The Birthday Gift That Brought Her Mother Back

CHAPTER 2 - A WOMAN BURIED WITHOUT A BODY

"My wife died in a storm eight years ago."

Daniel heard himself say the words, but they felt weak now, like something memorized instead of believed.

The guests had been ushered inside. The cake sat melting in the late afternoon heat. Emily was back in her wheelchair, though she kept gripping the arms as if she might rise again any second.

The boy stood near the terrace door, guarded by Daniel's sister Ruth, who had more sense than fear. She had washed the dirt from his face with a damp napkin. Under the grime, he looked younger. Freckled. Exhausted.

"What is your name?" Daniel asked.

"Oliver."

"And where did you get that locket?"

Oliver glanced at Emily first, as if she mattered most. "From my mom."

Daniel's chest hardened. "No. That was my wife's."

Oliver didn't flinch. "She said it used to be hers. She said if I found you, you'd open it and know I wasn't lying."

Ruth looked at Daniel. "Maybe we should call the police."

Emily shook her head fiercely. "No."

Daniel crouched in front of Oliver. "If someone told you to come here and play a cruel trick, tell me now."

Oliver's chin trembled for the first time. "It's not a trick. She said my time was running out."

That landed harder than anything else.

"Your time for what?" Ruth asked.

Oliver pressed a hand to the side of his chest, just under his ribs. "For my heart."

The room went still.

He explained in pieces. His mother had been sick for months. They had been moving from motel to motel. She had finally taken him to a church shelter two towns away. Three nights earlier, she gave him the locket, a paper with Daniel's address, and enough bus money to get here.

"She said if I waited any longer, she wouldn't be able to ask," he whispered.

Daniel's pulse pounded in his throat. "Where is she now?"

Oliver looked at the floor.

"At Saint Agnes shelter. In room twelve."

Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded hospital paper.

At the top, above a list of test results, was the mother's name:

Lena Moreno.