TED'S POV

We land in Dallas at 2pm. It was one long ass flight.

Unfortunately I have my CPO, Greg Smith with me. I had to tell him the real reason we are in Dallas. He wanted to call Taylor as soon as he heard but I had to beg him not to say anything. He was worried about losing his job but I have promised he wont. Even if my Dad fires him, I'll just re-hire him and pay his salary out my own pocket. It's not like I cant afford it.

I have actual butterflies in my stomach. I cant mess this up. I just cant.

It was by sheer monumental luck I found her. The way I found her was a one in a million chance. I know that if I ever get the courage to write my own book one day it will be the story of how I found my sister.

I was in Miami on at a book conference last month. I had taken Carly with me because she wanted to see if publishing was going to be her thing. While at the conference I got talking to a guy called "Tex" who ran a book store in a small backwater town outside of Dallas, Texas called Blue Ridge. Carly had gone to get a milkshake for herself and when she came back Tex gasped and what he said next I didn't really register with me until I was on the jet home.

"Wow!, Dear lord! Do you believe in doppelgangers little lady? Because there's a gal back home who works in the diner, looks just like you kid. It's a bit spooky"

That was the last thing he said to us before he had to go and get his seat for the Keynote speech.

While I sat on the jet home and watched Carly sleep I couldn't help think of what Tex had said. I didn't believe in doppelgangers, but I did know how much my sisters looked alike. It was to much of a coincident for it to be Phoebe, but then I thought I had nothing to lose so I had Welch run a immediate background check on Tex.

It took forever because I didn't know his real name. Three days ago I got his information and Googled the town he lived in. The diner he told me about was a typical American small town deal. I told Welch to get back ground checks on all the employees but there was hardly any info because it seemed that the owner of the diner paid all his employees cash under the table.

I almost gave up on this particular branch of our inquiries because there was no paper trail at all. I had no information at all. I was about to press delete on the blue water file when a little voice in my head said to check again. I went on their website and had a quick look. On the very last page was a photograph that one of the customers had taken with a waitress and tagged it to Facebook. The waitress was a woman in her 40's but in the back ground of that picture, handing a guy a coke, was my sister.

I wanted to tell my parents straight away but I decided not to until I am face to face with her. It would crush my parents if it's not her even though there is not a doubt in my mind.

The reason for her disappearing was still a mystery at that point but then I dug a little deeper and found more picture and it was clear to see what her reason was.

We found out from my cousin Ava two days after Phoebe left that she had a secret boyfriend but Ava didn't know his name or where he lived so we back tracked the locator on her phone which she had left when she ran away.

It showed that she had visited an abandoned house that was halfway from her school to home, almost three times a week for half a year. From the outside the house looked fine but inside it was bare. After looking at who owned the house we found out the women that owned it had died five years before and the house had stood empty ever since.

When my father questioned Phoebes CPO, Samuel Dutchinson who everybody called Dutch, he said that Phoebe had told him that a study buddy lived there and he never questioned it because she was always a good student with straight A's all around.

He was fired on the spot. In temper my Father punched him so hard he broke his jaw. If it wasn't for him failing to write up full reports about where Phoebe was each day maybe we would have known who she was seeing before she ran away.

After looking at more of the diners pictures it showed Phoebe in a few but then I managed to get access to the pictures from an ATM machine in the diner.

The ones from the diner showed Phoebe with a guy. A very good looking dark haired guy. Some showed them hugging or holding hands and I would put my trust fund on the fact that this was her secret boyfriend and they had ran away together. She had ran away with her boyfriend because she didn't think my father would let her date. She was going to get an ass kicking from me because what a stupid fucking reason to rip our family apart.

Right now I am the other side of the street from the diner just keeping watch.

I had instructed Smith to hire a truck because I wanted to blend in and the normal Audi SUV that my father insisted we always have would stick out like a sore thumb in this town.

I feel like a creep staking out this diner but I want to observe and watch my sister before I approach her

My phone beeped with a email from my Mom.


FROM: ANASTASIA GREY

TO: THEODORE GREY

SUBJECT: Don't forget my hat, mister!

Hi honey

Just wanted to make sure you got to Texas ok?

Hope you have fun

Love

Mom x x x


FROM: THEODORE GREY

TO: ANASTASIA GREY

SUBJECT: Extra in Toy story.

Mom,

Everyone is dressed like Woody from Toy story. I feel the need to keep shouting "There's snake in my boot!"

I have arrived safe and sound in the lone star state as you can probably tell from my above statement.

I Will get you a hat later. And I may get you another little surprise ;)

Love you

Ted x


The real gift for her is if I can get Phoebe to come home.

I put my phone away and then glance out the window just as the door on the side of the diner opens.

It her!

My baby sister.

Its really her.

I found her!

I cant help it. I start crying. Smith doesn't say anything, he knows how hard its been for our family. We didn't even know if she was dead or alive and now here she is in the flesh and looking at her she looks to be in perfect health.

Her long brown hair is tied up in a ponytail, and she is wearing her waitress uniform. She's filled out since I last saw her. She was always tall for her age and she was kind of gangly when she was a teenager but now she is a stunning young women. She looks so much like my mother its scary and I now understand why sometimes my mother would look at Carly and get tears in her eyes. They are basically the same person.

She walks across the road tapping away on a cell phone while smoking a cigarette. She's smoked from like age 14. She got grounded so much for it but every time she was ungrounded she would start back up again. No one could every figure out where she got them from because my parents had stopped her allowance and all members of the household staff were barred from taking her to the store.

She starts making her way towards the truck on the side walk and I get a better look at her face from where I am and I can see the changes. Gone is the happy go lucky teenager and in its place a women who looks tired, very tired. She walks passed the truck with out a glance and I just can't help myself. I get out the truck when she is about ten feet away from me.

"You know you really should quit those things" Comes out of my mouth before I can stop myself.

She stands stock still with her back to me. Like she is frozen. Then slowly, very slowly, she starts to turn.

When her eyes meet mine for the first time in four years she goes white as a ghost.

"Teddy?" she whispers.

She sways slightly on her feet and then she does a dead faint and crumples to the floor before I can catch her.