Chapter 4 - ADOPTED AT SEVEN
Claire stared at Everett, her face turning remarkably pale under the golden afternoon light. She looked down at Junie, then back up at the towering man standing beside the black Harley.
"Your daughter...?" Claire repeated, her voice trembling. "That's... that's not possible."
"I buried her twelve years ago!" Everett roared softly, his hands clenching into tight, white-knuckled fists at his sides. "I stood beside an empty casket after the house fire in Tucson! They gave me a silver box of ashes and told me my seven-year-old girl was gone!"
Claire’s eyes widened to dinner plates. A sudden, violent tremor passed through her shoulders.
"Tucson...?" Claire breathed, her hand going to her mouth. "Nineteen-ninety-nine...?"
"Answer me!" Everett pleaded, stepping closer, his rugged face twisted in agony. "How does your sister have my daughter's necklace?!"
Claire took a deep, shuddering breath, her mind racing to connect pieces of a family history that had been shrouded in quiet secrecy for over a decade. She pulled Junie close against her legs, shielding the child from the raw, explosive grief radiating off the biker.
"My sister... Emily... she was adopted when she was seven years old," Claire revealed, her voice dropping into an anxious whisper. "My parents brought her home in the winter of two-thousand-four. She wouldn't talk about where she came from. She had severe night terrors, and she held onto that silver bear like it was the only thing keeping her alive."
Everett’s face lost every trace of color. The deep, bronzed tan of his skin turned into a sickly, chalky gray. His knees buckled slightly, his heavy leather boot sliding an inch on the damp pavement before he caught his balance against the seat of his Harley.
"Adopted..." Everett rasped, his voice breaking. "She... she didn't die in the fire...?"
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Claire watched the giant man collapse inward, his massive shoulders trembling beneath his black vest. The terrifying biker who commanded respect across every highway in the state was breaking apart right in front of her.
"She lived," Claire whispered, tears brimming in her own eyes. "Emily lived."
