Chapter 2: The Photograph
A woman rushed across the ballroom.
“Emily!”
The little girl turned.
“Mommy!”
The elegant woman hurried over and smiled apologetically.
“I'm so sorry. She tends to make friends with everyone.”
The veteran wiped his eyes.
“No need to apologize.”
Emily grabbed her mother's hand.
“Mommy, he doesn't have anyone to kiss his hurt.”
The woman looked embarrassed.
But then she noticed something.
Hanging from the veteran's neck was a small silver locket.
Her face suddenly lost all color.
“Where did you get that?”
The veteran looked confused.
“I've had it for twenty years.”
His fingers trembled as he opened it.
Inside was a faded photograph of a baby girl.
The woman gasped.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“No…”
The veteran stared.
“What is it?”
Tears began rolling down her cheeks.
“That picture…”
She pointed toward Emily.
“It looks exactly like my daughter when she was born.”
Silence filled the space between them.
The veteran felt his pulse quicken.
Then the woman revealed something unbelievable.
“Emily was adopted.”
The room seemed to stop spinning.
“She was rescued after a hospital fire twenty years ago,” the woman whispered.
“We never knew who her biological family was.”
The veteran's hands shook violently.
Hospital fire.
Twenty years ago.
The same accident.
The same city.
The same day his daughter had supposedly died.
May you like
For the first time in decades...
Hope returned.
