PART 2:
Everything cold about him seemed to vanish.
"How do you know about this scar?"
She didn't answer.
Neither of them moved.
Vanessa stepped closer.
"Ethan?" she said carefully. "What's happening?"
He unfolded the crane.
Inside, faded by time, was a sentence written in childish handwriting.
If you're lonely, make a wish and send me a crane.
He stared at it.
Then he looked at Lily.
"It was you."
The room remained silent because nobody understood.
Lily looked as if she might faint.
"I thought you were dead," he whispered.
Twenty years earlier, there had been a children's wing at St. Catherine's Hospital.
Ethan remembered the smell of disinfectant and crayons.
He remembered his father visiting twice and his mother never coming at all.
He remembered being nine years old and angry at everyone.
And he remembered the little girl in the bed beside the window.
She had leukemia.
She folded paper cranes every day.
She taught him.
When he cut his finger trying to use the scissors, she wrapped it in a cartoon bandage and laughed because he looked offended by pain.
She made him promise something.
Whenever life became unbearable, he should fold a paper crane.
They had spent six months together.
Then one morning her bed was empty.
The nurse had told him she was gone.
He thought she had died.
He cried for the first time in years.
Then he never spoke of her again.
The paper crane remained hidden in his wallet for twenty years.
Now the girl from the hospital stood in front of him wearing a delivery uniform.
Vanessa's voice came sharp and confused.
"Ethan. Who is she?"
He didn't answer.
Lily found her voice.
"I wasn't dead," she said softly. "My mother couldn't afford treatment anymore. A charity moved me to another hospital in another state."
"You disappeared."
"I tried writing."
"You were nine."
"I know."
He stared at her.
"You remember me."
She almost smiled.
"You used to hide vegetables in your socks because you hated eating them."
A few guests chuckled.
Ethan looked stunned.
"And you cried whenever they gave you injections," she added.
"I did not."
"You absolutely did."
One of the reporters laughed out loud.
For the first time anyone could remember, Ethan Sterling looked embarrassed.
Vanessa stepped between them.
"This is ridiculous."
Neither of them looked at her.
She turned to Ethan.
"It's an old friend. Fine. But why are you acting like—"
"I looked for her."
The words came quietly.
Vanessa blinked.
"What?"
"I hired investigators years ago."
Lily looked up.
"You did?"
"They found nothing."
For a long moment, neither spoke.
The orchestra had stopped entirely.
The room had forgotten the engagement.
Vanessa hadn't.
"Ethan."
He finally looked at her.
Her face had gone pale.
"Tell me this doesn't change anything."
He said nothing.
Silence can be crueler than honesty.
Her eyes widened.
"No."
She laughed once, nervously.
"You can't be serious."
Lily immediately stepped back.
May you like
"No," she said. "This isn't—"
"You stay out of this," Vanessa snapped.
TO BE CONTINUED...!
