CHAPTER 2 — The Girl Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
That night, Ethan couldn't sleep.
The little girl's words echoed inside his mind.
"You still wear Mommy's necklace."
Impossible.
His wife, Lily, had died in a warehouse fire a decade earlier.
Their three-year-old daughter, Emma, had been declared dead after investigators found what they believed were her remains.
Ethan had buried an empty coffin.
He had spent every birthday standing beside that grave, blaming himself for failing both of them.
Yet today...
A stranger had spoken as if she knew his deepest secret.
The next morning, Ethan visited the hospital where the rescued girl was recovering.
She smiled the instant she saw him.
"I knew you'd come back."
He pulled a chair beside her bed.
"What's your name?"
She hesitated.
"They call me Sophie."
"They?"
"The people who raised me."
A chill crawled down Ethan's spine.
"What do you mean?"
Sophie slowly pulled the same old stuffed rabbit from beneath her blanket.
Hidden inside one torn ear was a tiny silver music key.
Ethan's hands began to shake.
He remembered placing that exact key inside Emma's favorite toy the day she turned three.
No one else had known it was there.
No one.
"Where did you get this?" he whispered.
Before Sophie could answer, the hospital room door burst open.
A sharply dressed woman stormed inside.
"I'm her mother," she snapped.
"We're leaving."
But Sophie instantly backed away, terrified.
"No!"
Tears streamed down her face.
"She's lying!"
The room fell silent.
The woman forced a smile for the nurses...
...but Ethan noticed something everyone else missed.
Fear.
Not concern.
Fear.
As security escorted the woman into the hallway for questioning, Sophie leaned toward Ethan one final time.
Barely above a whisper, she said—
"They've been hiding me for ten years..."
"...because someone very powerful paid them to make everyone believe I died."
Ethan's world shattered.
The fire that destroyed his family...
May you like
...had never been an accident.
To Be Continued...
