Chapter 4
The room was silent.
James still held the phone in his trembling hand.
No one spoke.
No one breathed.
Finally, Eli whispered through tears,
"...That was her."
James looked at him.
"You recognized the voice?"
Eli nodded immediately.
"I hear Mom's voice every day in my dreams."
"I'd know it anywhere."
Little Mia began crying.
"I told everyone she wasn't dead."
"No one believed me."
Sarah quickly grabbed the phone.
"We can trace the call."
She dialed the police cyber unit.
Minutes later...
The technician called back.
"The signal bounced through several prepaid devices."
"It lasted only twelve seconds."
"But..."
He paused.
"We have one location."
James leaned forward.
"Where?"
"An abandoned train station..."
"...about thirty miles outside the city."
James didn't hesitate.
"We're going."
An hour later...
Three black SUVs rolled through heavy rain toward the abandoned station.
Broken windows rattled in the wind.
Rust covered the old tracks.
The building looked empty.
Yet one light glowed faintly inside.
James stepped out first.
"Eli."
He knelt beside the boy.
"You stay behind me."
Eli shook his head.
"If Mom's inside..."
"I'm going."
James couldn't argue.
They entered slowly.
The station echoed with dripping rainwater.
Old ticket booths sat covered in dust.
Then...
They heard footsteps.
A woman emerged from the darkness.
She wore a gray hooded coat.
Her face was hidden.
She stopped beneath a broken ceiling window where moonlight fell across the floor.
For several seconds...
Nobody moved.
Then...
She slowly lowered her hood.
Eli screamed.
"Mom!"
He broke free from James and ran.
The woman dropped to her knees just in time to catch both children as they threw themselves into her arms.
She held them so tightly she could barely breathe.
"My babies..."
"My babies..."
"I missed you every single day."
James felt tears fill his eyes.
It really was Laura.
Older.
Exhausted.
A thin scar stretched across one side of her face.
But unmistakably...
His little sister.
James slowly walked toward her.
Neither knew what to say.
Eleven years.
Thousands of sleepless nights.
Countless unanswered questions.
Finally...
Laura stood.
She looked at her brother.
"I'm sorry."
James immediately pulled her into his arms.
"No."
"I'm the one who's sorry."
They cried together while the children clung to them both.
For one beautiful moment...
Everything seemed over.
The family had found each other.
Until...
Laura suddenly looked toward the station entrance.
Her smile disappeared.
"James..."
"We have to leave."
He frowned.
"Why?"
Her voice shook.
"Because he followed us."
Before James could ask who...
A slow clap echoed through the empty station.
Everyone turned.
A tall man stepped out from the shadows.
Dark coat.
Gray hair.
Cold smile.
He held a pistol loosely at his side.
"So..."
"The reunion finally happened."
Laura's face turned white.
She instinctively pulled the children behind her.
James stepped forward.
"Victor."
The man smiled.
"Hello, James."
Sarah whispered,
"He really is alive..."
Victor laughed.
"You people buried the wrong body."
"And then stopped looking."
He looked directly at Laura.
"I told you..."
"You could run forever."
"But I'd always find you."
James clenched his fists.
"What do you want?"
Victor shrugged.
"The same thing I've wanted for eleven years."
Laura closed her eyes.
"No..."
Victor smiled.
"Yes."
He slowly removed a folded document from his coat pocket.
Then tossed it onto the dusty station floor.
James picked it up.
His heart nearly stopped.
It was a birth certificate.
Mother:
Laura Marie Harrison
Father:
Victor Kane
James looked at Eli.
Then back at Victor.
"No..."
Victor's smile widened.
"I think it's time your nephew learned the truth."
Laura screamed,
"Don't listen to him!"
Victor calmly pointed the gun toward the ceiling.
"I am Eli's biological father."
The words echoed through the abandoned station.
Eli stared at his mother.
Then at Victor.
Unable to understand.
Unable to breathe.
Victor took one slow step forward.
And said the sentence that shattered the reunion into pieces.
May you like
"Laura didn't spend eleven years hiding from me..."
"...she spent eleven years protecting my son."
