The Eighteen-Year Lie

For eighteen years, I’ve been told a lie.

My husband, Mark, my doctors, even my own parents, convinced me I suffered from a delusional disorder, that my deep ache for a daughter named Emily was just a symptom.

They said I only had one child, my sweet son Ethan.

Yet, I always felt a part of me was missing.

Then, on Ethan’s wedding day, a tarnished silver locket tumbled out from under my bed – the very one I gave my daughter, Emily, for her fifth birthday, the day she vanished.

The fog of medication burned away, replaced by searing clarity.

Emily was real.

Mark had lied.