Neil walked in just then, holding his coffee. He saw my face, the phone on the floor.
“What happened?”
“It’s Grace,” I whispered. “She’s at the school.”
He didn’t laugh.
He didn’t say I was imagining things.
He went pale.
Then he picked up the phone and hung it up.
“It’s a scam,” he said quickly. “AI voice cloning. People can fake anything now. Don’t go.”
But his voice wasn’t calm.
It was scared.
When I grabbed my keys, he stepped in front of the door.
“You can’t go,” he said. “Please.”
“Please what, Neil?” I snapped. “She’s dead. Why are you afraid of a ghost… unless she isn’t one?”
He didn’t answer.
I pushed past him and left.
The drive is a blur. I don’t remember traffic lights or turns. Just the feeling that if I didn’t get there fast enough, she would disappear again.
I ran into the school.
“She’s in the principal’s office,” the receptionist said quietly.
I didn’t knock.
I opened the door.
And everything inside me stopped.
She was sitting there.
Older. Thinner.
But it was her.
“Mom?” she whispered.
I dropped to my knees and pulled her into my arms.
She was warm.
Real.
Alive.
“My baby,” I cried. “I thought you were gone.”
She held onto me like she was afraid I’d vanish.
“Why didn’t you come for me?” she asked.
I froze.
“What?”
“I waited,” she said, her voice breaking. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
Something inside me shattered.
Before I could speak, the door opened behind us.
Neil.
Grace turned slowly.
“Dad?”
He looked at her like he’d seen a ghost.
And that’s when I knew.
He wasn’t surprised she existed.
He was terrified I found her.
I took her hand and walked out.
He followed us, trying to stop me.
“You can’t just take her.”
“Watch me.”
I didn’t go home. I didn’t trust him.
I took Grace to my sister’s house.
And then I went back.
I needed the truth.
At the hospital, everything started to unravel.
Grace had never been declared brain-dead.
There were signs. Small, but real.
Recovery was possible.
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