“I was eighteen, and I wanted to study art,” she said, her voice hollow. “I got pregnant by a man who vanished the second he found out, and my mother told me that if I kept the baby, my life would be over.

She told me no decent person would ever marry me, and that I’d be a disgrace to the entire family.” A single tear ran down her cheek. “They sent me to stay with an aunt in a different city.

I gave birth, and I signed the papers.”

Sawyer listened, his heart breaking for a woman he realized he’d never truly known.

“I didn’t want to see her, but I did,” she admitted. “I held her for two minutes, and she just stared at me with those open eyes as if she knew exactly who I was—and then they took her away.”

For a second, she sounded almost human. Then the mask snapped back into place.