Chapter 2: The Voice I Never Knew
PART 2 ⬇️
I couldn't move.
The photograph was shaking in my hand.
Two babies.
My birthday.
My father's arms.
And a name I had never heard in my entire life.
"Who is he?" My voice came out flat.
"Where is he now?"
The old man looked at me steadily.
"He was told you d*ed at birth.
Same as you were told about him."
The room tilted.
I turned to Emily.
"How long have you known?"
She couldn't look at me.
"Emily.
How long?"
"Before we got married." She whispered it so quietly I almost missed it.
Something cold moved through my chest.
"You knew before we got married."
She nodded.
"And you said nothing."
"I was trying to protect you."
"From what?
From knowing I had a brother?"
She finally looked up.
Her eyes were red and swollen.
"From what he got pulled into, Ryan.
You don't understand what happened to him."
The little girl in the passage made a small sound.
She was still clutching her bread.
Still watching me.
I crouched down slowly.
"What's your name, sweetheart?"
She hesitated.
"Mia."
"Who brought you here, Mia?"
She looked at the old man.
Then back at me.
"My daddy said if anything happened to him...
find the wall.
Find Lily."
My throat closed.
"What happened to your daddy?"
Her chin trembled.
Before she could answer, my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I answered it.
A man's voice.
Low.
Exhausted.
Like someone speaking from the edge of something.
"Ryan."
I had never heard that voice before in my life.
And yet somehow...
I knew it.
---
What Ryan heard next on that phone call changed everything he thought he knew about his own life.
The full story — including who made that call and what Emily had been hiding for years — is in the link below.
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