Our family group chat is called Fam ❤️. Five people. Me, Mom, Dad, my sister Zoe, my little brother Sam. Tonight my phone buzzed and the header said 6 members. The new one had no name. No profile photo. Just a gray circle. Mom: "who is this??" Three dots. Typing. Then it sent one photo. Our living room. The couch. Dad's mug on the coffee table, still steaming. Taken from inside the house.

Sam: "lol i'll just kick them" Sam removed the member. The header said 5 again. Mom typed "must be a glitch" and Zoe sent a thumbs up. For one minute it was a normal Tuesday. Then my phone buzzed. "[no name] joined the group." Nobody added them back. There's no way to add yourself. 6 members.

Mom: "everyone OUT. leave the chat. we'll make a new one." We all left, one by one. I made the new group myself. Added exactly four people. Named it Fam 2. It sat quiet for a minute. I watched it. Then the header changed. 6 members. The gray circle: "You forgot to add me."

Me: "what do you want" The gray circle: "To be family." Me: "you're not family" It sent a photo of our fridge. Zoomed in on the school pictures under the magnets. Me. Zoe. Sam. And a fourth picture. A boy none of us knew, in an old brown frame. Zoe: "im in the kitchen. guys." Zoe: "the fourth picture is really on the fridge. it wasn't there at dinner."

We stood in the kitchen together and stared at it. A boy, maybe ten, smiling in an old brown frame. Mom went white. "That's Danny," she said. "My little brother. He went missing when I was eight. This was our house first. I grew up here." The chat buzzed. The gray circle finally had a name. "Danny." Mom typed with shaking hands: "if it's really you, show me." The basement light clicked on under the door. A small shadow moved across it, back and forth, like a kid rocking on his heels. Mom opened the door and went down alone. We heard her voice go soft, like she was eight again. "There you are."