Chapter 1
“My wife and child, slaving away…”
The envelope shook once between my fingers.
Not because my hand was weak.
Because I had finally understood what I was looking at.
“Does this envelope explain why?”
Janice stopped breathing.
Behind me, Claire lay feverish inside the supply closet. Ella stood several feet away with the cleaning cloth still clutched in one hand and ten-month-old Sophie sleeping against her back beneath a faded blanket.
The papers inside the envelope were old.
Photographs.
A marriage certificate copy.
A hospital wristband.
And one image that turned every sound in the office into distance.
Claire.
Younger.
Standing beside me.
My arm around her.
A ring on her finger.
My ring.
For four years, I had been told Claire Bennett walked out on me before our wedding could happen.
Apparently someone had rewritten more than one memory.
Ella watched my face.
“Sir?”
I looked at her.
Four years old.
The timing hit me before anyone said it.
I looked back at the hospital wristband.
ELLA ROSE BELLROSE.
My surname.
My chest went cold.
Janice lunged again.
One bodyguard caught her shoulder.
“Don’t.”
Her voice cracked.
I turned toward her.
“You knew.”
“No.”
Wrong answer.
I held up the wristband.
“She was registered as my daughter.”
Janice looked toward Claire.
Not me.
That mattered.
Claire stirred weakly inside the closet.
“Ella…”
The child immediately ran toward her.
I moved first and lifted Claire carefully from the floor.
Her skin burned against my hand.
She opened her eyes.
Saw me.
Then terror entered her face.
Not surprise.
Terror.
“Dominic…”
I stopped.
“You knew I was here.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
She looked toward Janice.
Then whispered:
“Because they told me you wanted us gone.”
My jaw locked.
“Who?”
Claire tried to answer.
Janice shouted over her.
“She’s lying!”
Ella flinched.
That was enough.
I turned.
“Take Janice downstairs.”
My guard moved.
Janice began fighting harder.
“You don’t understand what’s in that envelope!”
I looked at her.
“No.”
My voice stayed quiet.
“But you clearly do.”
Then Claire touched my sleeve.
Weak.
Shaking.
“There’s another page.”
I looked down.
The final sheet was folded behind the hospital band.
One sentence had been written across it in black ink.
DOMINIC MUST NEVER KNOW SOPHIE EXISTS.
I looked toward the baby sleeping against Ella’s back.
Then at Janice.
Four years stolen.
One daughter hidden.
Another child someone was still trying to erase.
May you like
And suddenly the office at 1:17 A.M. felt less like the place where I found my family.
It felt like the place where someone’s plan finally failed.
