Emma Was Blamed for a Missing Heirloom — Then Sarah Saw Its Tracker Inside Aunt Nicole’s Handbag
Chapter 4 — The Photograph Behind the Pendant
Sarah examined the jewelry box again.
The hidden compartment was empty.
But something didn’t make sense.
Helen had supposedly placed papers inside.
If Nicole hadn’t removed them, who had?
Emma suddenly pointed toward the pendant.
“It opens.”
Sarah looked down.
The emerald pendant was oval-shaped.
She had always assumed it was solid.
Emma touched a tiny groove along its edge.
Sarah pressed it.
Click.
The pendant opened like a locket.
Inside was a tiny folded photograph.
Nicole stared.
“I never knew it did that.”
Sarah carefully unfolded the photograph.
It showed Helen as a much younger woman.
She was standing outside a hospital.
Beside her was another woman Sarah did not recognize.
That woman held a newborn baby.
On the back, Helen had written:
LUCY — APRIL 18, 1987.
Sarah frowned.
“Who’s Lucy?”
Nicole’s expression had changed again.
“I don’t know.”
Sarah looked closer.
Something else was tucked inside the pendant.
A tiny strip of paper.
One address.
42 WINDERMERE ROAD.
And underneath:
ASK FOR ELEANOR.
Sarah turned toward Nicole.
“Did Mom ever mention Eleanor?”
Nicole shook her head.
Then Emma asked:
“Is the baby you?”
Sarah smiled weakly.
“I don’t think so.”
But she looked at the date again.
April 18, 1987.
Exactly three weeks before Sarah’s own birth certificate said she was born.
Her smile disappeared.
