“Please.”
My hands began shaking.
I unclasped the chain.
Richard took one step closer, then stopped as though afraid to frighten me.
Eleanor reached beneath her gown and pulled out a gold chain.
Something silver hung from it.
Half a sun.
My lungs stopped working.
She placed it beside mine.
The broken edges aligned perfectly.
Nobody spoke.
Julian stared between the two pieces.
Then laughed.
It was the wrong reaction.
A thin, nervous sound.
“You can buy matching jewelry anywhere.”
Eleanor looked at him as if she had just discovered something unpleasant on her shoe.
“No.”
She turned both pieces over.
On hers, the engraving was clearer.
E.K.
My light always returns.
On mine, the same phrase was worn nearly smooth.
Richard closed his eyes.
When he opened them, tears had spilled down his face.
“Elena,” he said.
But the name sounded wrong in his mouth.
Like he was trying to fit thirty years of grief inside two syllables.
“What year were you found?”
I told him.
“Where?”
“Near Fort Worth.”
“What month?”
“October.”
Eleanor made a sound like a sob she had spent decades holding.
Richard reached toward me, then stopped.
“Do you have a scar?”
My hand went unconsciously to my collarbone.
A small burn.
Always there.
His knees seemed to weaken.
Eleanor grabbed his arm.
Julian whispered, “What is happening?”
Richard looked at me.
“Thirty years ago, my daughter disappeared after a vehicle fire outside Fort Worth.”
The ballroom disappeared around me.
Not literally.
But I stopped seeing people.
I saw only Richard.
Eleanor.
The two halves of silver.
“We were told nobody survived,” Eleanor said. “But they never recovered Elizabeth.”
Elizabeth.
The name entered me like a memory I didn’t have.
Richard’s voice broke.
“My daughter’s name was Elizabeth Kensington.”
I shook my head.
“I’m Elena Vance.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I know.”
He looked terrified.
Not of me.
Of hope.
“There was a necklace.”
He pointed to the silver sun.
“My wife commissioned it after Elizabeth was born. Eleanor had the other half.”
Eleanor nodded through tears.
“We called her our little light.”
My hands began to tremble so badly that the necklace clicked against my ring.
“Mrs. Rosa said I had it when I was found.”
“Mrs. Rosa?”
“The woman who raised me.”
Richard’s face twisted.
“She saved you.”
I wanted to sit.
Instead, I remained standing because moving felt impossible.
Julian suddenly stepped close.
Too close.
“Baby.”
The word nearly made me laugh.
He had not called me that in months.
He reached for my waist.
I moved away.
“Elena, this is unbelievable.”
His face was transformed.