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The Protector’s Daughter

Page 9

by Susie McIver

“What was her last name?”

“She didn’t know. Aunt Addy only knew her first name. She said Hayley asked Mae to find my father and give me to him.”

My chest is tearing open.

“What did she say his name was?”

The girl’s silver-gray eyes fill with tears behind the lenses.

“Sean Campbell.”

I cross the distance between us before I realize I’ve moved.

She recoils.

I stop immediately.

Her fear cuts through my shock.

“Hayley Wyman,” I say. “Her name was Hayley Wyman.”

A tear slips down the girl’s cheek.

“You knew her?”

“I loved her.”

Her mouth trembles.

“Then I found you.”

My knees nearly give out.

For eighteen years, I believed Hayley had been taken from me.

I never knew they had taken my daughter too.

“Why didn’t Mae contact me?”

“I don’t know everything yet. Addy wrote hundreds of letters. I’ve only read some of them.”

“Where’s Mae?”

“She died last year.”

The hope I didn’t know I was reaching for collapses.

“Your aunt?”

“She died when I was ten.”

“Who have you been living with?”

Her gaze drops.

“Nobody.”

One word.