me life.”
Thank you, Mom.
Thank you, in this life, for fighting with everything you had to choose me.
Because of you, because of us together, we defeated “fate.”
I felt her arms tighten around me, and the brush of a gentle kiss landed at my ear.
Chapter 14
And I knew-this was the real ending to our story.
No destined tragedy.
Only love and courage, weaving a brand-new beginning, full of hope.
