CHAPTER 3 — “THE NAME THAT WAS ERASED”
An ambulance siren passed outside the station.
No one inside moved.
Even the crowd seemed to feel something wrong in the air.
Evelyn finally knelt down in front of him.
Her voice broke.
“What… was your name?”
The boy hesitated.
Like the answer itself hurt.
Then—
“Ethan.”
Noah froze.
Evelyn shut her eyes.
A tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it.
“That was… the name we chose…”
Her whisper collapsed into silence.
Ethan tightened his grip on the locket.
“I was told I was abandoned.”
“I grew up in three foster homes.”
“Then the system lost my file.”
A pause.
His voice lowered.
“And then I stopped existing.”
Noah stepped closer.
For the first time, he didn’t look scared.
He looked incomplete.
“You’re my brother…”
The words came out like disbelief and relief at the same time.
Ethan looked at him.
Same eyes.
Same face.
Same life—split into two timelines.
But before anything else could be said—
Evelyn’s phone suddenly rang.
A sharp, corporate ringtone.
She froze.
The caller ID read:
CARTER FAMILY FOUNDATION
Her hand trembled as she answered.
A man’s voice came through.
Cold.
Controlled.
“Mrs. Carter… we need to speak about the child who was never recorded in the system.”
Evelyn’s blood ran cold.
Because she realized—
May you like
someone had known all along.
And someone had made sure Ethan disappeared.
