“That boy actually lives with me,” she told the millionaire. Her next words changed everything he thought he knew
With eyes full of tears and a shattered heart, Henry stepped back, still hearing the girl’s sobs on the other side of the door. The wind blew hard, and the poster he held escaped his grip, flying down the narrow street. He caught it with difficulty, and when he looked at Lucas’s photo again, he felt a vow born within him.
«I will come back, even if it costs me my life.»
On the other side of the door, Amelia, trembling, held the same poster he had dropped earlier. Her eyes, full of tears, reflected something new. For the first time, she began to doubt her own mother.
The sound of the door closing still echoed in Amelia’s head as she ran up the stairs, her heart racing. Tears blurred her face, and her breathing came in gasps. She pushed open the bedroom door, and inside, the silence was too heavy.
Dimness covered the small space. The only light came from a broken window where the wind made the tattered curtains dance. That was when she saw him. Lucas, sitting in a corner with a notebook on his lap and scared eyes, looked up.
The boy seemed fragile, thin, with messy hair and pencil-stained hands. «Amelia?» he murmured doubtfully, as if fearing discovery.
«Lucas!» she exclaimed in a loud whisper, running toward him. The hug was instant, desperate.
«It’s all okay. I swear,» the boy said, trying to console her without understanding the tears streaming down her face.
«Mom got mad at that man downstairs,» Amelia replied, sobbing into his shoulder. Lucas lowered his head, pressing the notebook tightly to his chest.
«I heard him shout my name, and then she told me to come here and not make a sound.» The fear in his voice cut the air like a knife.
«But Lucas, that man knows you. He said he is your dad.»
The boy’s eyes opened wide, and for a second, the silence seemed to swallow the room whole. «My dad?» he repeated with a trembling voice. «I dreamed about him last night. I dreamed he was calling me and saying he was coming for me.»
A chill ran down Amelia’s back. «Then it was true,» she thought aloud, taking his hands. Lucas shook his head, confused.
«Mom said my dad died, that no one else would want me.»
The words hurt, though he didn’t fully understand them. Amelia pressed her lips together, trying to distinguish lie from truth. «She lies sometimes,» she said quietly, looking at the door. «But why lie about that?»
The question floated in the air like a ghost no one wanted to face. The sound of Claire’s footsteps climbing the stairs made them look at each other, terrified. «Quick, lie down,» whispered Amelia, pulling Lucas toward the bed.
He covered himself, pretending to sleep. The knob turned slowly, and the woman entered with a forced smile. «My loves, what was all that crying?» Her voice sounded too sweet to be sincere.
Amelia wiped her face with the back of her hand. «Nothing, Mom, just a nightmare.»
Claire approached, stroked her daughter’s hair, and glanced at Lucas. «Everything okay, dear?» she asked in a theatrical tone. The boy pretended to wake, murmuring a «yes, Mom,» almost inaudible.
«Good,» she replied, forcing a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. «I don’t want any more problems, understood? That man is dangerous. Promise me you won’t talk to him.»
Amelia felt her heart tighten. But he seemed nice. «Mom, he was really crying.»
Claire knelt and held the girl’s face firmly. «There are things you don’t understand yet, my love. The world is cruel. Sometimes people pretend to be good.»
Her eyes shone, but not with emotion—with fear. It was as if she carried a secret capable of destroying everything. «Now sleep. Yes, tomorrow will be a new day.»
When Claire left and closed the door, the silence returned, dense and suffocating. Amelia turned to Lucas, her gaze fixed on the shadow covering half his face.
«Do you believe what she said?» the boy asked.
She hesitated, drawing something in the air with her finger. «She saved me, but she also hid me. I don’t know what’s right.» The girl took a deep breath, holding back tears.
«I think she’s lying, Lucas. I feel it in here.» And she touched her chest. There was something pure in that gesture, a childish intuition stronger than a thousand proofs.
For the first time, Amelia didn’t recognize the woman she called Mom. The night fell heavy over the small room, and the distant sound of sirens mixed with the contained cries of the two children. Amelia stayed awake, watching Lucas sleep, trying to understand why someone would hide a child like that.
Outside, the wind battered the broken window, and she whispered to herself, «I’m going to find out what’s going on, even if I have to lose everything.»
The following days dragged like an endless nightmare. Amelia no longer saw her mother the same way. Every smile seemed fake, every caress calculated. She watched her in silence, paying attention to everything.
The whispered calls, the hidden papers, the tense glances through the window. At night, when the house fell into dimness, the girl heard her mother pacing, opening and closing drawers, as if trying to hide something that shouldn’t be seen. Lucas, quiet, seemed to feel the same unease.
«Why is she always scared?» he whispered one night.
Amelia replied softly, «Because she lied to someone, and when you lie, fear never sleeps.»
That morning, Claire left in a hurry, bag over her shoulder, eyes full of worry. «I’m going to the store. Stay calm and don’t touch anything,» she said before closing the door.
The sound of the lock was the signal Amelia had been waiting for. Her heart raced, her hands sweated. «She’s hiding something, Lucas. I have to know what.»
The boy, scared, tried to stop her. «If she finds out, she’ll get mad at you.»
Amelia took a deep breath. «I can handle it, but I can’t handle living with lies anymore.» Then she started searching, opening cabinets, lifting rugs, checking corners she had never noticed.
Her mother’s room smelled of perfume mixed with must and guilt. The curtains blocked almost all the light, leaving the atmosphere gloomy. In a corner, a floorboard was loose.
A small detail, but enough to spark a watchful girl’s curiosity. Amelia knelt, slipped her fingers into the crack, and lifted the wood carefully, revealing a dark, dusty space. Inside was an old notebook with a torn cover, wrapped in a faded handkerchief.
She took it out cautiously, as if holding something sacred and forbidden at the same time. «What is this?» she murmured. Lucas approached hesitantly, his gaze fixed on those yellowish pages.
When she opened the notebook, a chill ran through her body. Pages full of notes, names, dates, figures scribbled alongside. «What a weird thing,» she murmured, frowning.
It didn’t look like a diary or a shopping list. The letters were quick, nervous, as if written in haste. She ran her finger over a blurry name and kept flipping, trying to understand.
«Why would she hide this?» she asked more to herself than to Lucas. The boy, confused, just watched. There was something dark in that notebook, something that made the room’s air heavier, as if the words had a life of their own.
Until, amid so many senseless lines, something caught her attention. A name: Lucas H.
The girl’s heart stopped for an instant. She looked at the boy beside her, and then at the paper. «Look, your name is here.» Her voice came out trembling, between surprise and fear.
Lucas approached with wide eyes. «My name? What?»
Amelia shook her head, not knowing what to say. «I don’t know, but this isn’t normal. Why would Mom write that?»
The silence that followed was suffocating. The letters of the name seemed to glow under the dim light, like a sign impossible to ignore. The girl’s heart seemed about to burst. Everything spun around her. Fear mixed with confusion.
