Chapter 2: The Secret She Carried
For twenty-five years, I had wondered how a person could disappear.
Now I wondered how they could survive.
I took Amelia to a small café two blocks away.
She refused the SUV.
She refused Daniel’s help.
She refused almost everything.
Except the coffee I placed in front of her.
Her hands wrapped around the cup, but she didn’t drink.
“You’re really here,” I whispered.
She looked at me.
“I know.””
“No. You don’t understand.””
My voice shook.
“I buried you.””
Her eyes dropped.
“I know.””
“I went to the police.””
“I know.””
“I searched for months.””
“I know.””
The calmness in her answers made something inside me crack.
“How do you know?””
She looked toward the window.
“Because I watched.””
The room suddenly felt colder.
“You watched?””
She nodded.
“I watched your company grow. I watched you appear in newspapers. I watched you become everything you said you would become.””
“And you never contacted me?””
Pain crossed her face.
“I tried.””
“When?””
“Many times.””
I laughed bitterly.
“That’s impossible.””
“No, Lucy. It isn’t.””
She reached into her coat pocket.
For a second, I thought she was going to pull out something dangerous.
Instead, she placed a folded piece of paper on the table.
My hands froze.
I recognized the handwriting.
Mine.
A letter I had written at seventeen.
I opened it.
The paper was yellowed.
The words were faded.
But I remembered every line.
Amelia looked at me.
“Someone sent that to me.””
“Who?””
She didn’t answer.
“Amelia.””
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Your father.””
I stopped breathing.
My father had died ten years earlier.
The man who built our family empire.
The man everyone admired.
The man who told me Amelia ran away because she was tired of me.
“No.””
“He lied to you.””
I pushed the letter away.
“My father loved me.””
Amelia’s expression broke.
“Lucy…”
“Don’t.””
“You deserve the truth.””
I stood.
“Twenty-five years ago, my father told me you left because you didn’t want me.””
Her voice became soft.
“He told me you chose money over me.””
The silence between us was unbearable.
Then Amelia whispered:
“He told me you died.””
My anger disappeared.
“What?””
She looked at me.
“He told me you were killed.””
I sat back down.
The world suddenly felt unstable.
“He showed me a newspaper clipping.””
“What newspaper?””
“I don’t know.””
“You believed him?””
“I was seventeen.””
Her voice cracked.
“I was scared.””
For the first time, I saw not the woman sitting across from me.
I saw the girl I lost.
A girl who had been just as alone as I was.
“What happened that night?””
Amelia looked down.
“I was going to meet you.””
“I waited.””
“I know.””
“You never came.””
“I was taken.””
The word hung in the air.
“Taken by who?””
She looked toward the window again.
And I knew before she spoke.
“The same people who are watching you now.””
My phone suddenly rang.
Both of us froze.
The screen showed an unknown number.
Amelia’s face went pale.
“Don’t answer.””
I stared at the phone.
“Why?””
“Because they want to know if I found you.””
The ringing continued.
I answered.
“Hello?””
Silence.
Then a man’s voice.
“Lucienne Vale.””
My blood ran cold.
“Yes?””
“You should have left the woman where you found her.””
I stood.
“Who is this?””
The man ignored my question.
“You spent twenty-five years building a beautiful life.””
A pause.
“Don’t destroy it because of a ghost.””
The call ended.
Amelia looked terrified.
I slowly lowered the phone.
“How did he know?””
May you like
She whispered:
“Because he was always closer than you thought.””