The Girl Who Called Him Daddy

Chapter 1 - The Girl With His Face

James Whitmore had been walking with his daughter Sophie when she suddenly stopped.

“Daddy! That girl looks just like me!”

James turned.

A few steps away stood another little girl.

Same light brown hair.

Same eyes.

Same height.

Even the shape of her face was almost identical to Sophie's.

But everything else was different.

Sophie wore a clean cream dress and polished shoes.

The other girl wore an old gray sweater, faded trousers, and worn shoes. A bouquet of roses wrapped in brown paper was tucked beneath her arm.

Before James could speak, the girl rushed toward them.

She grabbed Sophie's hand and pulled it away from his.

“He's MY daddy! Let go!”

Sophie stared at her.

James froze.

The little stranger immediately took his right hand as if she had done it a thousand times.

James crouched.

“Who told you I'm your daddy?”

The girl's name was Ella.

She released his hand and pulled a folded photograph from the wrapping around her flowers.

“Mommy. She keeps your picture.”

James unfolded it.

His breath stopped.

The photograph was nearly seven years old.

He was standing in front of a lake house, younger, laughing, kissing a pregnant woman's forehead.

Rachel Bennett.

The woman he had once planned to marry.

The woman who disappeared before their wedding.

The woman his family told him had left with another man.

James touched the photograph.

“Where's your mommy?”

Ella looked across the street.

Then a woman's voice suddenly screamed:

“Ella! Get away from him!”

James looked up.

He knew that voice.

Rachel stood across the road.

Older.

Thinner.

A basket of flowers in her hands.

But unmistakably Rachel.

Their eyes met.

She looked terrified.

Not happy.

Not relieved.

Terrified.

James rose slowly.

“Rachel?”

She stepped backward.

And suddenly James understood something.

She had not returned looking for him.

She had spent seven years trying to stay away.