I was remembering the conversation, as I was moving in slow motion.

My heart slowed.

Everything stilled.

His words came back to me as I stepped around Logan, and I saw who was waiting just inside the doorway, huddled against the wall with her arms hugging herself.

He had said, “The doctors are pleased with your mother. Her progress has been incredible over the last six months.”

It was her.

His voice droned on, dipping down an octave, “They said she might be able to come home. I’m not sure when that would be, but I wanted to let you know. We’d be coming back, Sam. I wanted you to be the first to know.”

I blocked out what he said.

That was the truth. With Sebastian and knowing we still needed to deal with him, everything James told me went in one ear and out the other. I couldn’t digest it. So I hadn’t.

I just couldn’t deal with it, but here she was.

I took a step toward her. I felt like I was walking through invisible mud, and I said, my own voice sounding muffled and unclear to my ears, “Mom?”

Her head came up. She was huddled in the doorway. Her arms were wrapped around herself. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail behind her head. She looked…I couldn’t process it. Natural. Her eyes lifted, clearing from whatever emotion she was feeling, and her entire face became radiant. She had no make-up on and she pulled her sweater even tighter around her frame.

“Samantha.” She beamed at me. Then she said it—the words I didn’t think I ever wanted to hear. “I’m home.”