Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T DISAPPEAR
Mave took a leave of absence from the building.
She needed time.
Time to help Finn relocate temporarily.
Time to meet with investigators.
Time to understand what had happened to her father.
And time to decide what kind of life she wanted after the truth came out.
For years, she'd believed her job was simply to survive.
Now she wanted more.
She enrolled in an occupational therapy consultation.
She began attending hand rehabilitation sessions again.
And she started writing.
Not in her little blue notebook.
In a larger one.
A journal.
At first, she wrote about the fire.
Then about her father.
Then about the years she'd spent hiding her hands.
One evening, Finn found her at the kitchen table.
She was staring at a blank page.
"What are you writing?"
Mave smiled.
"Something."
He looked at the notebook.
"About Dad?"
She nodded.
Finn sat beside her.
"Can I read it?"
"Not yet."
He smiled.
"Fair."
Then he looked at her hands.
"Maeve?"
She glanced up.
"You know you don't have to wear gloves around me."
She laughed softly.
"I know."
He hesitated.
"Or anyone."
Mave looked down.
Her scars were pale beneath the kitchen light.
The curled fingers remained.
They always would.
For years, she'd treated them like evidence of something shameful.
Now she touched the old burn marks.
And remembered what they truly meant.
She had survived.
She had saved her brother.
She had carried pain and kept living.
Mave looked at Finn.
May you like
Then smiled.
"Maybe it's time I stopped hiding."
