Chapter 1 - The Boy Across the Street
Noah stopped so suddenly Emma nearly walked into him.
Manhattan traffic rolled beside them. Horns, footsteps and conversation filled the bright sidewalk, but Noah seemed to hear none of it.
“Mom... why does he look like me?”
Emma followed his stare.
A barefoot boy sat against a metal pole.
Dirty gray hoodie.
Scraped knees.
Dark brown hair falling over exhausted eyes.
Emma’s first thought was impossible.
Noah.
Except Noah stood beside her in a navy coat.
The stranger raised his face.
Emma’s hand tightened instinctively around Noah’s shoulder.
The boys looked almost identical.
Same eyes.
Same nose.
Same crooked left eyebrow.
The second boy slowly stood.
Noah stepped forward.
Emma stopped him.
The boy looked directly at her.
“You’re her.”
Emma lowered her sunglasses.
“Do I know you?”
He reached into his hoodie.
Emma tensed.
He pulled out a battered silver locket.
His hand trembled as he placed it in Noah’s palm.
“She told me to find my brother.”
Emma stopped breathing.
Noah handed her the locket.
She pressed the clasp.
CLICK.
Inside were photographs of two newborn boys.
Beneath them:
TO OUR TWIN SONS.
Emma’s legs nearly gave way.
She knew those photographs.
They had been taken at St. Vincent Medical Center seven years earlier.
One was Noah.
The other was the baby Emma had been told died less than an hour after birth.
Her second son.
Liam.
Then Emma saw another inscription, smaller and newer.
SHE KNOWS WHO TOOK ME.
“Where did you get this?”
Liam’s attention moved past her.
His face went white.
A black luxury SUV pulled sharply to the curb.
Liam grabbed Noah’s wrist.
“That’s the car.”
The rear passenger door opened.
Liam hid behind Emma.
“She’s the woman who took me.”
A woman’s high heel appeared.
Emma stared.
Then a familiar hand gripped the doorframe.
The woman stepped down.
Emma whispered:
“No.”
Seven years earlier, Emma had stood beside a grave with this woman’s name carved into stone.
“Rachel?”
Her older sister stopped beside the SUV.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Emma could barely force the words out.
“That woman died seven years ago.”
Rachel looked at Liam.
Then at Emma.
May you like
And said only:
“Don’t let him run again.”
