Then she crossed to the entry directory.
Twenty apartments.
One name hit her like a slap:
Apartment 14 — R. Salinas.
R. Salinas.
He’d changed his last name.
Rachel typed the address into her phone with shaking hands.
She walked away, sat on a bench in a nearby park, trying to process what she’d just seen.
Michael was alive.
He’d been living in the same city, less than 20 kilometers from where she’d searched desperately for years.
He looked her in the eyes… and showed no recognition.
Possibilities spun:
Amnesia?
But why change his name?
A deliberate new identity?
A second family?
Rachel felt nauseous.
She pulled out her phone and called Ethan.
“Mom, are you okay?”
She realized she was crying.
“Ethan… I need you to come. I saw him. I saw your father. He’s alive.”
Ethan arrived in Del Valle in 40 minutes—normally a much longer trip—blowing through lights in a borrowed car.
He found Rachel still on the park bench, staring at the building.
She looked pale, shaking despite the heat.
“Mom… are you sure?”
Rachel turned to him, eyes red.
“It’s your father. I’d recognize him anywhere. His gestures. His walk. His voice. It’s him.”
Ethan stared at the building.
“What do we do?”
He opened social media.
“You said the apartment is under R. Salinas?”
He found a Facebook profile: Michael Salinas, living in Mexico City, working at a logistics company.
The profile photo was older, but unmistakable.
It was his father.
Aged. Glasses. But undeniable.
Ethan whispered, “Son of a—”
Rachel started crying again—rage and grief mixed together.
They called Lucas, who didn’t answer at first because he was in class.
When he called back and heard the news, he was in total disbelief.
“That can’t be him. It has to be someone who looks like him.”
But when Ethan sent the Facebook photo, Lucas fell silent for a long time.
Then he said, “I’m coming.”
That afternoon, seventeen years after Michael’s disappearance, his family sat in a park a few meters from where he lived, trying to decide how to confront a reality that felt like a surreal nightmare.
They argued for hours.
Rachel wanted to confront him immediately—she needed answers.
Ethan wanted to call the police first.
Lucas was in shock, swinging between rage and tears.
Finally, they decided: Rachel and Ethan would go to the apartment early the next morning.
Catch him before he left for work.
They wanted answers before involving authorities.
None of them slept.