Page 65 of Nowhere to Run
“I still can’t believe you’re here,” Dr.Easton said, shaking her head as she smiled.“I have thought about you every day since you left.”
I pressed my lips together and then took in a shaky breath.
“I’m really sorry for leaving the way I did.”
“Don’t be.I have been doing what I do for a very long time, and I knew the second I saw you that you were in trouble.How have you been, if you don’t mind me asking?”
I lifted my shoulders and shrugged as I considered how to answer that.
“Life has made me work really hard for the good things in it,” I replied, feeling that it was as honest an answer as I could give.“I currently live in a small town, much like this one.I’m a nurse and work in a clinic that helps those who might not seek medical care in traditional settings.”
She smiled as she read between the lines of what I was saying.
“Everyone deserves to have unrestricted access to health care,” she agreed.“It’s why we do things the way we do at our clinic.”
“Coming here was what inspired me to be a nurse.When I look back on that time in my life, I think about everyone who helped me, and I always come back to this clinic.You didn’t see a reckless teenager who got herself in a bad situation.I was treated with care and compassion that I wouldn’t have received if I had gone somewhere else.I strive to do the same for others.”
The warmth in her eyes as she smiled at me was so foreign that I felt my heart ache to know a love like that.It was what I assumed a mother’s love would have felt like, but unfortunately, I didn’t have one growing up.
I pulled my shoulders back and took a deep breath, trying to gather the courage to ask her about what I really came here for.
But before I could get the words out, the door to the breakroom opened and a girl who looked just like me entered.
My eyes locked onto her, watching as she scanned the room, taking in the new people as she said hi to Edna and Florence.Keith and Ashley moved to the other side of the room, holding their coffee mugs as they pretended to talk about something.
Everything went silent as my heart hammered in my chest, because the second her eyes landed on mine, I knew she recognized me.
Her jaw dropped as her stare widened in disbelief.
“Mom?”she asked, her voice cracking.
Forty-Seven
Jo
Igently pushed thechair back and stood up, staring in disbelief as Kaitlyn slowly walked toward me.She looked from me to Dr.Easton, then back again as she tilted her head to the side.
