Chapter 2: She Was Going to Tell Me
My hands were shaking.
The handwriting was small and careful, like someone who had written it slowly, deliberately.
*"Find him before it's too late.
His name is Ethan.
This is the only photo I have left."*
I read it three times.
Then I flipped the photo over and stared at my own eight-year-old face.
Someone had given Claire this photograph.
Someone who knew me as a child.
Someone who had told her to find me.
The bedroom door opened.
Claire stepped out in the emerald-green dress, smiling.
Then she saw my face.
Her smile disappeared.
Her eyes dropped to my hand.
To the photograph.
For a long moment, neither of us spoke.
"Ethan—"
"Who gave you this?"
She didn't answer.
She pressed her lips together and looked away, and that silence told me more than any words could have.
"Claire." My voice came out quieter than I expected.
"Who told you to find me?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
Not the happy kind from earlier.
"I was going to tell you," she whispered.
"I just needed more time."
"More time for what?"
She opened her mouth.
Then her phone buzzed loudly on the dresser.
She glanced at the screen — and went completely still.
She looked up at me with an expression I had never seen on her face before.
Fear.
---
May you like
What Ethan found out next changed everything he thought he knew about his own life.
Click the link below to read the full story.
