Chapter 2: The Words Written on the Back
Eleanor didn't move.
She just stared at the music box like it was a ghost.
I asked her again.
"Are you saying Thomas Mercer took your granddaughter and never brought her back?"
She finally spoke.
"I'm saying he was the last one seen with her.
And then she was g\*ne.
And he told us she didn't make it."
My legs felt hollow.
"Who was her mother?" I asked.
"Who was the baby's mother?"
Eleanor's jaw tightened.
"My daughter.
Catherine."
"Where is Catherine now?"
The room went completely still.
Eleanor looked at the manager.
Then back at me.
"Catherine d\*ed in that fire."
I couldn't breathe.
If what Eleanor was saying was true, then the woman who engraved my name on that music box — the woman who wrote *Love, Mom* — had b\*rned in that hotel the same night my father carried me out.
And my father never told me any of it.
Not once.
Not even at the end.
Then the manager stepped forward and placed something on the counter.
A photograph.
Old.
Slightly scorched at the edges.
A firefighter holding a baby outside a burning building.
The man in the photo was my father.
And written on the back in faded ink were four words:
*"Don't let them find her."*
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Ava is about to learn the truth her father buried for thirty years — and it's more heartbreaking than anyone expected.
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