Tangled

193

193

193 Ava: Mom's Legacy (VI)

193 Ava: Mom's Legacy (VI)

Vanessa glances toward Mom's vitals, reported in real time by a monitor by her bed. "Everything looks good. Selene, do your thing."

Selene pads to the hospital bed, leaving me behind.

There's absolutely no sound or thought inside my head, and it startles me. I'd assumed that I would somehow be a part of this process; that I would hear my wolf reaching out to my mother's. Instead, I strain to hear even the slightest whisper, with no result.

Seconds stretch into minutes, and still, Selene remains motionless, her ice-blue eyes fixed on my mother's frail form. The steady beep

of the heart monitor is a metronome, a silent and rhythmic mark of time passing.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Selene shakes herself from nose to tail. Her voice echoes in my mind, a gentle

caress against my frayed nerves. Her wolf has cooperated as much as she can. A wave of relief washes over me, loosening the knot of anxiety in my chest. It's not much, but it's something. A small victory. But the respite is short-

lived. Selene's tone shifts, becoming somber and weighted with unspoken implications. Your mother doesn't know as much as we hoped, but what she does know is enough to worry me.

Her wolf won't talk to anyone else. Her mental voice is tinged with a hint of frustration. But she's very happy to hear you have a wolf of your own, Ava.

T

193 Ava: Mom's Legacy (VI)

My mother's wolf, who I've always imagined as a distant, uncaring entity, is pleased by my connection to Selene?

That's a twist I never saw coming.

Selene's next words, however, steal the breath from my lungs. It's a tiny bandaid over the thousands of wounds spent

under my mother's rule.

fal

She loves you like her own pup, Ava. And she's so very sorry for everything you've been through.

Tears sting my eyes and blur my vision as I stare at my mother's sleeping form. The machines continue their steady rhythm, oblivious to the emotional turmoil her words have brought. How can my mother's wolf claim to love me when my own mother has only ever shown me cruelty and disdain?

"Then why?" I whisper, my voice cracking under the weight of years of pain and rejection. "Why didn't she ever intervene? Why didn't she fight for my happiness?"

As if in response to my anguished plea, my mother's eyelids flutter open, her gaze seeking mine. But instead of the familiar cold blue, her irises are rimmed with a golden haze. This is not Grace Grey.

This is her wolf.

"I'm sorry," she rasps, her voice barely audible over the hum of the machines. "I wasn't strong enough to keep you safe, my pup."

Tears spill down my cheeks, hot and bitter, as I watch her eyes drift closed once more, her features slackening into the peaceful

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193 Ava: Mom's Legacy (VI)

repose of medicated slumber.

A moment.

Just a moment.

to see my mother's face

telling

And now-I have it.

a source I never

years, I'd assumed that my mother's wolf was just as cruel and uncaring as she was. I never once separated them in my

with this glimpse of remorse, I find myself

me from my reverie, her touch a gentle reminder of the present.

monitor, and it takes me a second and a lot of blinking to clear my vision

Numbers are going down.

"She's going."

Her heart beat plummets.

95. 95.

96. 92.

97.87.

98.83.

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69.69.

70.53.

Ava: Mom's

down

her, and Vanessa squeezes

that sound, like she's trying to

face never

Peaceful.

Quiet.

ghost of the woman in my

a step closer to the inevitable. Alarms blare, a cacophony

of the room. But Vanessa moves with a practiced

them one by

resuscitate. There's nothing left to

words are gentle, but they hit me like a punch to the

she

not even sure

doctor and nurse slip

to come. They take their places by the bed, their eyes fixed

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gacy (VI)

glance, a silent communication passing between them. A polite nod, a shared understanding of the gravity

And then, it happens.

and a red alarm blaring ASYSTOLE in capital letters, alerting us all

like that,

shaped me in ways I'm still

It's surreal, the way death comes so quietly, so quickly. One moment she's here. In the next,

there. He listens to her lungs, the stethoscope moving across her chest in a practiced motion. "Time of death?" he asks,

the dim light of

back from the bed. "Time of death,

pm."

on her tablet, her fingers flying across the screen as she documents the moment. It feels strange,