Two Girls, One Face, and the Name He Buried for Seven Years

CHAPTER 1 - THE GIRL BY THE FLOWERS

"Daddy, look! She looks exactly like me!"

Daniel Carter stopped so suddenly that his daughter almost swung against his leg.

They had been walking past the flower shop on Fifth, on their way to bring peonies to his mother. Saturday traffic rolled by. A dark sedan idled at the curb. Buckets of roses and tulips crowded the sidewalk.

But Emma wasn't looking at the flowers.

She was staring at a girl standing alone near the shop window.

The child wore a gray coat too thin for the spring wind. In one hand, she held a wrinkled brown paper bag. She had the same pale brown hair as Emma. The same sharp little chin. The same wide hazel eyes.

For one impossible second, Daniel thought he was looking at his own daughter in a different dress.

Emma stepped forward, bold the way only six-year-olds can be.

"You have my face!"

The other girl lifted her chin. "No, you have mine."

Daniel felt a chill go through him.

He crouched between them. "Sweetheart, what's your name?"

The girl tightened her grip on the paper bag. Her voice was calm, almost guarded.

"Ruby Carter."

He forgot how to breathe.

Ruby.

The name struck him like a hand to the chest. Not because it was common. Because he had chosen it once, years ago, in a hospital room with a woman he loved and lost in the same season.

Then he saw it.

A small silver pendant hanging at the girl's throat. Half hidden beneath her coat. Oval-shaped, with a tiny etched rose.

Daniel knew that pendant.

He had bought it in a gift shop beside St. Agnes Hospital the day before Laura went into labor.

A woman's voice cut across the street.

"Ruby! Come here, sweetheart!"

The girl spun at once. She clutched the bag and ran.

Daniel rose so fast his knee protested. "Emma, stay here with Mrs. Flores!"

The florist had already rushed forward, taking Emma's hand.

Daniel ran after the gray coat.

At the corner, the child reached a blond woman waiting beside the dark sedan.

The woman turned.

And Daniel knew her.

It was Laura's sister, Melanie.