---- Chapter 16 Harper Griffin POV: Against all odds, Keaton was a perfect match. The bone marrow transplant was a success, and slowly, miraculously, the light began to return to Leo's eyes. | visited him every day. We developed a quiet routine. | would read to him, help him with his physical therapy, and watch as the sullen, angry boy coached by his mother began to melt away, revealing a sweet, resilient child underneath. He still grew quiet and withdrawn whenever Juliana or Adler were mentioned, the shadows of his past still long and dark. One afternoon, as | was packing up to leave, he looked at me with an unusual intensity. "Can you bring me a jump rope tomorrow?" he asked. It was an odd request for a boy still weak from surgery, but | agreed. The next day, | brought him a bright blue jump rope. As he was picking at his hospital lunch, he looked up at me, his fork hovering over a piece of sweet and sour pork. "Can I... can | call you Mom?" The question struck me like a bolt of lightning. The word 'Mom' was a locked door in my heart, a room filled with the ghosts ---- of four lost babies. The doctors' words, "you'll never be able to carry a child to term," were a life sentence of inadequacy. | forced a smile, my hand freezing in the act of putting a napkin in my lap. "Let's focus on finishing your lunch, okay, sweetie? You need your strength." He looked disappointed but didn't push. "Okay," he said quietly. "But... please don't take the jump rope with you when you leave." | couldn't refuse him. | left the jump rope coiled on his bedside table, a strange knot of unease tightening in my stomach. Instead of heading to the elevators, | lingered in the hallway, just out of sight of his room: A few minutes later, the door to his room burst open. It was Juliana. Her face was gaunt, her eyes wild and bloodshot. She looked like a woman who had been to hell and back. My blood ran cold. | pressed myself against the wall, my heart hammering against my ribs. "You!" she shrieked, her voice a venomous hiss. She grabbed Leo by his thin arm and hauled him out of bed. "You little curse! You killed my baby!" She slapped him across the face, a sharp, cracking sound that made me flinch. "| should have smothered you in your crib! You useless, pathetic little parasite!" Leo, his eyes wide with terror, started to cry. "I'm sorry," he ---- sobbed. "I'm so sorry." "Sorry doesn't bring my baby back!" she screamed, twisting his arm until he cried out in pain. "Sorry doesn't make Adler love me again! It's all your fault! All of it!" Behind her, another figure appeared in the doorway. Adler' s mother. She stood there, her arms crossed, her face a mask of cold contempt, watching her own grandson be abused without a flicker of emotion. "He's a curse, just like his father," Mrs. Irwin said, her voice dripping with malice. "A pitiful weakling." My rage, a sleeping dragon, awoke and roared to life. This was not just cruelty. This was evil. | pulled out my phone, my fingers flying. | hit the nurse's call button and dialed 911 simultaneously. But then, through the window, | saw something that made my heart stop. Leo, his face streaked with tears, had grabbed the jump rope. With a terrifying, deliberate calmness, he looped it around his neck. And pulled. "Leo, no!" | screamed, bursting into the room.