The restaurant around her continued glittering with wealth and careless laughter, but for Vanessa Laurent, the world had stopped turning.<\/p>\n
Her trembling fingers clutched the pocket watch so tightly the edges pressed into her skin.<\/p>\n
Eva.<\/p>\n
The name echoed through memories she had spent years trying to lock away beneath board meetings, luxury penthouses, and carefully rehearsed smiles.<\/p>\n
Across the table, the little girl stood frozen, uncertain whether she had done something wrong.<\/p>\n
Vanessa looked at her again.<\/p>\n
The child\u2019s pale blue eyes.<\/p>\n
The shape of her chin.<\/p>\n
Even the nervous way she twisted her fingers.<\/p>\n
It felt like staring into a ghost.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow old are you?\u201d Vanessa asked softly.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa\u2019s breath caught.<\/p>\n
Seven years.<\/p>\n
Exactly seven years since Eva disappeared without a word.<\/p>\n
A thousand thoughts crashed through her mind at once. The last argument. The storm outside the apartment. Eva crying while Vanessa chose her career over everything else.<\/p>\n
Over her.<\/p>\n
Over them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is your mother now?\u201d Vanessa whispered.<\/p>\n
The girl lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words hit harder than Vanessa expected.<\/p>\n
A waiter approached carefully. \u201cMa\u2019am, is everything alright?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa stood so suddenly her chair nearly toppled backward.<\/p>\n
\u201cCancel everything,\u201d she said without looking away from the child. \u201cEvery meeting. Every call.\u201d<\/p>\n
The waiter blinked in confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow.\u201d<\/p>\n
The little girl stepped back nervously as people around the restaurant began staring.<\/p>\n
Vanessa crouched to her level.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLily.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid your mother send you here?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lily nodded slowly. \u201cShe said if anything happened\u2026 I should find you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa felt her chest tighten.<\/p>\n
Anything happened.<\/p>\n
Fear crept coldly through her body.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is she?\u201d Vanessa asked urgently.<\/p>\n
Lily hesitated before pulling a folded piece of paper from her pocket.<\/p>\n
An address.<\/p>\n
Not Manhattan.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
A part of the city Vanessa had not visited in years.<\/p>\n
Without another word, she grabbed her coat and rushed toward the exit with Lily beside her. High heels struck marble floors as whispers spread behind them.<\/p>\n
Outside, icy night air slammed into them.<\/p>\n
A black luxury car waited at the curb.<\/p>\n
The driver opened the door instantly. \u201cMs. Laurent?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBrooklyn. Fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
The car sped through Manhattan traffic while Vanessa stared at the old pocket watch in her hands.<\/p>\n
She finally noticed the engraving etched beneath the photograph.<\/p>\n
Forever yours, V.<\/p>\n
Tears burned her eyes.<\/p>\n
Eva had kept it all these years.<\/p>\n
The city lights blurred past the windows as dread slowly replaced shock.<\/p>\n
Because deep down, Vanessa already knew something terrible had happened.<\/p>\n
And she was almost certain she was already too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The restaurant around her continued glittering with wealth and careless laughter, but for Vanessa Laurent, the world had stopped turning. Her trembling fingers clutched the pocket watch so tightly the edges pressed into her skin. Eva. The name echoed through memories she had spent years trying to lock away beneath board meetings, luxury penthouses, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}