The Anniversary Photograph
Chapter Three
This week’s Story Starter teaser is:
Later that night, the two met in secret on the seaside pier.
Fandango’s Story Starter #265
The Anniversary Photograph
Chapter Three: The Woman on the Pier
Mike stared at his wife.
“You buried him?”
Claire’s hands were trembling.
“Mike, please. Let me explain.”
“Who, Claire? Who did you bury?”
She looked at the photograph lying between them.
“His name was Thomas.”
Mike waited.
“He was Anna’s boyfriend. Before you.”
“And what happened to him?”
Claire swallowed.
“He found out something he wasn’t supposed to know.”
“What?”
She shook her head.
“Anna made me promise never to tell anyone.”
Mike gave a bitter laugh.
“Anna. Of course. Everything comes back to Anna.”
He picked up the photograph.
“Is she alive?”
Claire looked away.
“Answer me!”
“I don’t know.”
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Then Mike noticed something.
The house in the photograph.
He recognised it.
The white walls. The blue shutters. The narrow path leading down towards the sea.
It was the old cottage beside the harbour.
The one Claire had insisted they never visit.
“Where was Thomas buried?”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Behind the cottage.”
Mike felt the blood drain from his face.
They had spent their honeymoon there.
Later that night, the two met in secret on the seaside pier.
The wind whipped across the dark water as Claire approached the solitary figure standing beneath the last working streetlamp.
“You shouldn’t have contacted him,” she said.
The woman turned.
She had Claire’s eyes.
Claire’s smile.
Even the same small scar above her left eyebrow.
But her hair was shorter now, streaked with silver.
“Hello, sister.”
Claire stopped.
Twenty-five years.
Twenty-five years since she had last seen Anna.
“You sent the photographs.”
Anna nodded.
“Why?”
“Because it’s time he knew.”
Claire glanced nervously towards the harbour.
“You promised me.”
“I promised to stay away. I never promised to let you keep lying to him.”
Claire stepped closer.
“You don’t understand what will happen if he finds out.”
Anna laughed softly.
“Oh, I understand perfectly.”
She reached into her coat pocket.
For one terrible moment, Claire thought she was reaching for a weapon.
Instead, Anna produced a small silver crescent moon.
Claire stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
Anna smiled.
“Thomas gave it to me.”
“No. Mike gave you that necklace.”
“Did he?”
Anna held the pendant beneath the streetlamp.
On the back, almost invisible after twenty-five years, were two tiny engraved initials.
T. A.
Thomas and Anna.
Claire stumbled backwards.
“But Mike…”
“Mike never gave me a necklace, Claire.”
Anna’s voice softened.
“He never even knew me.”
Claire shook her head.
“No. That’s impossible.”
Anna took another photograph from her pocket.
It showed a young man standing outside the seaside café.
Dark hair.
A familiar smile.
His arm around Anna’s waist.
Claire stared at the photograph.
At the face she had kissed goodnight for twenty-five years.
At the man she had married.
And then Anna spoke.
“Claire, the man you buried wasn’t Thomas.”
Behind them, a floorboard creaked.
Both women turned.
Mike stood at the entrance to the pier.
He had heard everything.
And in his hand was a photograph neither sister had ever seen.
On the back were five words.
I KNOW WHICH ONE YOU ARE.
Chapter 1 :
https://magz70-qytix.wordpress.com/2026/09/16/fandangos-story-starter-11/
Chapter 2:
https://magz70-qytix.wordpress.com/2026/09/21/fandangos-story-starter-12/
#FSS
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
My new song is out.
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
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