Despite everything, that sounded like Douglas.
“Then?”
“She said something strange.”
“What?”
He looked at me.
“She said, ‘Sometimes life replaces what we lose.’”
The room fell silent.
My skin prickled.
Lucas sat down.
“Nine months before I was born.”
Elena held his shoulder.
“That could be coincidence.”
“Maybe.”
But none of us believed coincidence had much room left in this story.
I looked toward the cassette tape.
HANNAH — ALONE.
My mother’s voice was waiting inside it.
Maybe the answer was there.
I walked to the cabinet.
“Are you sure?” Lucas asked.
I picked up the tape.
“No.”
Then I put it into the recorder.
“But I’m done letting fear choose for me.”
Douglas watched.
I pressed PLAY.
Static filled the room.
Then a click.
A breath.
And my mother’s voice.
Twelve years dead.
Yet suddenly so near I nearly turned around expecting to see her.
“Hannah.”
