The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 366

Garrison set his chopsticks down and rested his hands on the table, his fingers curling inward slightly.

Hearing Archie's words sent a suffocating wave of despair crashing through his chest. For a moment, he had absolutely no idea what to say.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about the future. He planned to wait until Sloane had fully physically recovered, until her memories naturally resurfaced, until her mental state was completely stable. Then, he would finally sit Archie down and tell him: *Your mother never abandoned you. She was just sleeping in another place, and now she's finally awake.*

But now was not the time.

Sloane had only just completed her second round of targeted therapy. Her memories were still violently anchored to her junior year of college. She didn't even know she had given birth to a child.

Dropping that bombshell right now would be an unimaginably catastrophic blow to both of them.

"Archie... if... I mean, if you did dream about Mom, what would you say to her?" Garrison asked gently, testing the waters.

"I'd want to tell her... I'm sorry."

Archie looked back down, lightly poking at a piece of sweet omelet with his chopsticks, flipping it over and over without ever bringing it to his mouth. "Back then... I was so mean to her. I did a lot of bad things."

Garrison's brow twitched sharply. "What kind of bad things?"

"I... I was little. I didn't understand." He paused, clearly struggling to piece the words together. "Quinn told me Mom didn't want me anymore, so I believed her."

"Later, there was this one time she came back to see me. I hid upstairs and refused to go down. Quinn asked me why I wouldn't go downstairs and call her Mom, and I told her... I said she wasn't my mom. My real mom would never throw me away. She definitely heard me."

"She was standing right at the bottom of the stairs. She definitely heard me."

Archie dropped his chopsticks completely. He looked up at Garrison, his eyes rimmed red and his lips trembling violently. It looked as though it took every ounce of strength in his body to force the next words out.

"But she didn't throw me away. It was... it was Grandma who wouldn't let her come see me. Grandma wouldn't let her live with me. I didn't find out until way later..."

"And when that day comes... you can look her in the eyes and tell her you're sorry. Deal?"

"Deal."

*

Meanwhile.

Quinn clutched the portable liquid nitrogen cooler tightly in her hands. She pressed it against her chest, using the front flaps of her trench coat to conceal it completely.

Standing just inside the lab doors, she took a slow, deep breath.

The hallway was dead silent, making the frantic hammering of her own heart sound deafening in her ears.