Chapter 3 - Shadows of the Past
Within hours, the hospital room buzzed with authorities. Social services arrived alongside police officers, their uniforms looking harsh and out of place against the pale pastel walls of the pediatric ward.
A kind-eyed woman named Detective Miller sat by my bedside. I was sitting cross-legged on a hospital bed that felt entirely too big, nibbling on crackers while Owen and Silas slept safely in clear plastic bassinets across the room, connected to tiny monitors that beeped in a steady, reassuring rhythm.
"Elara," Detective Miller said softly, holding a small notebook. "Do you have any family? An aunt, an uncle, grandparents? Anyone we can call?"
I swallowed hard, looking down at my bruised, scrubbed-clean fingers. "Mom said we didn't have anyone. She said our family in the city 'forgot' us when we lost the farm. It was just us against the world. That's why we moved to that old house on the hill."
Detective Miller’s expression tightened with sorrow. "Do you remember your grandparents' names? Or where they lived before?"
"Grandpa Thomas and Grandma Clara," I recited, remembering the faded photographs tucked inside Mom's leather journal—a journal I had managed to shove into my coat pocket before leaving the house. "They lived in Boston. But Mom cried every time she looked at their pictures, so I stopped asking."
Detective Miller gently touched my hand. "We're going to check, Elara. We're going to find out if there's someone out there who loves you and wants to take care of you, your mother, and your baby brothers."
"And Mom?" I asked, my voice trembling. "Is she going to go to jail for the gas leak?"
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Detective Miller smiled gently, though her eyes were shining with unshed tears. "No, sweet girl. Your mother is fighting for her life in the intensive care unit. The doctors are working miracles. But she’s strong—she has to be, because she raised a little warrior like you."
Later that night, alone in the quiet hum of the hospital room, I crept out of bed, walked over to the bassinets, and whispered a promise to my sleeping brothers. "I got you out of the house. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to us ever again."
