“Who?”
Nathan looked toward the hospital door to make sure nobody was listening.
Then he whispered a name I hadn’t heard in more than twenty years.
“Emily.”
I froze.
Emily had been Nathan’s younger sister.
She had disappeared when she was seventeen.
Everyone had assumed she’d run away.
But Nathan had never believed that.
Neither had his parents.
“What does Emily have to do with our daughter?”
Nathan looked down at the baby.
“Everything.”
PART 3 — THE GIRL WHO DISAPPEARED
Twenty-two years earlier, Emily had vanished from her family’s home.
She had left behind her clothes, her schoolbooks and her favorite necklace.
No note.
No phone.
No explanation.
The police investigated for months.
There were searches.
Posters.
Interviews.
Nothing.
Eventually, the case went cold.
Nathan was only nineteen at the time, but he had never stopped blaming himself.
“I was supposed to pick her up that night,” he whispered.
“What happened?”
