“Daniel, what have I told you about staring at those… interruptions?” he snapped, lowering his voice. “They aren’t our concern.”
Daniel didn’t reply. He was staring at what the woman was holding—not a cardboard sign, but something painfully familiar.
An old teddy bear, one ear torn and crudely stitched. The same bear Daniel had lost years ago—the one his mother had given him for his fifth birthday.
The car stopped at the red light, no more than a few feet away.
As the woman coughed and lifted her head, the fading daylight revealed her face. It was thin, worn down by cold and dirt, nothing like the elegant woman from Victor’s memories.
But her eyes.
They were the same stormy gray eyes as Laura’s. His wife—the woman who had vanished five years earlier, leaving behind only a short note hinting she couldn’t endure life as Mrs. Reynolds anymore.
Victor had spent millions searching for her, convinced she’d run off or met a tragic end. Eventually, he’d forced himself to believe she was gone.
The air inside the car felt suffocating.
Daniel slowly turned to his father, his voice trembling.
“Dad,” he whispered, pointing with a shaking finger. “That’s Mom. Why is she there?”