Chapter 16 - The Girl With the Silver Moon
Seven years after Saint Anne’s became the Elena Vale Family Center, a social worker called me downstairs.
“There’s someone you should meet.”
A little girl sat in the lobby.
Six years old.
Brown hair.
Oversized backpack.
She was clutching a cheap silver moon necklace.
My breath caught.
Not because the necklace resembled mine.
Because her expression did.
Suspicious.
Quiet.
Watching every adult for danger.
Her name was Lily.
Her mother had disappeared during a domestic crisis.
Nobody knew whether she had left voluntarily.
Lily had been told very little.
I sat several feet away.
“Hi.”
She stared.
“My name’s Mara.”
Nothing.
“I like your necklace.”
Her hand closed around it.
“My mom gave it to me.”
“Then you should keep it safe.”
“You have one too.”
I touched mine.
“My mom gave me mine.”
“Where’s your mom?”
The question hurt less than it once would have.
“She died before I found her again.”
Lily considered that.
“Did she leave you?”
“No.”
“People said mine left me.”
I recognized the anger.
“People don’t always know everything.”
She looked at me.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I waited until I knew more.”
That became the beginning of our friendship.
The center eventually helped locate Lily’s mother safely.
Their reunion happened privately.
No cameras.
No headlines.
Just a child running across a room.
I watched from the hallway.
Gabriel stood beside me.
“You okay?”
I nodded.
“I used to think my story was about finding you.”
“And now?”
I watched Lily hug her mother.
“Maybe it was about what I could do after.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Elena would say the same.”
This time, imagining my mother did not feel like grief.
May you like
It felt like company.
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