Chapter 2 — The Boy She Never Stopped Looking For
The word hit the alley harder than thunder.
"Mom?"
The woman stopped breathing.
Her knees nearly gave out.
Emily looked from the homeless boy to her mother, completely confused.
"Mom... do you know him?"
The woman couldn't answer.
She kept staring into the boy's face.
Those hazel eyes.
That tiny scar above his left eyebrow.
The shape of his smile—even hidden beneath dirt and hunger.
She had kissed that forehead thousands of times.
She had held those tiny hands when he took his first steps.
Her voice finally broke.
"...Noah?"
The boy blinked.
No one had called him that in years.
He lowered his head.
"They call me Nick now."
The woman covered her mouth as tears flooded her eyes.
Eight years ago...
Her four-year-old son had disappeared during a crowded charity festival.
Police searched rivers.
Forests.
Highways.
Volunteers covered the city with thousands of missing posters.
For six months she refused to stop searching.
For six years she refused to stop hoping.
Everyone told her to move on.
Her husband even had the court declare Noah legally presumed dead.
But she never celebrated his birthday without setting one extra plate at the table.
Never.
Slowly...
She stepped closer.
"I never stopped looking for you."
The boy's fingers tightened around the sandwich.
"I looked too."
His voice trembled.
"But... nobody ever came."
Silence swallowed the alley.
Emily quietly slipped her tiny hand into her mother's.
"Mom..."
"...is he my brother?"
The woman collapsed to her knees.
May you like
And this time...
She wrapped both of her children in her arms.
