chapter Three

Chapter 3

The Healer Across the Sea

In a marble-walled mansion in Paris, a young girl with glowing brown skin sat cross-legged on a velvet rug, pressing her fingers against the bruised ankle of her guardian.

The moment her fingers touched the swelling, it melted away like morning dew.

The man—wealthy, middle-aged, and sad-eyed—sighed in relief.

"You're a miracle," he whispered, stroking her hair. "My little angel."

Her name was Zikora. She didn't know where the name came from, but it lived in her head like a soft whisper.

Her passport said her name was Isabelle Okon-Richardson.

But she knew better.

She was not Isabelle.

She didn't know where she truly came from. Just that she had always felt incomplete.

A hollow ache in her chest.

Like a song missing its final verse.

Zikora had always known she was different.

She healed people by instinct. When her nanny fell sick, she placed a hand on her forehead, and within minutes, the fever broke.

When a dog limped across the garden, she pressed her hand on its leg—and it walked again.

No one could explain it. Not even the doctors her guardian brought.

"You're a gift," he always said. "God took my daughter but gave me you."

Zikora never questioned it. She was grateful. She had food, a soft bed, and a private tutor.

But still… she felt trapped.

Dreams haunted her.

Of a girl.

With her face.

Calling to her.

Of a warm voice.

A golden light.

Of an amulet broken into two.

On the other side of the world, Ziora walked the corridors of her elite international school, unaware that across oceans, her twin had just painted her face in watercolor again.

Their bond, broken by theft, still pulsed quietly beneath the surface of reality.

One evening, Xoxo sat alone on the veranda of her mansion, sipping zobo and watching the sun set.

Her phone buzzed.

A number she didn't know.

She ignored it.

It buzzed again.

And again.

Until finally, curiosity won.

"Hello?" she answered.

A voice—raspy, female, old.

"Xoxo?"

Her heart skipped.

"Who is this?"

"It's me… Mama Ejike. Your grandmother's cousin. From the village."

Xoxo's throat tightened. She hadn't heard that name in years.

"I have something you need to know. About your grandmother. And the amulet."

Xoxo sat up.

"Come to the village," the voice said. "She left behind… secrets. A diary. One that only you must read."

The next day, she packed her bags.

With Ziora by her side.

Destiny had begun to stir again.

And soon, across the sea, the other half of her heart would begin to hear the call.