Chapter 3: The Photograph No One Was Supposed to See

Chapter 3: The Photograph No One Was Supposed to See
The boy slowly reached into his coat.
Several security guards rushed forward.
"Don't move!"
He ignored them.
Carefully...
He pulled out a faded photograph.
Its edges were worn.
Its colors nearly gone.
He placed it gently on the ballroom floor.
The girl gasped.
She recognized it instantly.
It showed a young woman laughing beneath the summer sun.
She was holding two children.
A little girl.
And a baby boy.
Behind them stood a smiling man.
The same father now standing on the stage.
Only...
Twenty years younger.
The father turned white.
"Where did you get that?"
The boy lifted his eyes.
"My mother kept it."
The room became painfully still.
The father shook his head.
"That's impossible."
"It burned."
"So did she."
The boy's answer came quietly.
"No."
His gaze never left the father's face.
"She survived."
A wave of whispers swept across the ballroom.
The father staggered backward.
"If that's true..."
His voice failed him.
"...then whose funeral did I attend?"
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No one answered.
Because no one knew.