The man’s mouth opened, then closed, before he stumbled back as if the counter had shocked him!
“Miss… you need to sit down,” he muttered, gripping the edge of the counter.
My stomach dropped.
“Where did you get this?”
“Is it fake?” I asked, worried.
He let out a shaky breath.
“No. It’s… It’s real.”
Before I could respond, he grabbed a cordless phone with trembling fingers and hit a speed-dial button.
“I have it,” he said quickly when someone answered. “The necklace. She’s here.”
A cold feeling crept up my spine.
“Who are you calling?” I asked, taking a step back.
He covered the receiver, his eyes wide.
“Miss… the master has been searching for you for 20 years!”
My pulse spiked.
“Who are you calling?”
Before I could demand what that meant, a lock clicked behind the showroom.
The back door swung open.
And when I saw who stepped through, I gasped.
“Desiree?!”
She looked older, of course. Time had softened the edges of her face and added silver to her hair. But she carried herself the same way I remembered: straight-backed, composed, elegant without trying.
She was my grandmother’s best friend!
She looked older.
Desiree used to visit my grandmother, bringing pastries and stories I was too young to understand.
I hadn’t seen her in years.
The moment her eyes landed on me, something in her broke.
Like she’d been holding something together for too long.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she said softly.
Before I could react, she crossed the room and pulled me into a hug.
It caught me off guard.
Warm. Familiar.
And completely unexpected.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
I stood there, stiff at first, then slowly let myself lean into it.
“What’s going on?” I asked when she finally pulled back.
Desiree studied my face.
“You look so much like her,” she murmured.
“Nana?” I asked.
She nodded, then glanced at the man behind the counter.
“It’s all right, Samuel. I’ll take it from here.”
He nodded quickly, almost relieved.
“What’s going on?”
I frowned. “Why did he call you ‘the master’?”
Desiree exhaled slowly. “Because I own this place and three others like it across the city. He says I hold myself like a ‘master’ instead of a boss.”
That alone surprised me, but not as much as what came next.
Desiree’s gaze dropped to the necklace.
“That,” she said quietly, “is why I’ve been searching for you.”
That alone surprised me.
“Why?”
Desiree hesitated, then motioned toward a chair. “Sit down. Please.”
Something in her tone made me listen.
I sat.
She took the seat across from me, folding her hands together.
“What I’m about to tell you… Your late grandmother never got the chance to explain.”
A cold feeling crept into my chest.
Something in her tone made me listen.
“She wasn’t your biological grandmother,” Desiree said gently.
I shook my head immediately. “No. That’s not. She raised me. She—”
“I know,” Desiree said quickly. “And she loved you. That part was real. Every bit of it.”
“Then what are you saying?”
Desiree took a slow breath.
“Years ago, your Nana found you.”
My mind went blank.
“Found me?”
“That part was real.”
“In the bushes,” Desiree said softly. “Near a walking path she used to take home. You were a baby, wrapped carefully, and you had that necklace around your neck.”
I stared at her.
“That’s not possible.”
“It is,” she said. “She brought you to me first. She didn’t know what to do. There was no note, no identification. Just you… and that necklace.”
I looked down, my heart pounding.
“That’s not possible.”
“She tried to find your family,” Desiree continued. “We both did. We checked reports, asked questions, and followed every lead we could. But nothing matched, especially without any details or even a name.”
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