Chapter 1
The first thing I heard when I opened my front door was a child screaming.
The second was the crack of wood against bone.
I dropped my briefcase and ran toward the kitchen.
Grace was on her knees beside the island, curled around a little girl in a yellow sweater. Her maid’s uniform was torn at the shoulder, and pain had drained every bit of color from her face.
Victoria stood above them holding one of the hockey sticks from my study.
My fiancée lifted it again.
“Please,” Grace choked out. “She’s only four.”
Victoria’s voice was terrifyingly calm.
“Dead people keep secrets.”
I stepped into the kitchen.
“Put it down.”
Victoria spun around.
The stick fell from her hands and struck the tile.
“Nathan, I can explain.”
The little girl beneath Grace’s arms raised her tear-soaked face.
She looked directly at me.
“Daddy.”
I couldn’t breathe.
I had met Lily twice since Grace started working in my home three months earlier. Grace had said she was her daughter, but she never brought Lily to work unless her babysitter canceled.
The child had always watched me strangely.
Now I understood why.
Grace struggled upright, one arm hanging stiffly at her side.
“She’s your daughter, Nathan.”
Victoria shook her head.
“She’s lying.”
I moved between Victoria and the child.
“Why were you hitting them?”
“I wasn’t. Grace attacked me.”
Grace stared at her.
“You said you would finish what our fathers started.”
Victoria lunged for the hockey stick.
I kicked it away before she reached it.
“Don’t touch it.”
Victoria’s expression changed. The frightened fiancée disappeared, and something cold replaced her.
“You have no idea what she’s done.”
“I know what I saw.”
I called 911.
Grace caught my sleeve.
“Please don’t let the police take Lily.”
“Why would they?”
Her eyes moved toward Victoria.
“Because she planned this.”
Sirens reached the house within minutes.
Paramedics examined Grace while Lily clung to her waist. When they tried to place Grace on a stretcher, Lily screamed and wrapped both arms around her.
I knelt a few feet away.
“Lily, your mom needs a doctor.”
She studied my face.
“Mommy said you didn’t know me.”
Every word cut deeper.
“Why did you call me Daddy?”
She reached inside her sweater and pulled out a small photograph.
It showed Grace and me five years earlier beside my old apartment in Boston.
Grace was laughing.
I was kissing her temple.
“You’re in Mommy’s box,” Lily whispered.
Victoria tried to leave through the hallway.
Officer Ramirez stopped her.
“Nobody leaves until we understand what happened.”
Victoria folded her arms.
“My father is Conrad Bennett. Call Chief Wallace.”
The officer’s expression tightened.
Conrad Bennett owned half the commercial property in Boston and funded half the politicians who claimed they could not be bought.
He was also the man whose daughter I was supposed to marry in fourteen days.
I looked at Grace.
“Tell me everything.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“Not here.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“She appeared in your home under a false name. She brought a child she claims is yours, and now she wants your money.”
“My name is Grace Miller,” Grace said.
“Not according to the background check.”
I turned toward Victoria.
“How did you see her background check?”
She said nothing.
I had hired Grace through an agency. Only my security director and I had access to her file.
Officer Ramirez picked up the hockey stick with gloved hands.
Victoria pointed at Grace.
“She threatened me with it first.”
“There are cameras in this house,” I said.
Victoria’s face flickered.
I opened the security application on my phone.
Every kitchen recording from that afternoon had been deleted.
My pulse began pounding.
“You knew the camera code.”
“You gave it to me,” Victoria replied.
I had never given it to her.
The paramedics carried Grace outside while I held Lily’s hand.
A black police SUV pulled into my driveway before we reached the ambulance.
Detective Paul Mercer climbed out with two officers.
He did not look at Victoria.
He walked straight toward Grace.
“Grace Miller, you’re being detained in connection with the kidnapping of a minor.”
Lily screamed.
I stepped between them.
“That minor is her daughter.”
Mercer held up a folder.
“We received evidence that Ms. Miller obtained forged passports for herself and the child. We also found airline reservations for Mexico under false names.”
Grace looked stunned.
“I’ve never applied for a passport for Lily.”
Mercer showed me printed photographs of passports bearing their faces.
A flight was scheduled for midnight.
Victoria stood behind the officers, trying to hide her satisfaction.
I finally understood Grace’s fear.
“This evidence was planted,” I said.
Mercer reached for Grace’s wrist.
I blocked him.
“She needs a hospital.”
“She’ll be examined in custody.”
“No.”
My attorney’s car stopped beside the police vehicles.
Marcus Hale hurried toward us carrying a sealed brown envelope.
“Nathan, don’t say another word.”
Mercer scowled.
“This is police business.”
“And my client is invoking counsel.”
Marcus looked at Grace’s injured shoulder, Lily’s terrified face, and Victoria standing near the door.
Then he pulled me aside.
“I received an automatic notice when the police searched your company server,” he whispered. “Someone uploaded those passports from inside Bennett Tower.”
I glanced at Victoria.
“Can you prove it?”
“Not yet.”
He pressed the envelope into my hand.
“This was removed from your father’s private safe after his death. His instructions said I could release it only if Grace returned or a child made a claim against the Cole estate.”
My father had been dead for eighteen months.
Even from the grave, he had expected this moment.
“What’s inside?”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“A letter, an address, and evidence your father spent years hiding.”
I tore the envelope open.
The first page was written in my father’s hand.
Nathan, if Grace ever comes back, believe her before you believe anyone carrying our name.
Below it was a photograph of a woman I had mourned since I was eight years old.
My mother.
The date printed on the photograph was only six months old.
I looked at Marcus, unable to speak.
May you like
He leaned close and whispered four words.
“Your mother is still alive.”
