Kent tucked the keepsake locket I'd made with my own hands inside a drawer and never wore it again.
Slowly, methodically, father and son erased every trace of me from their lives.
And all I could do was watch.
A few days before I was discharged, my period came. I lay curled on the hospital bed, shaking from the cramps.
Kent climbed up and wrapped himself around me, pressing his warm little body against my stomach to ease the pain.
Neil called in to work and drove home to make me a pot of warm lotus seed porridge, the same recipe he'd always made.
Everything was exactly the way it used to be.
But I knew they still hadn't recognized me.
Neil lifted the spoon to my lips.
"Come on, drink it while it's hot. You'll feel better once it's in you."
It was only sweet, warm porridge. But somehow it stung my eyes until I couldn't see.
I turned my face away. "I don't want it."
Neil's hand froze around the spoon. His voice went tight.
"Isn't this your favorite? Why don't you want it all of a sudden?"
"Is your stomach bothering you?"
He was already turning to call for a doctor.
My words stopped him cold.
"Neil, I'm allergic to lotus seeds. I've never touched this stuff."