Sophia Phoenix, heiress of the Phoenix family—one of the wealthiest families in the country—sat like a queen in her swivel chair inside the expansive conference room. Her beautifully pink-painted fingernails repeatedly brushed the soft strands of her luscious ebony black hair as she eyed the door nervously.
Philip Phoenix, her husband, a business magnate and owner of Phoenix, the most valuable car company in the world, sat beside her. She and Philip had been together for twenty-four years, the same age their daughter would be if she were still alive.
The stiff expression on her husband’s face mirrored her own as they both waited for their visitor to arrive.
She eyed the door once more and sighed.
The private investigator she hired hadn't arrived yet, but she knew he would be here soon. They had agreed to meet in the conference room of the hotel her family owned at nine a.m. sharp. She checked her wristwatch and saw it was still eight-thirty. She still had to wait another half hour before she learned about what he discovered regarding her missing daughter.
The thought of agonizingly waiting another thirty minutes made her grunt in exasperation. She had arrived early because she couldn’t wait to hear the news, and waiting for the private investigator to arrive was killing her.
Sophia tried to calm herself, but she just couldn’t. In fact, when she received the private investigator’s message last night, she barely slept at all. Her eyes had been wide open for hours. When she finally fell asleep, it was almost dawn. Then she woke up screaming, having dreamed about the burning mansion with her only daughter trapped inside.
‘Pull yourself together, Sophia,’ she told herself, realizing how her thoughts were drifting far away. She took a deep breath, then released it in a sigh. She repeated the process until she felt herself calm down a bit.
A soft tap on her shoulder woke her from her wandering thoughts. She looked up and found her husband, Philip, looking at her. A frown scrunched his forehead. She sensed he was worried too.
“Calm down, Sophia,” he gently whispered, even though he looked as tense as she was.
“I can’t. I’m scared,” she replied, taking his hand.
Philip entwined his fingers with hers to ease the coldness of her palms.
“I’m scared too,” he replied, and his grip tightened on hers. “We can only pray that she's still alive.” A shadow of sadness crossed his eyes.
“I know she’s still alive, Philip. I feel it because I’m her mother. Lilibeth came from me. But what I’m worried about is that we might never find her,” Sophia whispered, tears clouding her vision.
“We will never stop until we find our daughter,” Philip told her, his voice hard with determination. “We will find her, no matter what happens. We will find her even if it takes a lifetime.”
Sophia gazed at her husband with love in her eyes. “Thank you. I know you will never give up on her. Your support gives me strength whenever I feel like losing hope.”
Philip lifted her chin and kissed her on the cheek. Love shone in his eyes as he looked at his wife. “Lilibeth is our daughter. She’s a huge part of our life. We’ll find her one day, Sophia. Just trust me.”
She smiled at her husband.
The sound of the door opening caught their attention. Their expectant eyes landed on the door as it opened. Relief flooded their faces when the private investigator they hired entered the room.
“Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Phoenix,” he greeted them politely after closing the door of the conference room and occupying the seat opposite them. Sophia’s eyes instantly landed on the envelope in his hand. She held herself still before she could snatch the envelope from the investigator's hand to feed her curiosity.
Unable to wait any longer, Sophia looked at the private investigator straight in the eyes. “What's the news you wanted to tell us?” she asked, trying to keep her composure.
“I found Alicia De Silva, the woman who used to babysit your daughter, Lilibeth. She disappeared the night the mansion caught fire. I discovered some interesting news about her. Alicia De Silva had a twenty-four-year-old daughter—the same age Lilibeth could be if she's still alive,” the private investigator told them.
Sophia's heart swelled with hope. When her eyes landed on Philip, she saw his eyes shining with anticipation. She had never seen her husband's face this lively before. The thought made her even more hopeful.
Alicia De Silva could have taken Lilibeth the night their mansion burned down. It was highly unlikely that the baby died in the fire because no remains were recovered. The officials who investigated the case confirmed there were no remains of an infant in the room, nor were there remains of a woman that might be the maid’s body.
Alicia had lost her daughter after giving birth to her. It could have been postpartum depression and intense grief that triggered her to take Lilibeth and flee.
“Do you have pictures?” Philip asked hopefully. Sophia jolted out of her wandering thoughts.
“Do you have pictures?” she repeated, blurting the words out louder than she intended. “I want to see what Alicia's daughter looks like.”
The private investigator fumbled inside the brown envelope to retrieve a thick pile of newly developed photographs. The pictures were clear shots of the same woman with amazing jet-black hair and a pair of exquisite eyes.
Sophia grabbed the pictures in her trembling hands. Philip leaned closer so he could see the two photographs.
One look at the photographs and Sophia's emotions took her by storm. She burst into tears. “It's Lilibeth,” she whimpered as she stared at the woman with bright phoenix eyes.
“She looks like a replica of her mother,” Philip whispered, his voice raw with emotion. “Her eyes, too, are exactly like her mother’s.” He added.
Without a doubt in their minds, they knew she was their missing daughter. Her rare, genetically inherited eyes proved to them she indeed was their daughter. The condition Heterochromia Iridum ran through their family. In fact, Sophia’s mother had them just like the woman in the photographs. Her left eye was emerald green while her right was the color of the blue ocean—the same eye color Lilibeth possessed.
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