The sound shattered Cole’s frozen state. A violent tremor seized his entire body. His mother had been ripped from his life when he was merely twelve years old, and the woman huddled before him appeared as a stranger—a demolished, mutilated ghost. But that voice… that voice had been carved into the deepest part of his soul. It belonged to his mother.
“Mom!” Cole collapsed to his knees before the cage.
Summoning what meager strength remained in her wasted body, Sophie dragged herself toward the front of the cage. Their hands found each other through the frigid iron bars, fingers weaving together in a frantic, desperate clasp.
“Mom…” he gasped, the word crumbling into a broken sob. “I’m so sorry. I failed to protect you from this.”
A smile spread across Sophie’s ravaged face, tears streaming down her scarred cheeks. “No… it’s all right,” she whispered, her voice discovering a fragment of strength. “It’s more than all right. I never thought I’d see you again. To feel your hand in mine and to hear you call me ‘Mom’ today… if death claimed me tonight, I would leave this world content.”
Cole tightened his grip on her hands, as though he could anchor her to life through nothing but raw determination. “Don’t speak like that,” he begged. “You’re not going to die. I’ll tear you free from this place. I swear it.”
But Sophie refused to allow herself the cruelty of hope—not even for a fleeting moment. She understood Maxine’s nature too intimately. Escape existed only as a…
Fantasy. The euphoria of seeing her son had already dissolved, overtaken by a piercing new dread. Would he ever leave this hellish place alive?
Convinced she’d never get out, Sophie didn’t respond to Cole’s promise. Instead, she helped the frail old woman beside her step forward. “Cole, this is your grandmother.”
Aubrie Griffiths looked at Cole, her eyes unfocused and distant. Time in the cold, wet cell had stripped Aubrie of her youth, though traces of Sophie’s face still lingered in her own.
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“Grandma.” Cole greeted her with warmth and reverence.
Aubrie’s eyes shimmered as happy tears began to spill over. “Wonderful… truly wonderful. My grandson, you’ve grown up to be such a remarkable and noble man. All the suffering I went through feels worth it to see you now.”
Years back, Aubrie had risked everything to help her daughter escape, only to be thrown into this sunless dungeon by Maxine. She’d given up hope of ever seeing her family again. Now, after years of despair, she was reunited not just with Sophie but also meeting her grandson for the very first time.
The sight of her daughter, scarred and sick from Psychephrenia, cut deep into Aubrie’s soul. Yet there was comfort in knowing her grandson was strong, leading the Evans family, and, most importantly, finally free of the illness that once haunted them. For the first time, she believed the family’s torment had truly come to an end.
.
.
.