Chapter 11: The Recognition
Back in her cramped motel room, Vanessa stared at the handwritten note under the dim bulb. The handwriting—the loop of the 'g', the sharp cross of the 't'—nagged at her memory. She opened an old, battered shoebox where she kept her few remaining documents from her past life. She pulled out a scrap of paper she had maliciously confiscated from Lily years ago.
She compared the two notes. The handwriting was identical.
The realization hit Vanessa with the force of a freight train. The girl she had tried to ruin, the girl she had thrown to the floor and framed, had just fed her. The sheer magnitude of Lily’s grace crushed the last remaining pillars of Vanessa’s ego. She fell to her knees, weeping until she had no tears left, mourning the monster she used to be.
