Page 19 of Velvet Deception

“I get up and pace every day when you’re at school. I no longer need to nap all day.” Yet, I sat, sighing as I put my elbows on my knees. The shorts I wore were too big, but I appreciated that Sofia had found some in a donation bin near the clinic where she worked.

“Napping is for babies.” Ramon sat across from me, unafraid but cautious.

I smirked.

“Does that help you remember anything?” he asked.

“What?”

“The thought of babies.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“You can’t remember any family?”

I shook my head again. He seemed insistent on ignoring Sofia’s advice not to push me where my memory was involved. And I welcomed it. “I don’t remember. My parents. A wife. Nothing.” A very faint hint of having a girlfriend wanted to poke into my thoughts, but it had to have been so long ago. Nothing… significant.

His brow lined as he glanced down. “Then that must mean you don’t have any.”

I blinked, surprised with how confident he sounded to guess that. “How so?”

“You would feel it in here, no?” He pointed his finger to his heart. “Mama helped a neighbor deliver her baby last summer, and I remember her telling her that she will never be the same again. That even though the baby is born, inside, the mother will always be changed. That the baby’s blood had come from her and mixed with hers. That the baby’s DNA had been with hers and genetically, the mother willalwaysknow she had a baby.”

Damn.The boy impressed me with how mature he seemed for his size, but it appeared he soaked up knowledge like a sponge too. I had no experience with children. Deep down, Iknewthatabout myself, that before I was knocked out, I wasn’t someone used to dealing with kids.

“How old are you?”

“Six.” He arched a brow. “How old are you?”

“Thirty-three.”

He opened his eyes wide. So did I. I tipped my face up and gaped at him as he smiled.

“You said you’re thirty-three.”

I did. “It… it just came out.” Uncensored. I didn’t think it. It just popped out as an automatic reply, as if I knew that without effort.

He grinned wider.

Maybe this will help.I cleared my throat, more invested to talk to him about anything. Who knew what could trigger me to recall something else? “A mother is genetically changed after having a baby? Hmm.”

He nodded. “And I think everyone has that link. If something happened to my mama, I would feel it. Just like she would probably know if I was gone.”

“If you weregone?” I frowned. “If you were dead?”Is that something she’s worried about?

He shrugged. “It’s also how I know I don’t have a father.”

Well, this was getting interesting. “How so?”

“There’s no bond. There is no connection in here,” he said, tapping his chest where his little heart beat. “I don’tfeellike I have a father.”

“Has your mother told you who your father is—or was?”

He shook his head. “Never.” He didn’t seem to want to focus on that. “Do you feel anything? A connection? A loss?”

I grunted a hard laugh. “Yes, Ramon. I feel a lot of loss. I can’t remember who I am.”

“But you remember some things. You’re still in there. Do you feel like a part of you is elsewhere? A wife or a parent or a daughter or…” He lifted his hand and dropped it. “Do you feel like you’re incomplete without another?”

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