⸻ ❛𝐖𝐑𝐀𝐏 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐈 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐎𝐒!❜
Rory Hargrove is obsessed to uncover the truth behind Barbara Holland's disappearance, while facing her brother's enemy and buried secrets from...
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AMID BLANKETS AND PILLOWS — an improvised bed in the back of the Hoppers' pickup truck — Diane, Jim, and little Sara lay on their backs, gazing up at the thousands of stars twinkling light-years away in the cloudless night sky.
"Look, daddy, I have one in my leg!" she said, pointing to the sky with her tiny toddler voice, then lifted her legs and ran her chubby little fingers over the mark. Since she was very small, they had told her she had a little star on her leg — because of the distinct star-shaped birthmark on her thigh, just above the knee.
"Yeah, that's right. Did you know that stars are born in giant clouds called nebulae out in space? And when they die, they explode in something called a supernova — a blast so big, its light can last for weeks."
Jim spoke in a low, warm voice, filled with excitement — facts he had read in books, told on purpose for his daughter, who loved the solar system dearly, and rightly so.
Diane stayed silent, but her smile said more than a thousand words. She watched her little family — the joyful child laughing sweetly and the kind man she had chosen to be the father of her daughter.
What they didn't know was that this happiness, this moment of peace, wouldn't last forever. It would be swept away — like a house of cards thrown into the wind.
With an AK-74 pressed to his chest, disguised as a Soviet soldier sitting in the buggy driven by Murray Bauman, Hopper's face was stained by the pain that resurfaced as the sight of that birthmark dragged his memories back to his brain's hippocampus.
He had never forgotten—never stopped loving—the daughter he buried when she was just a little girl.
Cancer had taken her. Most likely the result of the toxic effects of Agent Orange he himself had been exposed to during the Vietnam War. A cursed inheritance.
Sara had been born with that same star-shaped birthmark on her leg — just like the stars in the sky. Just like Rory.
Something rare. Something incredibly special. He had never seen anyone else with a mark like that — not until now. A strange coincidence. One that made Rory... a special girl.
But his little star was gone. All the birthdays she never got to celebrate. Her first baby tooth falling out. Her first school play. Her first boyfriend who would've driven him crazy — and yet, he would've loved every second of it.
It had all been stolen from him.
He tried to push the pain aside, tried to focus on the mission ahead. But that memory — that ache — would remain in his heart for a long time.
