Chapter 2 - THE NAME SHE SHOULD NOT KNOWDaniel couldn't speak.
The word echoed inside his head.
Dad.
For twenty-eight years, he had imagined hearing it.
Sometimes in dreams.
Sometimes in crowded airports.
Sometimes when a stranger's voice sounded vaguely familiar.
He had imagined it so many times that the fantasy had become dangerous.
Because now, when it was finally spoken, he was terrified to believe it.
“Say that again.”
Lena's eyes widened.
“Dad?”
Daniel gripped the armrest.
His knuckles turned white.
“How do you know that?”
She shook her head, confused.
“I don't know.”
“You just called me Dad.”
“I know.”
“You don't know why?”
“No.”
Daniel searched her face.
Same dark eyes.
Same slight dimple beneath the left cheek.
His daughter had had that dimple.
He remembered it.
He remembered kissing it when she was sick.
He remembered Lily laughing whenever he called it her secret button.
But resemblance wasn't proof.
Memory wasn't proof.
The bracelet wasn't proof.
He had spent too long chasing ghosts.
He wouldn't let another coincidence destroy him.
“What's your birthday?”
Lena hesitated.
“September third.”
Daniel's stomach dropped.
Lily was born September third.
Daniel whispered the date.
Lena looked at him.
“How did you know that?”
He said nothing.
She slowly opened her phone.
“My mother used to keep some old papers.”
She began searching through photographs.
“I don't have many.”
She turned the screen toward him.
A faded photograph.
A little girl.
Six years old.
Standing beside a woman.
Daniel's hands began trembling.
The photograph had been taken somewhere unfamiliar.
But the girl was unmistakable.
Lily.
His Lily.
The same crooked smile.
The same left eyebrow slightly higher than the right.
The same tiny scar on her chin from falling off her bicycle.
Daniel stared.
“Where was this taken?”
“That's the problem.”
Lena swallowed.
“My mother never told me.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“Who took it?”
“I don't know.”
“Where did you grow up?”
“Different places.”
“How many?”
She looked embarrassed.
“Too many.”
Daniel felt something dark moving beneath the surface.
“Why?”
“My mother was always afraid.”
“Of what?”
Lena lowered her voice.
“Someone finding me.”
Daniel looked at the bracelet again.
“Your mother gave this to you?”
“No.”
“She died?”
“Six years ago.”
Daniel's chest tightened.
“Did she tell you anything before she died?”
Lena looked away.
“She told me if I ever met a man with a scar over his right eyebrow, I should ask him one question.”
Daniel's blood ran cold.
“What question?”
Lena looked directly at him.
“Did you leave the bedroom light on?”
Daniel stopped breathing.
The cabin disappeared.
He was six years old again.
No.
He was forty-eight.
Standing outside Lily's bedroom.
It was the last night before she vanished.
She had been afraid of thunderstorms.
Daniel had sat beside her bed.
She had asked him not to turn off the hallway light.
He had laughed.
“Why?”
“Because monsters don't come into bright rooms.”
He had promised to leave the light on.
The next morning, Lily was gone.
Daniel had never told the police about that conversation.
He had barely remembered it himself.
“How do you know that?”
Lena started crying.
“My mother told me.”
“When?”
“The day before she died.”
Daniel stared at her.
The plane lights flickered.
Then a flight attendant approached.
“Sir, is everything okay?”
Daniel opened his mouth.
Before he could answer, Lena suddenly grabbed his wrist.
“Don't tell anyone.”
“Why?”
Her eyes were terrified.
“Because if you really are my father, they already know you're here.”
Daniel looked toward the aisle.
“What are you talking about?”
Lena's breathing became shallow.
“I've been receiving messages.”
“What messages?”
She pulled out her phone.
One unread message appeared.
You found her.
Daniel's blood turned to ice.
Another message arrived.
Now both of you are on the plane.
Then a third.
Don't let her land.
Daniel stared at the screen.
And for the first time in twenty-eight years, he realized something terrifying.
Maybe Lily hadn't been lost.
May you like
Maybe she had been hidden.
And someone had spent decades making sure Daniel never found her.
