4338.205 · July 24, 2018 AD
The Research
July 24, 2018. Late evening. After Kate goes to bed, Joel finds his birth certificate on his desk—her silent offering. Alone with his laptop, he does what any nineteen-year-old would do: he searches. A name typed into Google. Then Facebook. And suddenly the delivery he made this morning—the house in Berriedale, the man in damp shorts, those two Shih Tzus—takes on a meaning that makes his hands shake.
July 24, 2018. Joel's room, lit only by a desk lamp and laptop screen.
The birth certificate sits on his desk. Kate left it there whilst he showered—an offering he didn't ask for but can't ignore. Jamie Nigel Greyson. Nineteen years of silence, reduced to three words in official type.
Joel opens a browser window. Types the name. Hits enter.
He's looking for death records. Obituaries. Confirmation of the story he's believed his entire life—that his father died before he was born. That there's nothing to find because there's nothing left to find.
But the search results don't show what he expects.
And then he finds the Facebook profile.
What starts as curiosity turns into something else entirely. Details that seem innocuous at first begin connecting in ways that make his stomach drop. A location. A name. A photograph that triggers a memory he didn't know was important.
And suddenly this morning's delivery route—that house in Berriedale, that man with the dogs, those eight boxes of tent—stops feeling random.
Joel's hands are shaking. His heart is pounding. Because he's starting to realise that some coincidences are too specific to be accidents.
And some truths have been closer than anyone knew.
One chapter. One search. The night everything Joel thought he understood starts to unravel.
