Chapter 1 - The Golden Watch
The little girl stood beside the elegant woman’s table.
She looked painfully out of place beneath the crystal chandeliers.
Her clothes were torn.
Dirt covered her face.
In her small hand was a gold pocket watch.
"I think this might be yours," the girl whispered.
Eleanor frowned but accepted the heavy object.
The moment she opened the lid, her fingers began to shake violently.
Inside was an old, faded photograph.
It showed a young woman holding a newborn baby in a hospital bed.
Eleanor covered her mouth to muffle a sudden gasp.
"Where did you get this?" she asked frantically.
The little girl’s eyes immediately filled with heavy tears.
"My mommy told me to give it to the woman in this picture," she cried softly.
Eleanor looked closer at the photograph and stopped breathing.
The young mother in the picture was her.
And the baby in her arms was wearing the same tiny crescent-shaped bracelet now wrapped around the little girl’s dirty wrist.
Eleanor looked up slowly, her heart pounding against her ribs.
"Who is your mother?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"Her name is Clara," the little girl whispered.
The gold watch slipped from Eleanor’s hand and shattered against the marble floor.
That was the exact name of the daughter she had been told died in a terrible accident twenty years ago.
Eleanor fell to her knees in her expensive evening gown.
She grabbed the little girl by the shoulders, completely ignoring the stares of the wealthy restaurant guests.
"Where is Clara right now?" Eleanor demanded desperately.
The girl sobbed and pointed toward the dark alley outside the restaurant windows.
"The bad men locked her in a cold box," the girl cried.
Eleanor stood up, pure maternal rage replacing decades of unbearable grief.
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She reached for her purse to call the police.
Suddenly, a tall waiter grabbed the little girl by the hair and clamped a hand over her mouth.
