For the first time, the woman looked directly into Clara’s eyes, and there was nothing wild or confused in her gaze. There was only a profound, bottomless sadness.
“They took you,” the woman said, her voice cracking. “They said I wasn’t fit to be a mother. Then they told me you were gone. But you’re not. You’re right here. My baby. My little Star.”
Clara’s heart hammered against her ribs. Star. That name. It was a secret, a sound nobody on earth should know. It unlocked a wisp of a memory, something from before her “real” life began—a name whispered in a soft lullaby, just on the edge of her consciousness.
Overwhelmed and terrified, Clara turned and ran. She didn’t stop until she burst through her front door, soaking wet and shaking from more than just the cold.
She went straight to her parents in the living room.
“Who is that woman in the park?” Clara demanded. “How does she know about the birthmark I have behind my ear? And why… why did she call me Star?”
Mark and Elaine Carter exchanged a look. All the color drained from their faces, leaving them pale. A heavy, suffocating silence filled the room, more telling than any answer could have been.
It was Elaine who finally broke the quiet, her voice trembling. “Clara, honey… there are some things about your adoption that we… we never told you.”
Clara felt like she couldn’t breathe. “What things?”
Elaine took a shaky breath, seemingly gathering the courage to speak. The truth was right on the verge of coming out. But just then, the sharp ring of the doorbell cut through the tension.
Standing on the porch, completely drenched by the rain, was the woman from the park.
Mark instantly moved to the doorway, putting a protective arm out to shield Clara. “You can’t be here. You need to leave, now,” he said. His voice was unsteady, but he tried to sound firm.
The woman’s eyes were wide, not with anger, but with a desperate, pleading look. “Please,” she begged. “Just let me talk to her. Just one time.”…
