Someone Else’s Life by Butler Lyn Liao

Author:Butler, Lyn Liao
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2023-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

23

Annie marched out of the bathroom, her face resolute, ready to get to the bottom of this. There had to be a very good explanation. She trusted Serena, she really did. Maybe she’d told Serena these details when she was talking about the past and had forgotten. But that thought was scary too, because it would only reinforce that she was doing things she didn’t remember. Feeling a buzz of adrenaline rush through her body, she walked toward Serena, determined to get some answers.

But she halted when she found the woman huddled in a corner of the couch, her knees drawn to her chest. She’d bunched up her napkin and was crying into it, so softly that at first, Annie wasn’t sure what she was doing.

She went to her side. “Serena, what’s wrong? I’m sorry my friends were rude. We weren’t trying to hurt your feelings.” Annie touched her on the shoulder.

Serena raised her tearstained face. “It’s not you guys.” Tears dripped down her face and into her arms, which were crossed over her knees. She pointed to her phone. “I was just scrolling through my phone and saw pictures of my son. It made me sad.”

Annie sat next to Serena. “Your son? You have kids?” She hadn’t mentioned she had a son when they were talking about Finn.

Serena buried her face back into her arms so that her answer came out muffled. “I had a son. He died when he was almost a year old.”

Annie gazed at her new friend in dismay. What should she say? That had to be a parent’s worst nightmare. What words of comfort could she possibly give to someone who’d lost her baby? And this poor woman had already been through so much in her life. Annie’s head was fuzzy from the wine and this revelation, and she scrambled to find the right words.

“I’m so sorry.” That was all Annie could think of, hoping she could convey the depth of her sympathy with those three words.

“Thanks.” Serena picked up her head to look at Annie, her mascara pooling under her eyes. “He would have been four now. It was awful.”

“I’m sure it was.” Annie’s forehead wrinkled with concern. Impulsively, she reached out and hugged Serena, who clung to her for a moment. “Same age as Finn.” Her heart broke a little, thinking about losing Finn. “What happened? Do you want to talk about it?”

Serena pulled away and wiped her eyes with the napkin. “His name was Johnny. Danny and I were so proud of him. We weren’t married . . . I told you that. I got pregnant by accident, but we both wanted him. We were going to have such a great life together.” She sighed, the depth of her grief filling the room. “I found him in his crib a month before his first birthday. He wasn’t breathing. He was gone.”

“I’m so, so sorry.” Annie couldn’t think of anything else to say and winced at how trite the words sounded. “What a horrible thing to have happened to you.

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