“I made it,” Lisa says.
“Wait. What? How?” I don’t know where to look, the dress or the woman. I must be dreaming up both.
Her smile softens. “I’m Lisa Barns. But I used to be Lisa Hill.”
Hill?
My last name is…The memory hits me again. Me, hand in hand with my dad as we walk into a store filled with dresses of every imaginable color. A woman standing next to my dad. They looked so similar. But my young mind had taken me right back to the fancy dresses. That’s what we’d been doing at the store, the boutique in the mall. We were visitingher.
“You’re…” My voice is strangled. I can’t bring myself to say it, to hope it.
“I’m your aunt,” she whispers.
My pulse slows as I try to convince myself it’s true. It can’t be. But… she’s got his eyes. My eyes.
Looking at her, I can see him. Remember him. I grab onto the wall, trying to steady my racing thoughts.
“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you,” Lisa says as tears spring from her eyes and trickle down the wrinkles in her cheeks.
I shake my head. “Find me?” Had I been lost?
She plays with something in her hand. “After Scott died, your mom cut off contact with our family. We assumed she just needed some time to grieve, but then we all lost you. You guys moved, your mom changed her phone number, and we spent the last twenty years wondering where you were.”
I blink, completely overwhelmed by this new information. I don’t even remember moving.
“How did you find me?”
“My husband is Chief Barns. He mentioned you, but I didn’t think much of it until he showed me the video floating around on the web. I just knew it was you. The first day I stopped by, I wanted to see if you’d recognize me, but I don’t blame you for not knowing who I was. We haven’t seen each other in almost two decades.”
There’s so much information to unpack here. Firstly, Chief Barns saw that video? And second, I have an aunt and uncle? I have afamily. People my mother kept from me. Hurt fills the empty spaces in my heart that are trying to sing for joy. What kind of mother would rob her daughter of the only connection to her father?
“Wow,” Maddie interrupts the somber moment. “Did you happen to bring a long-lost aunt of mine with you?”
“Maddie.” I shove her out of the way and throw my arms around my aunt.
“Darling girl, it’s so good to see you again.” Lisa returns my embrace with the tenderness of a parent—with love. My dad used to hug me like this.
Sobs take over my body and I can’t—won’t—stop them. I miss my dad.
“The family and I got you something,” Lisa pulls back and reaches into her front pocket. “We gave it to you at the funeral, but found it on the sidewalk outside afterward.”
She places a long silver chain necklace with an oval locket in my good hand.
I remember this. I remember clutching it to my chest as the hearse drove away with my dad. I also remember the oval imprint it created in my palm that disappeared as fast as he did.
But I have no memory of it after that day. It must have fallen off. Or maybe my mother took it from me. Either way, something that was lost to me has been returned. I crack open the locket. There’s a single picture of my dad on one side, then a picture of me and him together on the other.
Both pictures become blurry as tears fill my eyes. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, love. I’m sorry we ever lost you,” she whispers as she rubs my back. “And this…” She motions to the dress in Maddie’s arms. “This is a gift for you. From me, and your dad. You were always his princess, and I think tonight, he’d like to see you shine.”
That’s it. My knees shake and I sob into her shoulder. She simply holds me, brushing down my hair and rubbing my back. I feel broken and complete at the same time.
When I finally pull away, there is a dark blob on her shoulder but she doesn’t seem to mind. I guess Maddie gets a two-for-one on my face tonight.
“I, uh, also may have brought something for Crew.” Lisa says. “I noticed a lot of Spider-Man stuff when I was here last time.”
“Spider-Man?” Crew is next to Lisa in a split second. I laugh, pulling my little boy in for a hug.
