Chapter 156. Calm After the Storm - III

“She… I found her in a psychiatric hospital,” Camille said quietly. “As I expected, she didn’t recognize me. But I felt better having met her in person. I told her who I was, but she was still stuck in the past.

“Sometimes she believed me, and we spent a quiet day together. Most of the time, though, she thought I was just a nurse or an aide. But I didn’t really care. She was alive, and sometimes she would talk about my biological father. She told me stories with a hazy look in her eyes, and I felt like I could imagine what their lives were like.”

Luther lowered his head guiltily, while Emilia shut her eyes.

“It was… enlightening, to say the least,” Camille continued. “A kind nurse took me in when I came to the city with nothing. Not legally, since I was eighteen by then, but she gave me a place to stay. She was like a guardian to me. I worked part-time jobs to make ends meet.”

Her family listened intently, their expressions a mixture of sadness and understanding.