The shopping plaza seemed to fade away.<\/p>\n
The businesswoman stared at the boy.<\/p>\n
Her hands trembled as she held the silver locket.<\/p>\n
Inside the faded photograph were two smiling girls.<\/p>\n
One was her.<\/p>\n
The other was her younger sister, Sarah.<\/p>\n
The sister she had not seen in twenty-three years.<\/p>\n
Tears filled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat’s your name?\u201d she asked softly.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy smiled nervously.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom said you would know who she was the moment you saw the locket.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Sarah had worn that locket every day growing up.<\/p>\n
After their parents died, it had become her most treasured possession.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is she?\u201d the woman asked.<\/p>\n
The smile disappeared from Ethan’s face.<\/p>\n
He slowly lowered his head.<\/p>\n
The woman’s heart sank.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan… where is your mother?\u201d<\/p>\n
The boy reached into his backpack.<\/p>\n
He carefully pulled out a sealed envelope.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me to give you this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman immediately recognized the handwriting.<\/p>\n
Her breath caught.<\/p>\n
\u201cSarah…\u201d<\/p>\n
With trembling fingers, she opened the letter.<\/p>\n
The first line made tears stream down her cheeks.Dear Emily,<\/p>\n
If you’re reading this, Ethan found you.<\/p>\n
The busy sounds of the plaza seemed to disappear.<\/p>\n
Emily continued reading.I’ve wanted to find you for years.<\/p>\n
More times than I can count.<\/p>\n
Her vision blurred.<\/p>\n
For decades, she had believed Sarah abandoned the family.<\/p>\n
Now every word challenged that belief. never stopped loving you.<\/p>\n
Emily covered her mouth.<\/p>\n
The boy watched quietly.<\/p>\n
Then she reached the next page.<\/p>\n
Suddenly her expression changed.<\/p>\n
The tears remained.<\/p>\n
But now there was shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d Ethan asked.<\/p>\n
Emily stared at the letter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis can’t be right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice barely worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can’t?\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily slowly turned the page toward him.<\/p>\n
There, written in Sarah’s own handwriting, was a sentence neither of them expected.I didn’t disappear by choice.<\/p>\n
The fountain splashed softly nearby.<\/p>\n
Neither of them noticed.<\/p>\n
Emily’s heart raced.<\/p>\n
For twenty-three years she had believed her sister walked away.<\/p>\n
But according to the letter, someone had deliberately kept them apart.<\/p>\n
Someone had intercepted letters.<\/p>\n
Blocked messages.<\/p>\n
And lied to both sisters.<\/p>\n
Ethan looked confused.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho would do that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily continued reading.<\/p>\n
Then a small photograph slipped from the envelope.<\/p>\n
It landed on the stone walkway.<\/p>\n
Emily picked it up.<\/p>\n
The moment she saw it, the color drained from her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo…\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d Ethan asked.<\/p>\n
The photograph showed Sarah standing beside a man.<\/p>\n
A man Emily recognized instantly.<\/p>\n
A man she had trusted for more than twenty years.<\/p>\n
A man who had helped manage the family estate after their parents died.<\/p>\n
And written on the back of the photo were six chilling words:He made sure we stayed apart.<\/p>\n
Emily looked up slowly.<\/p>\n
Across the plaza stood the glass headquarters of her company.<\/p>\n
The same company that man still worked for.<\/p>\n
The same man she was scheduled to meet in less than an hour.<\/p>\n
For the first time in decades, she finally knew where to look for answers.<\/p>\n
And she intended to get them.<\/p>\n
To be continued…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The shopping plaza seemed to fade away. The businesswoman stared at the boy. Her hands trembled as she held the silver locket. Inside the faded photograph were two smiling girls. One was her. The other was her younger sister, Sarah. The sister she had not seen in twenty-three years. Tears filled her eyes. \u201cWhat’s your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6790","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\/6790","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=6790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}