Losing my mom shattered me. She wasn’t just my parent—she was my only person. It had always been just the two of us against the world. After she passed, I knew I had to clear out her house if I ever wanted to move forward. Every item I touched held a memory, and each memory was a weight I had to bear alone. But one object stood out among the rest: a stunning emerald pendant buried at the bottom of a velvet-lined box.
She never wore it—not once that I could remember. Which was odd, considering its beauty. The stone was deep green, framed in intricate gold detailing. It didn’t match the rest of her modest jewelry. I figured it must not have meant much to her, and since I needed to part with things to let go, I decided to sell it.
That decision led me to the flea market, a place filled with all the strange energy of discarded treasures. The sun was high, the air thick with the scent of fried food and aged books, and my mother’s belongings were spread across a folding table. The pendant lay in a small glass case beside a few other trinkets.
And then, everything changed.
A man stopped in his tracks, his eyes locked onto the pendant. He was in his late fifties, maybe early sixties, with sharp but kind features and graying hair. His reaction was instant—like he’d seen a ghost. His hands trembled as he reached toward the glass, but he didn’t touch it.
“Where did you get this?” His voice was thick, weighted with something I couldn’t place.
“It was my mom’s,” I said cautiously.
He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing. Then he gave a sad smile. “I once gave it to the love of my life… right before she disappeared forever.”
Chills ran down my spine. My grip tightened on the edge of the table. “What was her name?”
His gaze flicked up to mine. “Martha.”
I stopped breathing.
Martha. My mother’s name was Martha.
The air between us shifted. A thousand unspoken words buzzed in the silence.
“That… that was my mother’s name,” I whispered.
His face fell, and I saw something flicker in his expression—grief, disbelief, hope, or maybe all three. He stared at me, his mouth opening slightly before he shut it again.
“When… when did she pass?” he asked softly.
“A few months ago.”
His hands curled into fists. He blinked rapidly, as if holding something back. “How old was she?”
Sixty-two.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. “That… that makes sense.”
A knot formed in my stomach. “What do you mean?”
He hesitated, looking away like he was debating whether to say more. Then, as if making a decision, he sighed. “I met Martha when we were just kids. We fell in love fast and hard. I gave her that pendant as a promise—my promise that we’d have a future together. And then one day, she was just… gone.”
“Gone?” I echoed, my voice barely above a whisper.
“She disappeared without a word. Her parents had always been strict, secretive. They didn’t approve of me, and then suddenly… she was just gone. I searched for her everywhere. I never stopped.” His voice cracked. “Until now.”
A tremor ran through me. I had always known my mom’s childhood had been rough, that she never spoke of her parents, that we never had family beyond the two of us. But this? This was something else entirely.
I stared at the man, and something inside me whispered: What if?
The resemblance was there. The sharpness of his nose, the shape of his jaw. Could it be possible? Could he be—?
My pulse hammered as I made a split-second decision.
A single hair clung to the sleeve of his coat. As he exhaled heavily, rubbing a hand down his face, I plucked it between my fingers. My heart pounded, but he didn’t notice.
“I need to go,” I said suddenly, shoving the pendant back into my bag. “I—I’m sorry.”