The Sister She Mourned, the Child She Never Knew

CHAPTER 2 - THE WOMAN WITH SOPHIA'S BAG

The woman stopped two feet away, breathing hard, one hand pressed to her side.

"Eli, you can't run off like that," she said, then looked at Claire with open caution. "I'm sorry. He wasn't supposed to do this alone."

Claire rose slowly. Her pulse hammered in her ears. "Where did you get that bag?"

The woman's eyes dropped to the worn brown satchel hanging from her shoulder. One strap had been stitched by hand in blue thread. Claire knew that repair. She had done it herself at sixteen while Sophia laughed and called her "the old lady of the family."

The woman saw recognition land.

"My name is Mara Diaz," she said quietly. "Sophia was my friend."

Was.

Not is.

Claire folded her arms across herself because suddenly she felt cold. "Friend from where? And why is a child approaching me on the street with my sister's brooch?"

Mara glanced at Eli. "Because Sophia told him to find you if anything happened to her."

Claire's chest tightened. "Anything happened? Is she alive?"

Mara didn't answer right away, and that silence did more damage than words.

They went into a small coffee shop on the corner, Eli between them in the booth, his legs swinging without energy. Up close, Claire could see he was exhausted. There were shadows under his eyes. His green sweater was clean but stretched at one cuff.

Mara placed the satchel on the table and opened it carefully. Inside were folded papers, a pill bottle, and an old photograph of two teenage girls sitting on a porch step.

Claire and Sophia.

Claire touched the photo like it might disappear.

"She kept that all these years?" she asked.

Mara nodded. "Everywhere."

Claire looked at Eli. "Is Sophia your mother?"

"Yes," he said. "She's at Saint Luke's."

The pill bottle rattled in Mara's hand.

Claire read the label.

Sophia Blake.

Oncology wing.

Her mouth went dry. "She's in the hospital?"

Mara's face crumpled for one second, then steadied.

"She has a few days at most," she said. "And last night she told me something worse."

Claire gripped the edge of the table.

Mara slid one folded page toward her.

Across the top, in handwriting Claire would know in darkness, were the words:

If Claire comes, tell her Eli may be hers too.