CHAPTER 2: The Birthday Wish
CHAPTER 2: The Birthday Wish
The ballroom remained silent.
Victoria could barely hear her own breathing.
The young waitress stood motionless, tears shining in her eyes.
Across the room, her stepmother, Eleanor Ashford, suddenly set down her champagne glass.
Her hand was shaking.
Victoria noticed.
And that frightened her more than the waitress's words.
"What did you call me?" Victoria whispered.
The waitress swallowed hard.
"Sister."
The word hit Victoria like a physical blow.
Memories she hadn't touched in years flashed through her mind.
A little girl with curly hair.
Tiny hands reaching for birthday candles.
A voice laughing.
A promise.
Then nothing.
Her father had always told her that her younger sister, Sophia, died during a tragic accident when they were children.
Victoria had cried for months.
Then years.
Eventually, she stopped asking questions.
But now...
The waitress looked exactly like the girl from those memories.
The same eyes.
The same smile.
Even the tiny scar on her wrist.
The scar Sophia got after falling from a bicycle when she was six.
Victoria remembered holding her hand while doctors stitched the wound.
No stranger could know that.
"No..." Victoria whispered.
The waitress nodded through tears.
"My name is Sophia."
The ballroom erupted with shocked whispers.
Victoria turned toward her father.
His face had gone completely white.
And for the first time in her life...
He couldn't look her in the eyes.
"Tell me she's lying," Victoria demanded.
Her father remained silent.
That silence became the answer.
And Eleanor suddenly tried to leave the room.
"Stop her!" Sophia shouted.
Everyone turned.
The stepmother froze.
Sophia reached into her apron pocket and pulled out an old envelope.
"I came here for the truth."
May you like
The room fell silent again.
"And tonight, everyone is going to hear it."
