The Name They Never Spoke
1108 Words
The words refused to leave me.
They told us you were dead.
I heard them over and over again, even though the room had fallen silent.
No one argued.
No one denied it.
The Alpha stood as still as stone, his jaw locked so tightly I thought it might crack.
Mara's hands were clasped tightly in front of her. Her knuckles had turned white, and she wouldn't meet my eyes.
And the rogue...
He watched me with a sadness that settled somewhere deep beneath my ribs.
I searched every face in the room.
Someone.
Anyone.
Tell me he was lying.
Tell me this was another riddle.
Another half-truth wrapped in mystery.
No one spoke.
The silence answered for them.
My mouth had gone dry.
"I don't understand."
The words barely sounded like my own.
"Who told you I was dead?"
The rogue lowered his gaze.
"I can't answer that."
"Can't..."
I swallowed against the lump in my throat.
"...or won't?"
A tired smile touched the corner of his mouth.
"Both."
Frustration flared inside me.
Every answer seemed to lead to another locked door.
Another secret.
Another reason everyone looked at me with pity instead of honesty.
"Then tell me something."
My voice cracked.
"Anything."
The rogue studied me for a long moment, as though weighing every word before he spoke.
"What do you remember about your mother?"
The question caught me off guard.
It hurt more than I expected.
I looked down at my hands.
"Almost nothing."
The confession tasted like failure.
"I remember..."
I squeezed my eyes shut.
"...lavender."
The scent drifted through my memory, so faintly I almost lost it.
Soft.
Warm.
Comforting.
"And..."
My throat tightened.
"A song."
The words came out as little more than a whisper.
"I don't even know if it's real anymore."
I opened my eyes.
"I don't remember her face."
The room fell into another painful silence.
The rogue closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, they shimmered in the lantern light.
"You were very small."
I nodded.
"I know."
"No."
He shook his head gently.
"You were loved."
The words struck with the force of a blow.
Loved.
Not tolerated.
Not forgotten.
Loved.
The air caught in my lungs.
For nineteen years, I'd wondered.
Had she wanted me?
Had she held me?
Had she looked at me the way mothers looked at their children?
Or had I simply been another burden left behind?
The rogue seemed to read every question crossing my face.
"She loved you with everything she had."
A tear escaped before I realized I was crying.
It slipped down my cheek, warm against cool skin.
I hurried to wipe it away, embarrassed by how quickly I'd broken.
But another followed.
Then another.
Mara blinked rapidly, tears spilling freely down her cheeks.
Across the room, the Alpha lowered his head.
His shoulders seemed heavier than they had only moments before.
Neither of them interrupted.
Neither of them denied his words.
Which somehow made them feel even more real.
I drew a shaky breath.
"What was her name?"
The question trembled as it left my lips.
The rogue looked toward Mara.
She gave the smallest nod.
Then he looked at the Alpha.
For several long seconds, the Alpha didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't speak.
Finally...
His eyes closed.
Just once.
A silent surrender.
When he opened them again, he gave the faintest nod.
The rogue turned back to me.
"The woman who gave you life..."
He paused, almost reverently.
"...was named Talia."
The name settled over the room like the season's first snowfall.
Soft.
Quiet.
Impossible to ignore.
"Talia."
I whispered it carefully.
Rolling each syllable across my tongue.
As though saying it aloud might somehow pull her closer.
No one corrected me.
No one told me to stop.
For nineteen years...
No one had ever spoken my mother's name in front of me.
Not once.
A strange warmth spread through my chest.
It lasted only a heartbeat before grief rushed in behind it.
How could I miss someone I'd never truly known?
Yet I did.
I missed her with an ache so deep it felt older than I was.
"What was she like?"
The question escaped before I could stop it.
The rogue smiled sadly.
"Kind."
There wasn't a moment's hesitation.
"Braver than anyone realized."
His gaze drifted somewhere beyond the walls of the treatment room.
"As stubborn as the mountains."
A watery laugh escaped me.
"I wonder where I got that."
For the first time...
The rogue smiled without sadness.
"You don't have to wonder."
I looked toward Mara.
She wasn't trying to hide her tears anymore.
They flowed freely down her face.
Not because she was weak.
Because remembering Talia still hurt.
Even after all these years.
The Alpha remained silent.
But something inside him had shifted.
The hard lines that had always defined his face had softened.
Regret.
It settled over him like an old wound reopening.
For the first time in my life...
He didn't look like the Alpha.
He looked like a man haunted by everything he had lost.
I pressed my trembling hand against my chest.
"Talia."
This time, her name felt different.
Not like the name of a stranger.
Not like a story.
Like the first piece of someone who had belonged to me all along.
The rogue leaned back against the pillows.
The effort of speaking had drained what little strength he had left.
Before sleep claimed him, he looked at me one last time.
"You've waited nineteen years to learn her name."
His voice was barely more than a whisper.
"The rest of her story..."
His eyelids fluttered closed.
"...is worth waiting for."
His breathing evened.
The room remained perfectly still.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Because somehow...
One name had changed everything.
I stared at the sleeping rogue, my heart refusing to slow.
Talia.
My mother's name echoed through my mind with every heartbeat.
For nineteen years, no one had thought I deserved even that.
But a name wasn't enough.
I wanted to know her laugh.
The sound of her voice.
The color of her eyes.
I wanted to know why speaking about her felt forbidden.
And more than anything...
I wanted to know why someone had convinced the world I was dead.
The questions circled my mind like wolves in the dark.
Relentless.
Patient.
Waiting.
For the first time in my life, I knew I wasn't going to stop searching.
Not now.
Not ever.
Because my mother was no longer just a forgotten memory.
She was Talia.
And somewhere inside the truth everyone had hidden...
I was certain she was still waiting for me.
- Writer
