Chapter 5 - FOUR YEARS OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Daniel received the first clue on a Tuesday morning.
A photograph.
Sent by Sophie.
No explanation.
Just a picture of a little girl standing outside a bookstore in Vermont.
Dark hair.
Gray-blue eyes.
A familiar frown.
Daniel stared.
Then called Sophie.
She answered immediately.
“Daniel.”
His voice was quiet.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
“Sophie.”
She began crying.
“I'm sorry.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Who is she?”
Sophie whispered:
“Emma's daughter.”
Daniel went still.
For several seconds, he couldn't breathe.
Then he asked:
“How old?”
Sophie hesitated.
“Three.”
Daniel stared at the photograph.
Three.
Almost four.
The timing.
The eyes.
The face.
His hand began shaking.
“Sophie.”
His voice broke.
“Is she mine?”
Silence.
Then Sophie whispered:
“I think so.”
Daniel sat down.
The room seemed to tilt.
Four years.
Four years without Emma.
Four years without knowing.
Four years of a child growing up somewhere in Vermont.
He looked at the photograph.
The little girl was smiling.
Holding a book.
Her hair was tied in two uneven pigtails.
Daniel covered his mouth.
Marcus entered.
“Daniel?”
He stopped.
“What happened?”
Daniel looked up.
His eyes were wet.
“I think I have a daughter.”
Marcus stared.
“What?”
Daniel held out the phone.
Marcus looked at the photograph.
Then slowly sat down.
“Oh, God.”
That evening, Daniel booked a flight to Burlington.
He didn't call Emma first.
He was afraid she'd disappear again.
But as the plane lifted into the sky, he realized something.
He wasn't flying to Vermont to demand a child.
May you like
He was flying to ask why he hadn't been allowed to know her.
And whether there was still a place for him in her life.
