The rain had just started when Julia Hayes stepped out of a luxury toy store in Manhattan with her seven-year-old son, Oliver.
He clutched a brand-new LEGO set, laughing, while she held an umbrella over them as thunder rolled softly in the distance.
They were about to cross the street toward her waiting car when Oliver suddenly froze.
“Mom,” he said, tugging at her hand, “that boy looks just like me!”
Julia followed his gaze. Across the street, near a bakery, a little boy huddled under a broken umbrella, soaked through, eating scraps from a discarded sandwich wrapper.
Despite his matted hair and dirty clothes, something about him was achingly familiar—the same hazel eyes, the same small dimple on his chin, even the same shy curve of his mouth.
“Don’t point, sweetheart,” she whispered, trying to lead him away. But Oliver didn’t move. “Mom… he really looks like me. Is he my brother?”
Julia’s heart skipped. Her eyes locked on the boy—and then she saw it: a faint pale mark on the left side of his neck, shaped like a teardrop. Her breath caught.
Her late husband, Daniel, used to call that mark “the angel’s kiss.” Their first son, Aiden, had it too—before he was kidnapped five years earlier. Despite endless searches, police, and private investigators, he had never been found.
Her purse slipped from her hand as she stared through the rain. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Aiden?”
The boy looked up. Their eyes met for a fleeting second—confused, frightened—before he grabbed his torn bag and bolted into the alley.
Julia ran after him, shouting through the downpour, “Wait! Please!” But he vanished into the dark.
And for the first time in years, something stirred inside her—hope.
That night, she couldn’t sleep. His face haunted her—the same eyes, the same birthmark. It couldn’t be coincidence.
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