Chapter 18
When Anna was sixteen, she asked to visit Vanessa.
Rachel opposed it at first.
I did too.
Anna listened to us.
Then she said, “You both keep telling me I own my story.”
We stopped arguing.
The visit took place through thick glass.
Vanessa had gray in her hair.
She smiled when Anna entered.
“You look like Rachel.”
Anna sat.
“I look like me.”
The smile faded slightly.
“I raised you for almost two years.”
“You punished me for saying Mom’s name.”
“I was trying to build a relationship.”
“You locked me downstairs.”
“You were difficult.”
Anna’s hands tightened.
A therapist sat nearby.
She could end the visit at any time.
“Why did you drag me by my hair?”
Vanessa looked toward the camera.
“You broke an expensive music box.”
The music box had belonged to Rachel.
Anna had hidden the brass key inside it after Maya told her to protect it.
Vanessa caught her.
“That was why?” Anna asked.
“You knew where the key was.”
“I was four.”
“You were old enough to understand instructions.”
Anna leaned toward the glass.
“No. I was young enough to believe adults were supposed to stop when I cried.”
Vanessa said nothing.
“Do you regret it?”
“I regret losing my life.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“I was under pressure.”
“So was Noah. He stood in front of me.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“Your brother always wanted attention.”
Anna stood.
The visit had given her the answer.
Vanessa still treated a child’s protection as competition.
Before leaving, Anna said, “I thought maybe prison changed you.”
Vanessa touched the glass.
“I loved you.”
Anna shook her head.
“You loved being called Mom.”
She walked away.
In the parking lot, she cried against Rachel’s shoulder.
The visit had not produced closure.
It produced clarity.
Sometimes that was the closest thing available.
Noah chose never to visit.
He became a paramedic.
I worried he selected a rescue profession because of Anna.
He said he liked knowing what to do during emergencies.
“Back then, I was guessing.”
He trained carefully.
He attended therapy.
He refused to build his identity around being the brave brother.
He also played guitar badly and loved terrible action movies.
He was allowed to be ordinary.
Anna studied architecture.
She became interested in how buildings could trap or protect people.
For her final school project, she designed a children’s shelter with no hidden corridors and doors that opened from both sides.
The teacher called it unusually specific.
May you like
Anna smiled.
“It should be.”
