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CHAPTER 2: THE LOST CHILD

The following week, Ethan launched an investigation.

Old records were reopened.

Photographs were examined.

Witnesses were interviewed.

Then came the discovery.

Twenty years earlier, Ethan's father had been involved in a terrible car accident during a storm.

His wife and infant daughter disappeared that same night.

Everyone believed the child had died.

But there had never been a body.

Only assumptions.

As investigators dug deeper, another shocking truth emerged.

Lily's late mother had adopted her shortly after that accident.

The adoption papers were incomplete.

The child had been found alone near the wreckage.

No identification.

No family records.

Only one possession.

A pearl necklace.

The same necklace Sophia had destroyed.

DNA tests were arranged immediately.

Days later, Ethan sat in a private laboratory waiting for the results.

The doctor entered holding a folder.

His hands were shaking.

"The results are conclusive."

Ethan could barely breathe.

"Lily is your sister."

For a moment, the world stopped.

Twenty years.

Twenty years of loss.

Twenty years of unanswered questions.

And she had been alive the entire time.