Chapter 2: I'll Always Find You
The tape came off slowly.
Tom didn't move.
I didn't breathe.
And then we saw it.
My mother's handwriting.
Tattooed across Riley's forearm in ink so clean it looked like it had been lifted straight off paper.
*"I'll always find you.
— Gran."*
I couldn't speak.
I put my hand over my mouth.
Tom sat down on the floor.
Just — sat down.
Right there on the carpet.
"She wrote it in my birthday card," Riley said quietly.
"When I was nine.
I kept it.
I kept every card she ever sent me."
I hadn't known that.
Seven years and I hadn't known.
"She made me promise," Riley said.
"Last spring, when she knew.
She said, 'Don't let them see you fall apart.
You carry me somewhere they can't take me.' So I did."
Max came in from the hallway.
He looked at Riley's arm.
Then he looked up at her and said, "Is that Gran's writing?"
Riley nodded.
He touched it with one finger.
Very gently.
Then he went back to his room without a word.
Tom still hadn't spoken.
His jaw was working like he was trying to find something — anything — but nothing came out.
Then he looked at me.
And I saw it on his face.
He remembered what he'd said to her.
Day two.
Day three.
What *I* had said.
And so did she.
---
What Riley said next — and what Tom did after — is something I wasn't prepared for.
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