The diner remained silent.<\/p>\n
The grey-bearded biker stared at the hand-drawn stars.<\/p>\n
His eyes glistened.<\/p>\n
For a moment, he couldn’t speak.<\/p>\n
Finally, he looked up at the little girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is your mother’s name?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEmma,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
The biker closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
Several of the men around the table lowered their heads.<\/p>\n
They knew that name.<\/p>\n
Years ago, Emma had become a familiar face at children’s hospitals throughout the state.<\/p>\n
While battling a serious illness herself, she spent countless hours encouraging other sick children.<\/p>\n
She always drew small stars on her arm.<\/p>\n
Then she would draw matching stars for the children she met.<\/p>\n
She called them \u201chope stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
The little girl looked at the bikers nervously.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom said if I ever needed help, I should find the riders with the eagle patch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grey-bearded biker touched the patch on his vest.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the younger bikers swallowed hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long has she been missing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThree days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The table fell silent.<\/p>\n
Three days.<\/p>\n
The girl’s voice trembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe left a note.\u201d<\/p>\n
She carefully removed a folded piece of paper from her pocket.<\/p>\n
The grey-bearded biker opened it.<\/p>\n
The handwriting was weak but recognizable.If Lily finds you, please help her.<\/p>\n
I don’t have much time left.<\/p>\n
But there is something I need to do before goodbye.<\/p>\n
The biker’s jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d asked another rider.<\/p>\n
The girl wiped away tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bikers exchanged serious looks.<\/p>\n
Then the grey-bearded biker stood.<\/p>\n
His chair scraped against the floor.<\/p>\n
Immediately, every biker in the booth stood with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cCall the chapters.\u201d<\/p>\n
The others nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery county.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery highway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery rest stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phones came out instantly.<\/p>\n
Within minutes, messages were spreading across biker groups throughout the region.<\/p>\n
The search had begun.<\/p>\n
By sunset, dozens of motorcycles were on the road.<\/p>\n
By midnight, hundreds.<\/p>\n
The little girl rode in a support vehicle beside the grey-bearded biker.<\/p>\n
Every time a lead came in, hope surged.<\/p>\n
Every time it failed, determination grew stronger.<\/p>\n
Then, shortly before dawn, a call arrived.<\/p>\n
A rider from a nearby coastal town had found something.<\/p>\n
A small cabin overlooking the ocean.<\/p>\n
The grey-bearded biker’s heart raced.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
An hour later, the motorcycles rolled onto the gravel driveway.<\/p>\n
The cabin stood alone against the morning sky.<\/p>\n
The girl held her breath.<\/p>\n
The biker approached the front door.<\/p>\n
Slowly, he knocked.<\/p>\n
No answer.<\/p>\n
He knocked again.<\/p>\n
Still nothing.<\/p>\n
Then he noticed a journal resting on the porch.<\/p>\n
His hands trembled as he opened it.<\/p>\n
The first page contained a message.<\/p>\n
Not to the bikers.<\/p>\n
Not to the girl.<\/p>\n
To him.<\/p>\n
The grey-bearded biker froze.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d one of the riders asked.<\/p>\n
His eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n
Because the message began with words he had never expected to read.Dear Jack,<\/p>\n
If you’re reading this, then Lily found you.<\/p>\n
The biker looked up in shock.<\/p>\n
Only one person had ever called him Jack.<\/p>\n
Emma.<\/p>\n
And what he read next revealed a secret she had been carrying for more than twenty years.<\/p>\n
A secret that would change both their lives forever.<\/p>\n
To be continued…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The diner remained silent. The grey-bearded biker stared at the hand-drawn stars. His eyes glistened. For a moment, he couldn’t speak. Finally, he looked up at the little girl. \u201cWhat is your mother’s name?\u201d \u201cEmma,\u201d she whispered. The biker closed his eyes. Several of the men around the table lowered their heads. They knew that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6766","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\/6766","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=6766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}