Chapter 240: Before You Were Born

Adrian looked at the photograph until his phone screen went dark.

He tapped it again.

The image returned.

Margaret stood outside her stationery shop, smiling at whoever had taken the picture. Beside her was an older man whose face was partly obscured. The second figure stood a little farther away, wearing a dark coat.

Adrian recognized the face.

His own.

He zoomed in until the image became a collection of blurry pixels.

It didn’t change anything.

The man in the photograph looked exactly like him.

He checked the date Elise had sent.

Twenty-three years ago.

Adrian was twenty-six.

He did the calculation twice, even though the answer was obvious.

The photograph had been taken before he was born.

He put the phone in his pocket and started walking.

He didn’t know where he was going.

He just needed to move.

---

Lena was preparing dinner when he arrived.

She looked up from the kitchen.

"You’re home early."

Adrian placed his keys on the table.

"Something happened."

Her expression changed.

"What?"

He took out his phone and showed her the photograph.

Lena examined it without speaking.

She zoomed in, looked at the date, and then looked at him.

"That’s you."

"Yes."

"Twenty-three years ago?"

"Apparently."

She placed the phone on the counter.

"Who sent this?"

"A woman named Elise. She knew Margaret. She said Jonas gave her my number."

"Did she explain anything?"

"She said Margaret told her that the man in the photograph came looking for me before I was born."

Lena leaned against the counter.

"Did she say who the other man was?"

"No."

"Did you ask?"

"She doesn’t know."

Lena looked at the photograph again.

"Have you spoken to Jonas?"

"Not yet."

"Then perhaps that’s where you should start."

Adrian nodded.

He knew she was right.

Still, he didn’t call immediately.

Instead, he sat down at the kitchen table and stared at the photograph.

Lena brought him a glass of water.

"You’re doing that thing again."

"What thing?"

"Trying to solve everything in your head before you’ve even spoken to anyone."

He looked up.

She sat opposite him.

"You’re allowed to be confused, Adrian."

"I know."

"Are you sure?"

He gave a tired smile.

"No."

"At least that’s honest."

He took a sip of water.

Then he called Jonas.

---

Jonas answered on the fourth ring.

"Adrian?"

"Did you give my number to someone named Elise?"

There was a pause.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because she asked me to."

"That’s not an explanation."

"I know."

Adrian closed his eyes briefly.

"She sent me a photograph."

Another pause.

"Of Margaret?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"There’s someone in it who looks exactly like me."

Jonas didn’t speak.

"Twenty-three years ago," Adrian continued. "She says Margaret told her that he came looking for me before I was born."

Jonas exhaled.

"I was afraid she’d send you that."

Adrian sat forward.

"You knew?"

"Not about the photograph. But I knew there was something she wanted you to see."

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Because I didn’t understand it."

"Jonas."

"I know how that sounds."

"Then help me understand."

Jonas was quiet.

Finally, he said, "I met Elise because of the shop."

"The stationery shop?"

"No. The other one."

Adrian frowned.

"What other one?"

"The shop I told you about. The one that appeared after it closed."

Adrian felt his attention sharpen.

"You saw it again?"

"Not exactly. I found Elise outside it."

"When?"

"Three days ago."

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Because I wasn’t sure whether I had actually found her or whether she’d found me."

Adrian rubbed his forehead.

"You’re making this very difficult."

"I know."

"Where is she?"

"She asked to meet you."

"Then give me her address."

Jonas hesitated.

"She doesn’t want to meet at her home. There’s a small café near the old station. Tomorrow, around eleven."

Adrian looked toward the kitchen.

Lena was watching him.

"Fine," he said. "I’ll be there."

After ending the call, he put his phone down.

Lena approached the table.

"Tomorrow?"

He nodded.

"Eleven."

She pulled out the chair beside him.

"Do you want me to come?"

Adrian considered it.

"Would you?"

"Of course."

He looked at the photograph again.

"Yes. I’d like that."

---

The next morning, they arrived at the café ten minutes early.

It was a quiet place, tucked between a pharmacy and a small bookshop. There were only three other customers inside.

Lena ordered tea.

Adrian ordered coffee.

They chose a table near the back.

At eleven, a woman entered.

She was in her late fifties, with short grey hair and a dark blue coat. She carried a leather handbag and looked around until she spotted them.

She approached slowly.

"Adrian?"

"Yes."

"I’m Elise."

She glanced at Lena.

"Your wife?"

"Partner," Lena corrected gently.

Elise nodded.

"I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to assume."

She sat down and placed her handbag on the chair beside her.

For a moment, she looked at Adrian as though comparing him to something she remembered.

Then she said, "You really do look like him."

"Who?"

"The man in the photograph."

Adrian leaned forward.

"Who was he?"

"I don’t know."

"Did you meet him?"

"Once."

"When?"

"Twenty-three years ago. I was working at Margaret’s shop that afternoon. He came in shortly before closing."

"What did he look like?"

Elise thought about it.

"Like you. Exactly like you."

Adrian waited.

"He wasn’t old. He wasn’t young. He looked like a man who could have been standing in the street yesterday or twenty years ago. I remember thinking he was strangely familiar."

"Did he speak to Margaret?"

"Yes."

"What did they talk about?"

Elise looked toward the window.

"I couldn’t hear everything. But I remember one sentence."

"What sentence?"

"He asked whether she had told you."

Adrian went still.

"Told me what?"

"Margaret said you weren’t ready."

"Ready for what?"

Elise shook her head.

"I don’t know. The man smiled. Then he said something about time not being a very good excuse."

Lena looked at Adrian.

Elise continued.

"After he left, Margaret asked me to stay with her for a while. She was shaken. I asked what had happened, but she wouldn’t explain."

"Did she say anything else?"

"She said she’d met someone who shouldn’t exist."

Adrian stared at her.

"Did she mean the man?"

"I think so."

"Why didn’t she tell anyone?"

"She did. At least, she tried."

Elise opened her handbag and took out a small envelope.

"She gave me this a few weeks later. Asked me to keep it safe. She said someone would eventually come looking for it."

Adrian accepted the envelope.

His name was written on the front.

Adrian Cross.

He turned it over.

There was no date.

"Why didn’t you contact me sooner?"

Elise looked uncomfortable.

"Because I didn’t know where to find you. Margaret told me not to search. She said the letter would find its way to you when the time was right."

"How did Jonas find you?"

"He didn’t. I found him."

Adrian frowned.

Elise explained that she had seen Jonas standing outside the old shop several days earlier. She recognized him from a photograph Margaret had kept, though she couldn’t explain why his face was familiar.

She approached him and asked whether he knew Adrian Cross.

Jonas had said yes.

That was how the two of them had become connected.

Adrian looked at the envelope again.

"Can I open it?"

Elise nodded.

"That’s why I brought it."

He carefully slid a finger beneath the flap.

Inside was a single folded sheet.

The handwriting was Margaret’s.

Adrian,

I don’t know when you will read this.

I don’t know whether you will remember me, or whether you will understand why I am writing to you.

But I met someone who looked exactly like you.

He told me that you would eventually come looking for the beginning.

I asked him what he meant.

He said you had already been there.

Adrian stopped reading.

The café seemed suddenly too quiet.

He continued.

I don’t know who he was. He knew things about you that nobody should have known. He knew your name before you had one. He knew about your mother. He even knew about the life you would choose.

I asked him whether he was your father.

He laughed.

Then he said, "No. I’m the one who remembers what happened before he became one."

Adrian lowered the letter.

Lena reached for his hand.

He continued reading.

I asked him whether you were in danger.

He told me that danger wasn’t the problem.

He said you would have to decide whether you wanted to remember.

I asked him what would happen if you didn’t.

He said nothing.

Then he looked at me and said, "That’s what he chose last time."

The letter ended there.

No signature.

No explanation.

Adrian folded it carefully.

Elise watched him.

"Do you understand?"

He shook his head.

"Not entirely."

"Do you know who he is?"

Adrian looked at the photograph on his phone.

"I think I might."

---

They left the café shortly after noon.

Elise had nothing else to offer. She didn’t know where the man had gone, and she had never seen him again.

Before leaving, she told Adrian that Margaret had kept another notebook.

The first notebook.

The one she had mentioned in her final entries.

Elise believed it was still somewhere in the old shop, but she couldn’t be certain.

Adrian thanked her.

Then he and Lena walked toward the station.

Neither spoke for several minutes.

Eventually, Lena asked, "Do you believe her?"

"I believe she saw someone."

"Someone who looked like you?"

"Yes."

"Do you think it was another version of you?"

Adrian looked at the letter.

"I don’t know."

He remembered the forest.

The chamber.

The glass structure.

The figure behind it.

He remembered the beginning.

And he remembered choosing not to carry it all.

Perhaps the man in the photograph was connected to that choice.

Perhaps he was someone else entirely.

For the first time in a long while, Adrian felt the old urge to search for every answer.

He wanted to know who the man was.

What he meant by last time.

Why Margaret had been involved.

And what the first notebook contained.

But Lena was holding his hand.

So he stopped walking.

She turned toward him.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Adrian."

He smiled faintly.

"I’m just thinking."

"About the letter?"

"Yes."

She waited.

He looked at her.

"I think I need to know what happened."

Lena nodded.

"Then we’ll find out."

He squeezed her hand.

Together, they continued toward the station.

---

That evening, Adrian placed Margaret’s letter on the living-room table.

He read it again before putting it away.

Then he opened the photograph Elise had sent.

He looked at the man beside Margaret.

The resemblance was impossible to ignore.

He enlarged the image once more.

This time, he noticed something he hadn’t seen before.

The man was wearing a watch.

A simple one, with a dark leather strap and a small silver face.

Adrian looked down at his own wrist.

He wasn’t wearing a watch.

But he remembered that one.

He remembered seeing it on someone else’s wrist.

His father’s.

Adrian sat very still.

The man in the photograph wasn’t simply someone who looked like him.

He was wearing something that belonged to his family.

Something that had existed long before Adrian’s human life.

His phone vibrated.

A new message.

Unknown number.

You have the letter now.

Adrian stared at it.

Another message followed.

Don’t look for the man in the photograph.

Then a final one.

Ask your father why he gave away his watch.

Adrian slowly lowered the phone.

For several seconds, he didn’t move.

Then he stood and walked toward the hallway.

His father was staying with the family that week. Adrian found him sitting in the guest room, reading a book.

"Father?"

The older man looked up.

"Yes?"

Adrian held out the photograph.

His father examined it.

The moment he saw the watch, his expression changed.

Not surprise.

Recognition.

He closed the book.

"Where did you get this?"

"Margaret’s shop."

His father looked at the photograph again.

Then he said quietly,

"I was wondering when someone would finally show you."

Adrian’s stomach tightened.

"Show me what?"

His father raised his eyes.

"The man in that photograph isn’t you, Adrian."

He paused.

"It’s me."