Chapter 4 - THE NAME IN THE FILE
Maya couldn't sleep.
She expected to feel devastated.
Instead, she felt strangely calm.
For the first time in years, nobody was telling her she wasn't good enough.
She made coffee, opened her laptop, and began searching for work.
Then someone knocked.
Maya looked through the peephole.
Two men stood outside.
One wore a dark suit.
The other wore a military uniform.
Maya opened the door cautiously.
"Ms. Maya?"
"Yes?"
"I'm Colonel Vance."
Her expression changed.
"Why are you here?"
Vance hesitated.
"I need to ask you some questions about your childhood."
Maya almost laughed.
"My childhood?"
"Yes."
"I don't know much about it."
"That's what concerns me."
He handed her a photograph.
It showed a young woman holding a baby.
Maya stared.
"I've never seen this."
Vance watched her carefully.
"Look at the baby."
Maya did.
Something moved inside her.
The baby's eyes.
The shape of the face.
"Who is she?"
"That's you."
Maya stopped breathing.
Vance continued.
"The woman holding you was not your mother."
"Then who was she?"
"We don't know yet."
He lowered his voice.
"But we believe your disappearance was connected to a military investigation."
Maya shook her head.
"No. That's impossible."
Vance looked at her.
"Your entire identity may have been changed when you were a child."
For twenty-four years, Maya had believed she had simply been abandoned.
Now someone was telling her she might have been hidden.
May you like
There was a difference.
A terrifying one.
