The room went silent.
No one moved.
No one dared to breathe.
The old photograph trembled slightly between the woman's fingers.
Under the flickering emergency lights, Linh could see every detail.
The faded colors.
The familiar face of her father.
The torn edge where someone had been removed.
And the woman standing beside him.
A woman whose identity had been hidden for twenty-two years.
Linh stared at the photograph as if it could answer every question she had carried inside her heart.
"Where did you get that?"
Her voice was low.
Almost afraid.
The woman in black looked at her for a long moment.
"Your mother kept it until the day she disappeared."
Linh's fingers tightened around the notebook beneath her coat.
"Don't say that."
The woman's expression softened.
"Why?"
"Beca
