Chapter 4

“Mommy, why is the sun so bright here?”

The soft voice came from the airport bench, where little Arielle sat clutching her worn-out bunny doll.

Elara smiled faintly, adjusting the jacket draped over her daughter’s shoulders.

“Because this is our home, sweetheart. The sun always shines warmer in the place we once left behind.”

Six years.

It had been six long years since the night she walked away from that city without ever looking back.

Now, with three little children by her side — Arielle, Maeve, and the ever-curious youngest, Eli — Elara returned, not as the broken woman she once was, but as a mother who had learned to stand tall on her scars.

But the steps she took through that airport that day… would reopen the wounds she had buried so deeply.

---

“Mommy, I want juice!” Maeve bounced beside her, her light-brown hair bobbing with every move.

Elara chuckled softly. “Okay, but no running around, alright? Mommy will get—”

THUD!

A small body collided hard with someone.

“Ow!” Eli fell backward, his big gray eyes staring up at the man he’d just bumped into. “I’m sorry, Mister!”

Elara turned — and time stopped.

The man standing before them had the same sharp eyes she once loved, the same face she had never been able to forget, no matter how hard she tried.

Liam Ashford.

The man who once said, “I don’t know her.”

---

“Eli!” Elara’s voice trembled as she rushed forward, pulling her son to her side. Her breath caught in her throat, heart pounding wildly as the boy’s small hand gripped hers tightly.

Liam stood frozen, staring at Eli with a look that wasn’t just shock — there was something else. Something familiar.

“Are you alright, kid?” Liam’s voice was low, steady, but beneath it lingered a faint tremor.

Eli nodded innocently. “I’m okay, Mister. But you’re really tall! And you kinda look like me.”

Elara froze. Her pulse stopped for a heartbeat.

Liam bent down, eyes locking on the boy’s face — the shape of his jaw, the gray of his eyes, even the small, lopsided smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Everything was the same.

Exactly the same.

---

“Elara…”

Her name fell from his lips like a ghost he never expected to see again.

Elara’s chest tightened, but her voice came out calm, detached. “I’m sorry, you’ve got the wrong person.”

She tightened her grip on Eli’s hand and began to walk away.

But before disappearing into the crowd, Eli turned back and waved brightly. “Bye-bye, Mister who looks like me!”

That small, innocent smile hit Liam like a blade straight to the chest.

He stood motionless, watching the woman and three children fade into the sea of people, his world shrinking with every step they took away from him.

---

“Noah…” Liam’s voice was low when he finally dialed the number on his phone, his fingers trembling slightly.

“Yes, Mr. Ashford?” came the familiar voice of his assistant.

“Find someone for me.”

“Who, sir?”

Liam’s gaze lingered in the direction Elara had gone. His throat tightened.

“Elara Wynters.”

There was a brief silence on the other end.

“But sir… I thought she was—”

“She’s back.” Liam’s tone was cold, but beneath it, a quiet tremor bled through.

“And she’s not alone.”

---

Meanwhile, in the backseat of a taxi leaving the airport, Elara stared at her reflection in the window.

Arielle rested against her lap, Maeve slept soundly on her shoulder, and Eli gazed out the window at the clear blue sky.

“Mommy,” Eli asked softly, “why did that Mister look like me?”

Elara’s lips trembled before she smiled faintly — a smile full of secrets and sorrow.

“Because sometimes, Eli,” she whispered, brushing his hair gently, “the world has a strange way of showing us our past.”