Chapter 2: The Mark I Never Forgot
My hands were shaking so badly I had to grip the edge of the tub to keep from falling.
That birthmark.
A small crescent, just below the right shoulder blade.
I had seen it before.
I had traced it with my own fingertip, twenty years ago, on the last night I ever saw my mother.
"Are you all right?" Lucy asked softly, watching me.
I couldn't speak.
I reached into the pocket of my cardigan with trembling fingers and pulled out the locket I had carried every single day for two decades.
I pressed it open.
Inside was a photograph so worn the edges had gone soft.
A young woman holding a baby girl.
And on the young woman's right shoulder, just visible above her dress — a tiny crescent mark.
Lucy stared at the photo.
The color drained from her face.
"Where did you get that?" she whispered.
"My mother gave it to me," I said.
"The night she disappeared."
Lucy's hand rose slowly to cover her mouth.
Her eyes filled with something I had never seen in a stranger's face before — recognition.
Deep, broken, terrified recognition.
"Mariana…" she breathed.
She said my name like she had said it before.
Like she had said it a thousand times in the dark.
Then the bathroom door swung open behind us.
Alejandro stood in the doorway.
And the expression on his face told me he already knew.
He had known all along.
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What Alejandro reveals next will shatter everything Mariana thought she understood about her own life.
The full story — including the truth about Lucy, the secret Alejandro has been keeping, and what happened twenty years ago — is in the link below.
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