Semua Bab The Pilot's Hidden Landing: Bab 1 - Bab 10

Cold spread through my whole body.It wasn't just that the boy called them grandma and grandpa. He'd been brought home to live with them before, more than once.Three years old.If Matt was three this year, that meant he'd been conceived right around the time Natalie had just gone through a breakup.Back then, her ex had kicked her out, and she'd stood outside my building with a suitcase, crying so hard she could barely breathe. It was me who felt for her and accepted her into my home.Alex hadn't been happy about it at the time. He'd frowned and said, "You can't just bring anyone home."I'd laughed and defended her anyway."She's not just anyone. She's my best friend."After that, Alex never objected again. When Natalie's stomach ached in the middle of the night, he went downstairs to buy her medicine. When she wanted soup from the diner on the south side, he drove out to get it for her. When she hit a wall job-hunting, he pulled strings to get her resume in front of someone.

After Alex posted the marriage certificate, the backlash online nearly drowned me.My boss called me into her office and slid a resignation agreement across the desk."Mary, the company doesn't want to get dragged into this. You should resign."I looked down at the paper. So that was it. Seven years of my life had collapsed, my parents didn't want me, and now I'd lost my job too.On my way out of the building, someone at the entrance held up a phone to film me, their eyes full of contempt. I pulled my hat low and practically fled onto a bus headed for the countryside.At least there was still one person in the world who would always believe in me.When I saw my grandmother, Amanda Hunkins, waiting at the gate the way she used to when I was little, I couldn't hold back anymore. I ran straight into her arms.Her voice shook as she patted my back gently."My darling Mary, how did you get so thin? Grandma's here. Don't cry."That night, I finally slept.But the next morning, I wa

I played the voice message my mother had sent me afterward. Her voice was gentle."Mary, stop crying. You'll have another child someday. I had a silver pendant made for you. Once you and Alex have a baby, you can put it on them."When the recording ended, I pulled up the livestream replay from the airport. Matt was in my father's arms, that same silver pendant hanging from his neck.I put the two images side by side on screen. One, from the day my mother placed the pendant in my palm. The other, of Matt wearing it, calling my parents grandma and grandpa in front of the cameras."My mother had this made by hand after I lost my first child. Now, it's hanging around Natalie's son's neck. I don't know when they took it. And I don't know if, every time they held that boy and called him their little treasure, they ever once thought about the fact that I'd had children too."No one in the stream was sending hate anymore. But I wasn't finished. Because the worst part wasn't any of this.

After that livestream, public opinion flipped completely. Alex went from hero pilot to the man everyone wanted to see fall.Skyline Airways issued a statement almost immediately, suspending all of his flight duties pending a psychological evaluation and internal investigation. The sky he'd once been proudest of had shut its doors on him.Natalie fared even worse. The truth about her wrists came out fast, leaked by someone inside the hospital. The cut had been shallow. There'd never been any real danger to her life. Her whole "barely saved in time" story had only ever been meant to make Alex pity her and keep the public pressure aimed at me.Someone even dug up years of thinly veiled posts she'd made on a secret account.[Some people occupy a position that was never theirs to begin with. Sooner or later, they have to pay for it.][The one who's favored is the one who really wins.]Once those posts surfaced, everyone understood. Natalie hadn't been forced into silence all those yea

My mother came too. She showed up carrying an armful of things, her eyes red and swollen."Mary, I brought it back. I know you think it's dirty now. But I wanted to return it to you myself."I looked at the silver pendant. It had been polished until it gleamed. All I felt was revulsion."Throw it away."My mother's hand froze in midair."This is the one I had made for your child..."I cut her off."My child is gone. It's been around Natalie's son's neck. You all used it as proof of your happy little family reunion. I don't want it."Tears spilled from my mother's eyes instantly."Mary, I'm really, really sorry. Natalie fooled me back then. She kept saying you loved Alex too much, that you wouldn't survive knowing the truth. She said she wasn't trying to take anything, that she only wanted her child to grow up safe. I just had a moment of foolishness, and..."Listening to her, I almost wanted to laugh."So you all helped her hide it from me. Helped her raise her child. Helped