Chapter 2
I shook my head, still half asleep.
"No... ma'am. Should I?"
She stepped closer, her eyes searching mine.
"I'm Vivianne Sterling," she said. "And I've been looking for you. For a very long time."
My heart gave a strange, hard thud.
Sterling.
That was the name on the documents my mother had left me. The name she’d whispered in her final days. The name she’d said belonged to the family she’d left behind.
Vivianne pulled a photograph from her coat.
It showed a woman with my eyes, my smile. Standing beside her... a younger Vivianne.
"This is your mother," she said, her voice softening. "She was my sister. And you... you are my niece."
The world tilted.
I gripped the doorframe.
"My mother... had a sister?"
"She had a whole family," Vivianne said. "We had money. We had everything. But she left. To marry your father. And then... she lost touch. We never stopped looking. Never."
She stepped past me into the small apartment. Her gaze took in everything—the chipped cups, the empty shelves, Tyler sitting quietly on the mattress.
"And this is Tyler?" she asked gently.
Tyler stood up.
"Hi," he said. "Are you here to help us?"
May you like
Vivianne’s eyes filled. She knelt down before him.
"Yes," she said. "I am here to help you. And I am here to bring you both home."
