Chapter 2 - Emily Recognizes The Silver Birthmark
Emily did not recognize the baby’s face first.
She recognized the mark behind his left ear.
A pale crescent-shaped birthmark.
Her knees almost gave way.
Adrian noticed.
“What is it?”
Emily whispered, “My sister had that.”
Adrian tightened his hold around the little boy.
Emily’s younger sister, Hannah Carter, had disappeared eighteen months earlier.
Not vanished in the criminal sense.
At least, that was what police had concluded.
Hannah was twenty-six, pregnant, frightened, and estranged from Emily after a family argument.
She sent one final message saying she needed time away.
Then she stopped answering.
Emily had searched hospitals, shelters, old friends, and social media.
Nothing.
Adrian looked at the baby.
“This is Lucas.”
“How old?”
“Fourteen months.”
Emily’s breath caught.
The timeline fit.
She asked again.
“Where did you get him?”
Adrian’s expression hardened at the wording.
“He’s my son.”
“Who is his mother?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Her name was Natalie.”
Emily stared at him.
“Natalie what?”
“Natalie Reed.”
Emily had never heard the name.
But Lucas kept reaching toward her.
“Mama.”
Emily cried harder.
She understood something Adrian did not.
Lucas might not be calling her his mother.
Babies often used familiar sounds imperfectly.
But Emily and Hannah had nearly identical voices.
Their mother used to joke that even relatives confused them on the phone.
And Emily looked enough like Hannah that strangers had once mistaken them for twins.
Adrian asked his security chief, Marcus, to bring the car around.
Emily thought he was leaving.
Instead he said:
“You’re coming with us.”
She stepped back.
“No.”
Adrian corrected himself immediately.
“If you’re willing, I want to understand this.”
That mattered.
Emily agreed.
Before they left, Lucas grabbed the silver locket at Emily’s neck.
Inside was a photograph.
Emily and Hannah at the beach six years earlier.
Adrian looked at it.
His face changed.
He pointed at Hannah.
“I know her.”
Emily stopped breathing.
May you like
Adrian whispered:
“But that isn’t the woman who gave me Lucas.”
