All Chapters of MY LONG LOST LOVE: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

CHAPTER 60The Man Behind MeMIYAKAI couldn't scream.I couldn't move.I couldn't even breathe.My father's hand was still resting on my shoulder.Warm.Familiar.Terrifying.For years, I had believed that the worst thing a daughter could feel was losing her father.I had been wrong.The worst thing was discovering that the person you had spent years mourning might have been standing somewhere in the darkness of your memories all along.I slowly turned.He looked older than the man I remembered.His hair was streaked with gray. His face carried deeper lines, and there was something exhausted in his eyes that I had never noticed when I was a child.But they were his eyes.The same eyes that had once watched me ride my first horse.The same eyes that had lifted me onto his shoulders when I was too small to reach the mangoes.The same eyes that had looked at me beneath the mango tree on the day he told me that some promises were worth keeping even when they hurt.My father.Alive.Again

CHAPTER 62The Fifth ChildMIYAKAI stared at Livia.The room seemed to disappear around me.The walls.The lights.The cold floor beneath my feet.Even the people standing around me.Everything became distant.Only one sentence remained.The fifth child was you.I shook my head."No."Livia didn't move."No."I said it again, louder this time."I wasn't the fifth child."My father looked away.That was enough.My heart dropped."You knew."He didn't answer.I turned toward him."You knew."His eyes closed."Miyaka—""You knew.""I didn't want you to find out like this.""Then how?"His silence was unbearable.I stepped toward him."How was I the fifth child?"He looked at me."You weren't born into the program."My breathing stopped."What?""You were brought into it."I stared at him."But I'm a Reyes.""Yes.""Then what are you saying?"He swallowed."Your blood was Reyes."His eyes filled with something I couldn't understand."But your designation was different.""Aria."He nodded

CHAPTER 64The Man Who Called Us His GirlsMIYAKAI had imagined the person responsible for everything so many times that, somewhere along the way, I had stopped imagining him as a human being.In my nightmares, he had always been a shadow behind glass. A voice coming through a speaker. A hand holding a file. A silhouette standing beyond a doorway while children screamed somewhere I couldn't reach.I had given him every face except a real one.But the man standing at the end of the corridor was real.Old.Straight-backed.Calm.His silver hair was combed neatly away from his forehead, and the dark suit he wore looked completely out of place in a place like this. There was not a single sign of panic on his face. Not even after seeing my father on his knees.He looked at us as though he had been waiting for this moment for years.And perhaps he had.His eyes settled on me.Not Aria.Me.There was something in the way he looked at me that made my skin crawl.Recognition.Possession.Prid

CHAPTER 66Before They Called Me MiyakaMIYAKAI couldn't stop staring at the photograph.It was only a piece of paper.Old.Slightly yellowed at the edges.The corners were bent from years of being handled, and there was a faint crease running through the center as if someone had folded it and unfolded it countless times.Yet somehow, it felt heavier than anything I had ever held.Because the little girl in that photograph was me.I knew her face.I knew the shape of those eyes.I knew the tiny scar beneath her chin.I knew the way she stood with one foot slightly turned inward when she was nervous.I knew her.But I didn't know the name written beneath her.Or the woman holding her hand.Or why the words beneath the photograph seemed to tear apart everything I thought I knew about myself.THE FIRST GIRL WAS NEVER MIYAKA REYES.I read it again.And again.Until the letters blurred.Then I looked at the handwriting on the back.My handwriting.The words were simple.Terrifyingly simpl

CHAPTER 68The Voice Beneath the RootsMIYAKAThe ground moved beneath my feet.Not enough to collapse.Not enough to frighten anyone who didn't know what we had already discovered.But I felt it.A faint vibration beneath the soles of my shoes.Three slow knocks.Then silence.I stared at the earth beneath the mango tree.My heart was pounding so hard that I could hear it."Miyaka."The voice came again.From beneath us.My name.Not Aria.Not a designation.Not a number.Miyaka.I stepped forward.Moises immediately caught my hand."Don't."I looked at him."Someone is down there.""I know.""Then we have to get them out."His eyes searched mine."And if that's exactly what they want?"I swallowed."Then we'll find out."Jason crouched beside the crack in the earth.He touched the soil."It's hollow."Livia moved closer."How do you know?"Jason tapped the ground."Listen."He knocked twice.The sound came back differently.Not solid.Hollow.There was something beneath the tree.So