The boy didn’t take the box and just stared at Adrian, looking wary.
The girl stayed behind him, her small fingers clutching his sleeve.
“Who are you?” the boy asked.
Adrian opened his mouth, then stopped.
He didn’t know what to tell them.
Instead, he reached into his coat and took out his wallet.
“Here.” He held out the bills to the children.
Much more than the twins had ever earned.
“For the trouble and for what you’ve lost.”
The boy looked at the money and didn’t reach for it.
He got to his feet, pushed his sister behind him to keep her away from Adrian.
“We don’t need it.”
“But you’re hurt,” Adrian said.
“Your goods are ruined.
Take it.”
“Our mom told us not to take money we didn’t earn.” The boy lifted his chin.
His dark eyes were hard.
His jaw was set.
“We’re not beggars.”
Adrian went still.
“That’s not what I meant.”
His presence alone could frighten people.
Grown men three times this boy’s size dropped their eyes when he spoke.
And here was a small boy, shaking on his feet, telling the head of the Moretti family to keep his money.
He should feel annoyed.
No one rejected his generosity.
Instead, something in him eased.
Their mother had taught them well.
But he still didn’t appreciate her letting them sell on their own in a place like this.
He put his wallet away and reached into his other pocket.
His fingers found the coin purse he bought the day before and drew it out.
He held it in his open hand, where the children could see.
The dark blue cloth with a white thread.
The tight little rose knot along the seam.
“I’m not here to buy anything,” Adrian said.
His tone came out softer than he meant it to.
“I only want to ask you one thing.”
The boy’s gaze dropped to the purse in Adrian’s hand.
His eyes remained guarded.
His sister peeked over his shoulder, saw the purse, and recognized it as theirs.
“Who taught you this stitch?” Adrian asked.
He kept his voice even.
He had gotten answers out of harder men than this, but this boy wouldn’t easily give him anything.
As the boy looked at Adrian’s face, his mother’s voice rang in his mind.
‘Don’t talk to them.
Don’t answer their questions.
Come straight home.’
The boy pulled his sister closer.
His eyes scanned the crowd and the stalls around them.
He had already decided that Adrian was a threat.
He grabbed his sister’s hand.
“What about it?
It’s just a stitch.
Anyone could do it!”
Except no one could but Sarah.
“Wait—”
The boy was already backing away, pulling his sister with him.
The girl looked back once over her shoulder before both of them slipped between the stalls and disappeared among the crowd.
Adrian stood still and didn’t chase them.
Calvin stepped up beside him.
“Boss?”
Adrian’s eyes remained on the spot where the children had disappeared.
“Follow them,” he said.
“Don’t let them see you.
I want to know where they live.”
Calvin nodded.
He radioed their other men and followed the twins himself.
He slipped into the crowd and was gone, leaving Adrian alone.
The market went back to its usual noise around him.
Sellers called out for customers.
Shoppers pushed past with their bags.
A guitar started playing somewhere with the same cheerful tune as the day before.
Adrian barely heard any of it.
He kept seeing the children’s faces in his mind.
The boy was proud and courageous.
The girl was gentle and kind.
Something about them felt familiar.
Everything about them led back to Sarah.
And Adrian didn’t believe in coincidences.
A veiled woman who resembled his dead wife.
Two children who knew her special stitch.
Children who refused to answer his question.
Random things.
But together, they pointed somewhere he couldn’t yet name.
He couldn’t finish the thought.
Not here.
Adrian turned and walked back toward the car waiting for him.
His mind filled with Sarah.
Questions rose, one after another, each unanswered.
The only thing he knew—he couldn’t stop now.
***
Alec looked over his shoulder before pulling his sister into a nearby alley.
A shortcut they had recently found that led back to Arlington Drive.
They had cut through streets they rarely used to reach it.
“Alec, I’m tired,” Abby said.
They had been walking for an hour.
Their usual thirty-minute walk from the market plaza to the garment shop had taken twice as long.
“And you’re bleeding!
We should treat it before going home.
Mom will be worried if she sees you bleeding.”
It was only then that Alec finally calmed down and stopped.
He looked at his arm and the dry trail of blood on it.
He sighed and released his sister’s hand.
“You’re right, Abby,” he said, then looked around, making sure no one was following them.
Seeing her brother still watchful, Abby couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong, Alec?
Do you think that man is still following us?”
“I don’t know, Abby,” Alec said.
“But he knew Mom’s special stitch.”
“You don’t like him?” Abby asked, seeing the worry on her brother’s face.
“I don’t trust him.”
Alec continued walking, leading his sister out of the alley.
He then checked the small messenger bag hanging from his shoulder.
Thankfully, they hadn’t lost the coins they’d earned today, despite losing their remaining goods.
Stock worth over a hundred coins was lost in the blink of an eye.
He and Abby would need to work again to build their stock.
“But what if he returns?” Abby asked.
Alec considered their options.
It took them over two weeks to build their stock.
Perhaps that man would give up looking for them if they didn’t show up in the market plaza for a few days.
“Let’s not worry about it for now,” he said as they made their way to the nearest pharmacy to buy antiseptic and some gauze.
“We should go home before Mom notices we’re late.”