บท 429: GENTLE WARMTH

"Your mother is dying!"

Those words played inside my head over and over again till it was the only thing I could hear. Eventually, it sounded distant and in it place was replaced by a throbbing headache.

I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of Ivan's mouth. He had mentioned my mother, a mother whom I had believed to be nonexistent. My husband had always told me that I was an orphan, that I had no family to speak of. And now, here was this stranger, telling me that not only did I have a mother, but that she was dying.

Confusion and disbelief surged through me, making it difficult to process the conflicting information. I felt torn between the words of my husband and the stranger before me. Who was telling the truth? Who could I trust?

The room seemed to spin, and I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me. I needed to escape, to find some semblance of clarity amidst the chaos that had suddenly consumed my world.