The Ghost Of Yesterday
1237 Words
ATHENA'S POV
"Who...am I?"
The question echoed through the empty room as though the walls themselves were asking it back.
My entire body trembled.
Mama.
The word had slipped from my lips so naturally that it frightened me.
I didn't remember my mother. I couldn't.
I had spent my entire life believing I had been abandoned before I was old enough to remember anything. The foster homes had never spoken much about my parents, and I stopped asking questions years ago when I realized no one had the answers I was searching for.
So why had that woman's voice felt more familiar than my own?
My princess.
I squeezed my eyes shut as tears slipped down my cheeks.
It felt real.
Too real.
The warmth in her voice hadn't felt like a memory I had imagined. It felt like something I had lived.
"Athena?"
I jerked at the sound of my name.
Dominic stood at the doorway, his expression immediately hardening when his eyes landed on my tear-stained face.
"What happened?"
His gaze drifted towards the music box before returning to me.
"I don't know," I whispered honestly. "I opened it and suddenly..."
My breathing became uneven once more.
"I remembered something."
For the briefest moment, something flashed across his face.
Hope.
"What did you remember?"
"A woman."
He slowly walked towards me.
"Who was she?"
"I don't know."
The words tasted bitter on my tongue.
"She called me her princess."
Silence filled the room.
"And?"
"I called her Mama."
Dominic's eyes widened almost imperceptibly before his expression softened.
"Do you remember her face?"
I shook my head.
"No."
"Anything else?"
"There was laughter."
My voice broke slightly as I continued.
"She brushed my hair and told me she was proud of me."
The tears I had been trying so desperately to hold back finally escaped.
"Why does it hurt so much if I don't even remember her?"
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then something warm settled against my shoulders.
I blinked down at the suit jacket Dominic had draped around me.
"You don't have to remember everything today."
His voice was quieter than usual.
"Healing isn't a race, Athena."
Healing.
The word almost made me laugh.
What if there was nothing left of me to heal?
"What if I don't like the person I used to be?" I asked softly.
His brows furrowed.
"What if I hurt people? What if there's a reason no one has ever come looking for me?"
For the first time since I met Dominic Vale, I saw uncertainty cross his features.
"I don't believe that."
"You don't know me."
"No," he agreed quietly. "But I know the woman who cried because Ethan scraped his knee."
I blinked.
"I know the woman who spent twenty minutes convincing him that dinosaurs probably snored while he was terrified about his first day back at school."
A small smile tugged at my lips despite myself.
"And I know the woman who nearly fainted because she forgot she was allergic to strawberries."
I laughed softly at the memory.
He smiled faintly before continuing.
"You've spent your entire life believing you're difficult to love, Athena."
My smile slowly faded.
"But if there's one thing I've learned about you, it's that you're wrong."
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
No one had ever said something like that to me before.
Not once in twenty-six years.
Before I could respond, a small voice interrupted us.
"I agree."
We both turned towards the doorway.
Ethan stood there with his arms folded over his chest in what was probably his attempt at looking intimidating.
"Daddy cries whenever I get sick."
Dominic nearly choked.
"I do not."
"You do."
"I don't."
"You made pancakes shaped like dinosaurs because I had the flu."
Dominic looked horrified.
"That was one time."
"And you cried when Mr Buttons died."
"Mr Buttons was a goldfish!"
"He was family!"
I laughed before I could stop myself.
The sound surprised all three of us.
It had been so long since laughter came so easily.
Ethan suddenly climbed onto the chair beside me before taking my hand in his smaller one.
"You know what I think?"
"What?"
He smiled brightly.
"I think you've forgotten that you're nice."
Something inside my chest tightened painfully.
Forgotten.
The word shouldn't have affected me as much as it did.
"You think so?"
He nodded enthusiastically.
"Yep!"
"How do you know?"
"Because whenever you're sad, you're still worried about everyone else."
I looked away before the tears gathering in my eyes could betray me once again.
Children really did see things adults didn't.
That evening, after Ethan had been tucked into bed, Dominic sat alone inside his study staring at the documents Jeff had sent him.
Incomplete foster records.
Missing hospital reports.
No birth certificate.
No official records before the age of six.
It was impossible.
People didn't simply disappear.
Not unless someone wanted them to.
His phone suddenly rang.
Jeff.
Dominic immediately answered.
"Tell me you found something."
"I did."
There was an unfamiliar tension in Jeff's voice that immediately put Dominic on edge.
"What is it?"
"I expanded the search."
"And?"
"I found something strange."
Dominic straightened in his seat.
"What?"
"There was a police report filed twenty years ago involving a missing child."
His grip around his phone tightened.
"What does that have to do with Athena?"
Jeff was silent for several seconds.
"The description matches her."
Dominic's expression hardened immediately.
"What else?"
"The case was closed less than forty-eight hours later."
"Why?"
"Because the child was reported dead."
Silence.
Dominic slowly rose to his feet.
"Dead?"
"Yes."
"Then that's impossible."
"That's what I thought too."
Jeff hesitated before speaking once more.
"There's something else."
Dominic's instincts immediately screamed that he wasn't going to like whatever came next.
"What?"
"The child belonged to one of the wealthiest families in Canada."
For the first time in years, Dominic felt genuine unease settle over him.
"What family?"
Jeff slowly exhaled.
"The Von Blackwell family."
The colour drained from Dominic's face.
"The report states that their six-year-old daughter died alongside her parents in an accident."
Dominic froze.
Six years old.
Athena's earliest missing records began around that age.
"It gets worse," Jeff continued quietly.
"The photographs attached to the police report are missing."
Dominic slowly clenched his jaw.
"Someone removed them?"
"Yes."
"And Dominic..."
"What?"
"The accident report was altered."
His expression darkened immediately.
"Meaning?"
"There were originally four victims."
Dominic felt his heartbeat quicken.
"But?"
"But only three bodies were recovered."
For the first time since beginning his investigation, Dominic found himself afraid of discovering the truth.
"Who was never found?" he asked quietly.
Jeff's answer came almost immediately.
"Catherine Von Blackwell."
At that exact moment, upstairs, Athena opened the drawer beside her bed in search of her medicine.
Something small caught her attention.
A photograph had somehow slipped beneath the drawer.
Frowning, she pulled it out carefully.
The colour immediately drained from her face.
It was a picture of a smiling little girl wearing a golden dress beside an elegant couple.
The same golden dress from her memory.
Written neatly at the back of the photograph were six simple words.
Happy Sixth Birthday, Our Princess Catherine.
The photograph slipped from her trembling fingers as another memory crashed violently into her mind.
And somewhere deep within the fragments of her forgotten life, Catherine Von Blackwell finally began to awaken.
- Writer
