Amira stared at the photo in her trembling hands.
The girl couldn't have been more than eight. Big eyes, soft curls, a small scar above her right brow exactly where Amira had one as a child.
Her hands shook. "This is… Rihanna's daughter?"
David nodded slowly.
Amira looked up, disbelief cracking through her voice. "And she looks like me why?"
David didn't answer.
Not yet.
Because the real answer… was still unravelin
"She was born shortly after we broke up," David began, choosing each word like stepping through fire. "Rihanna reached out once, then disappeared again. At the time, I didn't think much of it. She was always… unstable."
Amira remembered her cousin brilliant, impulsive, always walking on a wire between love and chaos.
"She sent this photo to me two weeks ago," he continued. "No message. No explanation. Just the image. And then she vanished again."
Amira's chest tightened. "You think the girl… might be mine?"
David hesitated.
Then: "I don't know. But you deserve to know everything."
Amira backed away, overwhelmed. "This doesn't make sense. Rihanna and I haven't spoken in years. Why would she hide this from me? Why now?"
David looked at her, eyes dark with guilt and something deeper, fear.
"There's more."
She braced herself.
"She mentioned someone was watching her. Said if anything happened to her, I should protect the girl."
Amira's eyes widened. "From who?"
"I don't know yet. But the message wasn't random. Rihanna didn't send that photo out of nostalgia, she sent it as a warning."
David handed her a torn envelope.
Inside was a letter. Scribbled in Rihanna's messy handwriting:
"If anything happens to me, don't trust the people closest to her. Someone near her has secrets. And the girl… she's safer far from both of them."
The girl.
Her cousin's daughter.
A child who might be her own blood.
Or… something more?
Amira's knees nearly gave out.
Everything was spinning,her cousin's disappearance, David's silence, the betrayal, the lies, and now… a child and a threat wrapped in mystery.
Amira took a shaky breath.
"I want to see her. The girl."
David nodded.
"There's one more thing," he said, voice low.
"She's gone missing."
"What?"
"She was staying with a guardian. When I called to check on her yesterday, they said she left for school and never came back."
Amira's heart stopped.
Somewhere out there, a little girl with her eyes… was missing.
And someone didn't want her to be found.