“Who is it, Emily?” the woman asked weakly.
Eleanor didn’t waste time.
“The ring,” she said, her voice unsteady. “Please show it to me.”
The woman stiffened at the sight of Eleanor’s elegant suit and polished heels. With trembling hands, she reached beneath the pillow and pulled out a handkerchief.
Inside was a necklace.
Attached to it — the gold rose.
Eleanor’s hands shook as she turned it over. On the inside, engraved in delicate script, were the words: Ellie & Bella.
Tears blurred her vision.
She slowly knelt before the little girl.
“Isabella… is it really you?”
The sick woman began to cry.
“Please don’t misunderstand,” she said between coughs. “Thirteen years ago, I found an abandoned SUV near the San Luis Rey River. A baby was inside, screaming. I waited, thinking someone would come back. No one did. It was raining hard. The water was rising.”
She struggled to breathe before continuing.
“I was scared to go to the police. I’m poor. I thought they’d accuse me of kidnapping. So I took her home. I raised her as my own. I named her Emily… but I loved her with everything I had.”
The little girl looked from one woman to the other, tears filling her eyes.