Three Girls, One Stolen Life

Chapter 1 - Three Faces

The old teddy bear stopped against Daniel Ashford's shoe.

A moment earlier, his daughter had been looking back at him, smiling over the collar of her pale blue coat. Now another little girl sat on the pavement, her hair hiding her face.

“HEY! You hurt my sister!”

The second girl bent over the first. Both wore faded brown dresses. Neither had shoes.

Daniel crouched beside them.

“Let me help. Does anything hurt?”

The fallen child shook her head. He supported her arms while her sister helped her stand.

“I'm sorry,” Sophie whispered, clutching her clean bear.

The girl lifted her face.

Daniel's hand went still.

He knew those brown eyes. He knew the small nose, the shape of the mouth, the little crease that appeared between the eyebrows when something was wrong.

Then the sister turned toward him.

The same face again.

Sophie stepped closer. For one impossible moment, three versions of his daughter stood beneath the hanging flowers.

“Daddy… they look just like me.”

Daniel tried to answer. His gaze caught on a chain at the standing sister's neck.

An oval silver locket rested against her faded collar.

“That locket…”

The girl covered it with her hand.

“That's the only thing mommy left.”

She opened it carefully, keeping the chain around her neck. Daniel steadied the bottom without taking it away.

Inside was a photograph he had taken beside a lake seven years earlier.

A woman looked over her shoulder, laughing. Her hair had blown across one cheek. He remembered lowering the camera because she had asked him to come into the picture.

“That's my wife.”

The girl snapped the locket shut.

“Then why didn't you come?”