“Give it to me.”
My voice almost disappeared, softer than I wanted.
Kael stared at the photograph still gripped in his hands. For a long second, he just held it. Then, without a word, he let me have it. My fingers shook as I took the worn picture from him and looked down.
Three people stared back at me.
The man.
The woman.
The child.
Me.
My whole life, I’d told myself I didn’t remember my parents because there wasn't any reason to. There’d never been bedtime stories. No soft arms around me. Not one familiar voice calling my name. Just a blank space where family was supposed to live.
But now—right here in my hands—proof they were real.
And somehow, that emptiness inside me stung more. I reached out and touched the woman’s face—my mother. She looked just like the woman I saw throug
