Chapter 3: The Secret Someone Buried
The envelope stayed in my hand for ten minutes.
Maybe longer.
I couldn’t open it.
Not because I was afraid of what it said.
Because I was afraid it would prove what I already felt.
That my entire life had been built around a missing piece.
Eli stood beside the woman quietly.
Watching.
Waiting.
Like he had waited his whole life for this moment.
The woman noticed my hesitation.
“My name is Tasha,” she said.
I looked at her.
“Why do you know about me?””
She looked down.
“Because Maya trusted me.””
The name hit me again.
Maya.
After all these years, people were suddenly saying her name like she had never disappeared.
Like she had only been waiting somewhere outside my reach.
I looked at Eli.
“Where is she?””
Tasha didn’t answer immediately.
That silence told me more than words could.
My chest tightened.
“Where is Maya?””
Tasha looked away.
“I don’t know if I should tell you everything yet.””
My expression hardened.
“You brought this kid here.””
“I know.””
“You showed me that photograph.””
“I know.””
“You put an envelope with my name in my hands.””
“I know.””
My voice dropped.
“So don’t stand there and tell me there are things I shouldn’t know.””
Tasha flinched.
Eli looked between us.
“Please don’t fight.””
The words stopped me.
I looked at him.
He wasn’t scared.
He was disappointed.
That hurt worse.
I lowered my voice.
“I’m not fighting.””
Tasha watched me carefully.
“You really don’t remember?””
I frowned.
“Remember what?””
She looked at the old motorcycle pendant hanging from Eli’s neck.
“That.””
My eyes followed hers.
The pendant.
The one I had lost.
The one Maya had once held in her palm.
I remembered giving it to her.
Not as a gift.
As a promise.
“If anything happens,” I had told her, “this means I’ll come back.””
She had smiled.
“Then don’t make me wait.””
I had believed I would keep that promise.
I didn’t.
Life happened.
Mistakes happened.
And then one day, everything was gone.
“I lost that years ago,” I whispered.
Tasha nodded.
“Maya kept it.””
My eyes snapped to her.
“What?””
“She kept everything.””
I stared at her.
“Why?””
Tasha looked at Eli.
“Because she never stopped believing you would come back.””
The words hurt.
Because I had spent years believing the opposite.
I had convinced myself she left.
That she chose a different life.
That I was just another person she walked away from.
But what if I was wrong?
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a folded letter.
The paper was old.
The ink was faded.
My hands shook as I unfolded it.
The first line was enough to stop me.
“Bear, if you are reading this, then our son found you.””
Our son.
The words blurred.
I looked at Eli.
He was staring at me.
Waiting for an answer I couldn’t give.
I kept reading.
“I wanted to tell you the truth. I tried. More times than you will ever know.””
My heartbeat grew louder.
“She was afraid.””
I stopped.
She?
Who was she?
I read the next line.
“She knew what would happen if you found out.””
A cold feeling moved through me.
“What would happen?”” I whispered.
Tasha looked at me.
“I was hoping you could tell me.””
I looked up.
“What?””
She reached into her bag again.
This time, she pulled out another photograph.
Not old.
New.
A recent picture.
My eyes moved to it.
And every muscle in my body locked.
Because the person standing beside Maya in that photograph…
was someone I knew.
Someone I had spent years trying to forget.
Someone who should not have been anywhere near her.
Tasha saw my reaction.
“Bear…”
I couldn’t hear her.
My fingers tightened around the photograph.
The past had not just returned.
It had followed me.
May you like
And written on the back of that new photograph was a single sentence:
“He knows you found them.””
