When they were alone again, she asked, “Lucas, did your mom ever mention anything else?”
He frowned in concentration. “She told me to find Emily. Said she’d know what to do.”
The bowl slipped from Emily’s hands and shattered. Tears blurred her vision as she pulled him into a tight embrace.
Later that day, Mr. Howard brought news. Town records showed a missing woman named Grace Harper—gone for five years.
The next afternoon, back at the market, everything looked ordinary, yet nothing felt the same. Lucas helped gather fallen leaves, his small movements painfully familiar.
In an alley behind the stalls, he found a wooden-beaded bracelet.
Emily recognized it instantly from the photograph.
A shadow shifted behind stacked crates.
A man stepped forward—worn jacket, cap pulled low, eyes too sharp. “Nice kid,” he said coldly. “Where’d you find him?”
Emily felt danger settle over her. She pulled Lucas behind her. The man vanished into the mist.
That night, following an address from old records, Emily went to a neglected house on Mill Street. Dust coated the windows. Inside, she found a photograph of Grace holding a toddler. On the back: Ashton, 2019.
The door slammed.