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Chapter 3: The Pull of Truth
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2026-01-02 05:38:09Ethan Kael didn’t believe in coincidences.
Not in business. Not in life. And definitely not in children who looked like ghosts from his past.
Yet hours after the celebration had died down, after the drums were quiet and the village settled back into its slow rhythm, he couldn’t shake the image of the girl—Crystal. The way she’d laughed. The way her eyes had held his for a split second longer than normal. The way his chest had reacted before his brain could catch up.
It made no sense.
And that irritated him.
He stood by the window of the temporary lodge the village council had offered him, fingers loosening his tie as twilight crept in. The sky was streaked with orange and purple, peaceful in a way that felt unfamiliar. Too quiet. Too real.
He reached into his inner pocket without thinking.
The necklace slid into his palm.
The chain was thinner now, worn by time, but the pendant was unmistakable—simple, silver, shaped like a crescent moon with a tiny crack running through the center. He had memorized every flaw in it. Ten years ago, it had slipped through his fingers during the most reckless night of his life.
He had searched for the owner. She had vanished.
And now—this village. This child. This feeling.
“Ridiculous,” he muttered, closing his fist around the pendant.
Still, he couldn’t let it go.
The next morning, Ethan requested a tour of the village—not the polished version prepared for investors, but the real one. The farms. The school. The market. The people.
Mayor Jonah Reed, a stout man with kind eyes and a nervous habit of clearing his throat, hesitated. “Sir, the roads aren’t exactly… corporate-friendly.”
“I didn’t come for comfort,” Ethan replied coolly. “I came for clarity.”
That settled it.
They walked through narrow paths where vendors greeted Ethan with cautious smiles. Children paused their games to stare. Women whispered. Men nodded respectfully. Ethan acknowledged them all, but his eyes scanned faces with intent.
He wasn’t looking for buildings.
He was looking for her.
Amara felt it before she saw him.
A pressure in her chest.
A tightening in her throat.
She was at the back of the local clinic, helping Nurse Selene sort supplies, when the murmur of voices outside shifted. The energy changed—like the air before a storm.
Selene peeked out the door. “That must be the investor everyone’s talking about. Tall one. Looks serious.”
Amara’s hands stilled.
“No,” she whispered.
But it was already too late.
She stepped outside—and there he was.
Ethan Kael, in the flesh. Closer than he had ever been. Not a memory. Not a nightmare. Real. Solid. Dangerous.
Their eyes met.
The world narrowed.
For Ethan, it felt like being hit square in the chest. The woman before him wasn’t the girl he remembered—not exactly. She was stronger now. Quieter. There was something guarded in her posture, something unyielding in her gaze.
But it was her.
The curve of her lips.
The storm in her eyes.
The face he had tried—and failed—to forget.
“You,” he said, before he could stop himself.
Amara’s breath caught, but she didn’t flinch. “Sir. You must be lost.”
That calm? It was an act. And Ethan saw straight through it.
“I don’t think so.”
The silence stretched, thick and unbearable. Mayor Jonah sensed the tension and awkwardly cleared his throat. “Mr. Kael, this is Amara. She volunteers here and—”
“I know who she is,” Ethan interrupted softly.
Amara’s heart slammed against her ribs. No. You don’t.
She lifted her chin. “With respect, you don’t.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
Ten years. Ten years of unanswered questions. And now she stood in front of him like he was nothing more than a stranger passing through.
“Walk with me,” he said quietly. Not a request. A pull.
“I’m busy.”
“Then I’ll wait.”
That did it.
Amara turned sharply, motioning toward the path behind the clinic. “Five minutes.”
They walked in silence, side by side, until they reached a quiet clearing. Birds chirped overhead. Life went on—cruelly indifferent.
Ethan stopped. Turned to her.
“You disappeared,” he said bluntly.
Amara laughed—short, bitter. “Funny. I remember it differently.”
He frowned. “I searched for you.”
“No, Ethan. You looked where it was convenient.”
His name on her lips hit him harder than expected.
“I was young,” he said. “Careless. But I wasn’t heartless.”
She faced him fully now, eyes blazing. “You left me with nothing. No answers. No choice.”
Ethan opened his mouth to respond, then stopped.
Something clicked.
“You were pregnant.”
The word hung between them.
Amara froze.
That single second was all he needed.
His eyes sharpened. His voice dropped. “You were pregnant.”
She said nothing.
And in that silence, the truth roared.
“Crystal,” he whispered.
Amara stepped back. “Don’t say her name.”
Ethan dragged a hand through his hair, breathing hard. “She’s mine.”
“She is not your claim,” Amara snapped. “She is my daughter. Mine.”
His voice softened, dangerously so. “Then why does she have my eyes?”
Tears burned behind Amara’s lids, but she refused to let them fall. “Because life is cruel.”
“No,” Ethan said, pulling the necklace from his pocket and holding it out between them. “Because life doesn’t forget.”
Amara stared at the pendant—the past staring right back at her.
Her knees weakened.
“You kept it?” she whispered.
“I never let it go.”
Neither had she.
The truth had found them.
And this time, there was no running.
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