The door clicked shut, leaving Kyle alone in the sterile silence of the hospital room. His heart pounded in his ears, his thoughts swirling in a storm of disbelief, relief, and something else, something darker and harder to pin down. For years, he had believed he was no one, just another lost soul drifting through life without a real purpose or a place to belong. But now, everything he had ever known seemed to unravel, only to reveal a different truth underneath.
The word "family" echoed in his mind, over and over, as though it were a foreign language he was only now beginning to understand. A family. He had a family. He wasn't some orphan left to fend for himself in foster homes and on the streets; he was Ethan, Ethan Rivers, the baby boy who had vanished so many years ago. His hands trembled as he pressed them against the rough fabric of the hospital blanket. It didn't feel real. None of it did.
And then there was that voice. The one that had haunted him for as long as he could remember. It was always a whisper just out of reach, calling out a name that had never made sense to him before. Ethan. How many times had he heard it, echoing in the dark, pulling him from sleep? It couldn't just be a coincidence… could it? His pulse quickened at the thought, a shiver crawling up his spine. What did it mean, to hear that voice all his life, only to now find out that it was his true name?
Kyle's mind raced as he tried to piece it all together, but the answers remained elusive, like shadows slipping through his fingers. One thing was certain, he needed more information. He needed to know more, to understand how this could be possible.
Taking a deep breath, Kyle reached for the call button and pressed it. A nurse appeared in the doorway a few moments later, her kind eyes watching him with concern. "Can I get Isaac back in here?" he asked, his voice hoarse and uneven.
"Of course," the nurse said gently. She left, and soon enough, Isaac was back in the room, his presence bringing with it a mix of comfort and tension.
"How are you handling all this?" Isaac asked as he took a seat beside the bed,
Kyle rubbed his temples, the weight of his thoughts pressing down on him. "I… don't know," he admitted. "It feels like… like my whole life just got rewritten. I don't know who I'm supposed to be anymore." He looked at Isaac, his eyes narrowing slightly. "How did you even find me? How did you know I was… him?"
Isaac sighed, leaning back in his chair as if the question had pulled at something deep within him. "You won't remember this, but you were born in this very hospital," he said. "When you went missing, our family did everything to find you. It was a nightmare. We searched every hospital, put out blood samples, and even when DNA testing became possible, we kept pushing for new ways to track you down. But eventually, the trail went cold. We had to retract the samples from most places because it was… well, it seemed hopeless."
Kyle's gaze drifted around the room. So, he was born here. That thought sat heavily in his chest, weighing down each breath. "So, how did you… put the pieces together now?" he asked quietly.
Isaac leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. "When I saw you on the street, I felt this… familiarity. You reminded me so much of my brother, your father." His voice faltered slightly at the word, as though it carried a gravity he hadn't prepared for. "I couldn't shake the feeling, so I had you brought here, to the hospital where you were born, just in case. I asked them to run a DNA test against the sample we left here all those years ago." He pulled out his phone, glancing at the screen before turning his attention back to Kyle. "And the results confirmed it. You're my nephew.....You Wouldn't mind I have some people here to meet you "
Kyle swallowed, his throat dry as sandpaper. "So… you're saying that you've already told people?" His voice cracked as he tried to comprehend the enormity of what that meant. "Who did you…?"
"I told my mother," Isaac replied, his tone softening with an almost apologetic quality. "Your grandmother. She was overwhelmed with the news… and, well, you know how family works. She told everyone." A faint, almost bittersweet smile touched his lips. "They're here now, at the hospital. They're waiting to meet you."
For a moment, Kyle felt the room closing in on him. The idea of meeting a whole family, a family he had never known, sent a rush of panic through his veins. He had spent his entire life being unwanted, tossed aside, and forgotten. The thought of people embracing him as one of their own, people who had mourned his loss, was almost too much to bear. He wasn't ready for that. How could he be?
Kyle let out a strained laugh, the sound tinged with desperation as tears welled up in his eyes. "What… what am I supposed to say to them?" he asked, his voice trembling. "I'm not… I'm not the person they think I am. I'm just… I'm just Kyle."
Isaac's eyes softened, and he reached out, gently placing a hand on Kyle's shoulder. "You're Ethan," he said firmly. "You've always been Ethan, even if you didn't know it. And they don't expect you to have all the answers right now. They just want to see you… to know that you're alive."
The tears spilled over, trickling down Kyle's cheeks as a wave of emotion crashed over him. It felt as though the weight of his entire life was pressing down on him at once, every foster home, every lonely night, every desperate struggle for a place to belong. How could he reconcile the person he was with the life he might have had?
"I don't know if I can do this," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "What if… what if I don't feel like their family? What if I can't… be who they need me to be?"
Isaac's gaze didn't waver. "No one is asking you to be anything other than who you are," he said softly. "You've been through more than most people can imagine, and no one expects you to have it all figured out. All I'm asking is for you to take this one step. Just meet them."
Kyle looked up at Isaac, searching his eyes for some sign of doubt, but there was none. Slowly, he nodded, his chest tightening with a mix of fear and something else, hope, maybe. "Okay," he whispered. "You can let them in."
Isaac rose from the chair, his expression warm as he gave a slight nod. "I'll bring them in one at a time," he said. "You don't need to be overwhelmed."
As Isaac stepped out of the room, Kyle's gaze drifted back to that dark corner, where the shadows seemed to writhe and curl in the dim light. He could have sworn he heard that voice again, a whisper just beneath the threshold of hearing. "Ethan…" it breathed, barely audible but unmistakable. His pulse quickened, and a chill crawled down his spine. Was it his mind playing tricks on him? Or was there something more, something dark that lingered just out of sight?
The door creaked open, pulling him from his thoughts as a frail woman with silver hair entered, her eyes already glistening with tears. "Ethan?" she whispered, her voice trembling as though she scarcely believed it herself.
Kyle swallowed hard, his voice barely a murmur as he replied, "Hi… Grandma."
In that moment, the world seemed to shift again. He had taken the first step, but it was only the beginning. There were still shadows to confront, secrets to unearth, and a voice that refused to be silenced. And lastly the nightmare of him drowning that had been plagueing him for years, what it meant?