Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WITH NO NAME
The search began with patient records recovered from St. Catherine's.
Most names had been altered.
Dates were inconsistent.
Several files had been deliberately misclassified.
But one record stood out.
A female patient admitted at eight years old.
Transferred repeatedly.
Listed under different names.
No verified family contact.
The final transfer record pointed to a private residential facility in Vermont.
The facility had closed seven years earlier.
Its residents had been moved to several locations.
Vivian contacted investigators.
Gabriel hired a licensed missing-person specialist.
Paige helped organize the documents.
After weeks of searching, they found a woman living in a supported residential community outside Burlington.
Her name was listed as Lucy Bennett.
She was thirty-two.
Her records showed a history of childhood trauma and memory disruption.
Gabriel stared at her photograph.
His hands trembled.
Paige looked at him.
“Do you think it's her?”
He swallowed.
“I don't know.”
They traveled to Vermont with a social worker and an investigator.
Gabriel insisted that Lucy's well-being come first.
He would not arrive with armed men.
He would not demand recognition.
The meeting took place in a quiet garden.
Lucy sat beside a fountain.
She had dark hair.
Warm brown eyes.
And a small scar above her left eyebrow.
Gabriel stopped walking.
Paige watched his face.
He looked as though the ground had disappeared beneath him.
Lucy looked up.
“Hello.”
Gabriel couldn't speak.
The social worker introduced him.
“This is Gabriel. He believes he may be someone from your childhood.”
Lucy studied him.
Then frowned.
“Gabriel?”
His eyes filled.
She looked toward the fountain.
“I remember a boy.”
Gabriel took a breath.
“What boy?”
Lucy smiled faintly.
“He used to tell me stories when I couldn't sleep.”
Gabriel's voice broke.
“What stories?”
Lucy closed her eyes.
“About a dragon who guarded a silver moon.”
Gabriel covered his mouth.
It had been their story.
A ridiculous tale he invented when Lucia was little.
No one else knew it.
He knelt beside her.
“Lucia.”
She looked at him.
For a moment, her expression was uncertain.
Then she whispered:
“Gabe?”
Gabriel began crying.
Paige stepped back.
Some reunions were too sacred to interrupt.
But as Gabriel embraced his sister, Paige understood something.
May you like
The man everyone feared had spent half his life searching for someone he couldn't protect.
And now, at last, he had found her.
