Chapter 4: The Call From the Past
The phone kept ringing.
Nia stared at the screen.
Her mother’s name glowed beneath the word *INCOMING CALL*.
For eight years, that name had existed only in memories.
A photograph on a shelf.
A voice saved in old videos.
A handwritten birthday card tucked inside a drawer.
Not here.
Not now.
Not on a toy store register while a stranger from her childhood stood across from her holding secrets.
Bear watched her carefully.
“Don’t answer.””
Nia looked at him.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.””
“I know.””
“Then why are you?””
His eyes moved to the phone.
“Because I know what happens when you open a door that someone spent years keeping locked.””
The phone rang again.
Nia’s finger hovered over the screen.
“What are you afraid I’ll hear?””
Bear didn’t respond.
That scared her more than anything.
She pressed the answer button.
“Hello?””
At first, there was only silence.
A faint sound of breathing.
Nia’s grip tightened.
“Hello?””
Then a voice came through.
A voice she had not heard in years.
A voice that belonged to the woman who used to sing to her while making pancakes on Sunday mornings.
“Nia?””
Her knees nearly gave out.
“Mom?””
Bear’s expression changed instantly.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Like he had been waiting for this exact moment.
Nia turned away from him.
“Mom? Is this really you?””
The voice on the other end shook.
“Oh my God.””
A pause.
“You found him.””
Nia froze.
The entire store disappeared.
The Christmas music.
The children.
The customers.
Everything.
“What did you say?””
Her mother breathed heavily.
“Nia, listen to me carefully.””
“No.””
Nia’s voice sharpened.
“You listen to me. You have spent my entire life refusing to talk about my father. You disappeared.
You left me with questions. And now I find a man with my childhood picture saying you lied to me.””
Bear lowered his head.
The voice on the phone became quieter.
“Is he there?””
Nia looked at him.
“Yes.””
A long silence followed.
Then her mother whispered:
“I’m sorry.””
Those two words hurt more than anger.
Nia closed her eyes.
“No.””
She shook her head.
“No, you don’t get to say sorry and make everything disappear.””
“I know.””
“Why didn’t you tell me about him?””
Silence.
“Mom?””
“I was trying to protect you.””
Nia laughed bitterly.
“From what?””
The answer came slowly.
“From the truth.””
Bear stepped closer.
Nia looked at him.
The man who had walked into her store with a hundred princess dolls.
The man who carried a photograph of her as a child.
The man who looked like he had been waiting decades for this conversation.
Her mother continued.
“Nia, you need to leave the store.””
“What?””
“Leave now.””
“Why?””
Another pause.
Then:
“Because if Bear is there, then they know.””
Nia’s face tightened.
“Who is they?””
Her mother didn’t answer.
The line crackled.
“Mom?””
Only silence.
Then the call ended.
Nia stared at the phone.
She slowly lowered it.
Bear watched her.
“She told you to leave.””
Nia looked up.
“You heard?””
“I heard enough.””
“Who are they?””
Bear’s jaw clenched.
“I was hoping you’d never have to ask that question.””
“That’s not an answer.””
“No.””
He looked toward the store entrance.
The bright Christmas decorations reflected in the glass doors.
“The people who took everything from us.””
Nia felt a chill despite the warm store.
“What does that mean?””
Bear looked back at her.
“It means your mother wasn’t hiding me because she hated me.””
Nia waited.
“She was hiding me because someone wanted me gone.””
A sudden noise interrupted them.
A shopping cart rolled across the floor after a child accidentally pushed it.
Nia jumped.
Her nerves were stretched thin.
She hated feeling afraid.
She hated that this stranger had walked into her life and turned everything upside down.
But she hated something else more.
Part of her believed him.
“Where is this box?””
Bear looked at the key in her hand.
“I don’t know.””
Nia frowned.
“You said my mother hid it.””
“She did.””
“Then why don’t you know where it is?””
“Because she never trusted me with the location.””
Nia stared.
“You loved her, but she didn’t trust you?””
Bear looked away.
“She trusted me with her life.””
A pause.
“But not with yours.””
The words hit harder than expected.
Nia looked at the photograph.
The little girl holding the doll.
A little girl who had a father-shaped hole in her life without knowing it.
“I need answers.””
Bear nodded.
“I know.””
“No. You don’t.””
Her voice cracked.
“I need to know why my mother erased you.””
Bear stepped closer.
“You also need to know why she brought you back to this store.””
Nia frowned.
“What?””
He pointed toward the old photograph.
“Look at the background.””
She stared.
Behind the little girl was a blurry wall.
A Christmas display.
A small sign.
Her eyes narrowed.
She recognized it.
The same toy store.
But older.
Before renovations.
“This was here?””
Bear nodded.
“She brought you here every Christmas.””
Nia shook her head.
“I don’t remember.””
“You were young.””
He looked at the picture.
“But she remembered.””
Nia looked at the key.
Then at the phone.
Then at Bear.
And for the first time, she asked the question she had been avoiding.
“If you’re telling the truth…”
Her voice lowered.
“Why did you wait thirty years to find me?””
Bear’s face changed.
Pain.
Regret.
Something deeper.
“I didn’t.””
Nia stared.
“What?””
He reached into his vest and pulled out another photograph.
A newer one.
One that made her blood run cold.
Because it was a picture of her.
Taken outside this exact toy store.
Only three days earlier.
Nia’s heart stopped.
May you like
Bear whispered:
“I’ve been looking for you for years.””
