CHAPTER 3: THE GIRL WHO WAITED
The next morning, Maya didn’t show up to class.
Instead, Ethan found her behind the old gym building.
She was sitting on a bench, prosthetic leg slightly tilted, staring at nothing.
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” she said without looking up.
“I didn’t follow you,” Ethan replied. “I just… needed answers.”
A long silence.
Then Maya finally spoke:
“You were nine years old when your parents took you away from the coastal shelter after the fire.”
Ethan flinched.
“There was no fire in my records.”
“That’s because your records were rewritten.”
She turned to him slowly.
And for the first time, her expression cracked—not sadness, but exhaustion.
“I looked for you for six years, Ethan. Not because I wanted to. Because I promised I would.”
His voice lowered.
“Who are you to me?”
Maya hesitated.
May you like
Then she said the words that shattered everything:
“I’m the reason you’re alive.”
