Chapter 3 – The Woman Buried Under Another Name
Chapter 3 – The Woman Buried Under Another Name
The following morning, a black SUV stopped outside an abandoned cemetery on the outskirts of town.
Rain drifted through the gray sky.
Only four people came.
The maid.
The older woman.
An elderly priest.
And a retired nun brought from a small convent hundreds of miles away.
The nun's eyes widened the instant she saw the emerald necklaces.
"I knew this day would come."
The maid stepped forward.
"You knew my mother?"
The nun nodded slowly.
"I helped deliver you."
Every heartbeat seemed to stop.
"Your grandfather paid men to remove you the night you were born."
"He announced Anna had died during childbirth."
The maid's breathing became uneven.
"But she survived."
The nun looked toward a weathered gravestone bearing Anna's name.
"There is no Anna beneath that stone."
The older woman covered her mouth.
"No..."
The nun nodded.
"Your mother escaped two nights later."
"She spent years searching for you."
"Every orphanage."
"Every church."
"Every state."
The maid whispered,
"Then why didn't she find me?"
The nun lowered her head.
"Because someone found her first."
She handed the maid a sealed envelope.
"I promised Anna I would never open this."
The maid carefully unfolded the yellowed letter.
Inside was one final sentence.
If my daughter is reading this... I never abandoned you. They stole you from my arms.
A photograph slipped from the envelope.
The maid gasped.
It showed her mother.
Older.
Alive.
Holding today's newspaper.
The date.
Only...
Three years ago.
The maid looked up in disbelief.
"She's alive."
May you like
The nun nodded.
"I believe she still is."
