📖 Chapter 13 – Her Name Is Still Selina
Saint hadn't said her name out loud in years.
It sat in his throat like dust.
He started writing to her.
Not real letters.
Notes. Torn pieces of paper. Sent to no one. Left in drawers, in his locker, behind the chalk bucket.
"Hi. I don't know if you remember my voice.
But you used to fall asleep on my chest.
And I used to believe I deserved that."
He searched online for her school. Found nothing.
Tried an old address. It had been turned into a café.
One night, he walked all the way to the neighborhood where they last lived.
His shoes soaked from gutter water.
A dog barked. Someone cursed from a window.
He stood outside a gate that might have once been hers.
And whispered:
"Her name is still Selina.
And mine… might still be dad."
📖 Chapter 14 – The Mirror Moves First
Saint began to feel watched.
Not by people.
By mirrors.
When he looked too long, his reflection blinked slower than he did.
When he turned away, he swore he saw movement out of sync.
The doctor said he was exhausted.
Sleep-deprived.
But Saint knew better.
It wasn't ghosts.
It wasn't madness.
It was guilt—shaped like his face.
At night, he would wake up to his own voice whispering:
"You left her."
"You always leave."
He smashed the mirror in the bathroom.
Then replaced it.
Then smashed it again.
📖 Chapter 15 – No Kids on This List
The school wouldn't give him anything.
Not a number. Not an address.
"We can't confirm or deny if a student by that name is enrolled," they said.
Saint waited by the gates for days.
Didn't eat. Didn't coach.
The field remained empty.
Marcos texted once:
"U good?"
Saint didn't answer.
On the fifth day, a little girl walked out of the gate with a ponytail.
She looked nothing like Selina.
But he still followed her.
Half a block. Then two.
Until he caught himself whispering:
"Please turn around and recognize me."
The girl didn't.
He ran back to the field.
Screamed into the dirt.
And finally said out loud:
"I don't know who I'm trying to find—
Her or myself."
📖 Chapter 16 – Teeth in the Rain
He started seeing her in reflections.
A flash in a car window.
A glimpse in a puddle.
Her eyes — full of hurt he never heard.
Her mouth — open, but silent.
Once, during heavy rain, he sat outside the school again.
A janitor came out and handed him a form.
"We found this. You dropped it weeks ago."
It was a blank envelope with no name.
Inside it:
A photo of Selina, six years old.
A note he had written in the past:
"If you ever want to know what love looked like before I ruined it…
Look in the mirror."
He hadn't written it recently.
He didn't remember printing it.
And the photo had bite marks.
📖 Chapter 17 – She Was There. And She Wasn't.
He was coaching again.
Anto smiled for the first time.
Marcos asked him to show a new pitching grip.
Mailo talked about music.
Saint was back.
But something inside him wasn't.
He walked home.
Same corner. Same street.
And there—
Selina. Sitting on the steps of his building.
Legs swinging.
A book on her lap.
"Hi," she said.
"Are you my dad?"
Saint froze.
"I… I think I used to be," he answered.
She smiled.
Then… disappeared.
Like mist.
Like memory.
The book stayed behind.
A children's storybook.
On the back:
Her name.
And under it, in marker:
"I was here.
You missed me.
But I waited anyway."
End of Chapter 17
Shaberu wa tebukuro yori mo omoi
By D.Concepción