Page 31 of Hunter's Revenge

Hearing my footsteps makes her look at me. When our eyes lock, I have a hard time not falling apart. She looks frail, like she might snap in a gentle breeze.

She didn’t look this weak two weeks ago.

Grams is seventy-two. Although her hair has always been completely white, for as long as I can remember, people have always complemented her on how young she looks for her age. But right now, she looks like she could be a hundred.

I rush to her side, and when she smiles, hope fills me because there’s recognition in her eyes.

“Oh, Scarlet, there you are.” She reaches out to me, and I freeze.

Scarlet—that’s my mother.

Grams thinks I’m her.

“No, Grams, it’s me, Gwen.”

Confusion fills her face, and she shakes her head. “Gwen…I don’t know any Gwens. I don’t know you.”

No.God, no. I can almost hear my heart shatter.

This was the part I’ve always feared right from the moment she was diagnosed with dementia. This part where she’d look at me and not know me.

This day just arrived sooner than I thought, and I can see what Dr. Perry meant about her getting worse.

Calming myself, I take her hand and keep my gaze fixed on hers. “You know me. You just can’t remember me. We love reading poetry together.”

She smiles, narrows her eyes, then touches my face.

“Gwen. That’s you.”

“Yes.” I nod and try to stay calm, but truthfully, I want to scream. “I’m your granddaughter.”

She blinks several times, then something seems to come to her that I hope is recognition.

“I want to go home, Gwen.” Her voice is small and careful. “I don’t like being here. This is not my home.”

“I know, but they’ll help you here.”

“Really?” She looks around with a frightened expression. “I don’t like being away from home. I don’t feel safe.”

“I promise you’re safe and everyone around you will take care of you.”

“You promise?” She searches my eyes.

“I do.” As I say those words and she squeezes my hand, I know I can’t fail.

* * *

It’s late when I reach home. Once I feed Sebastian, shower, and change for bed, I’m so drained that I should fall asleep straightaway.

But I can’t.

It’s come to the stage where I have to accept that Grams isn’t going to come back to me. Everything will be harder from here on out, and when it ends, when she dies, there will just be me.

I have three cousins, two aunts, and one uncle. All of whom I don’t really know and have only met at a family wedding and my grandfather’s funeral. Our family was one of those with continuous arguments which drove people apart.

So, there really will just be me.

I get off the bed, kneel, and open the loose floorboards under the bed to retrieve my treasure box.

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