CHAPTER 1 Daddy
The wooden hockey stick crashed against Grace Carter's shoulder with a sickening crack.
Pain exploded through her body.
She stumbled backward, but there was no time to scream.
Her only instinct was to protect the tiny girl standing behind her.
Grace dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around four-year-old Lily, curling her own body into a shield.
The second blow landed across her back.
Lily cried out.
"Mommy!"
"It's okay..." Grace whispered despite the burning pain shooting through her spine. "Don't look."
Another strike.
The hockey stick splintered against the kitchen counter before bouncing across the marble floor.
Victoria Ashford stood over them in a flawless white designer dress that looked as though it belonged on the cover of a bridal magazine.
Not a single strand of her blonde hair had fallen out of place.
Her expression remained frighteningly calm.
"You should've listened," Victoria said quietly.
Grace struggled to breathe.
"I begged you..."
Victoria crouched until their faces were inches apart.
"I gave you five years to disappear."
Grace tightened her arms around Lily.
"You'll never touch her."
Victoria smiled.
"Dead women don't make promises."
She reached toward the broken stick.
Grace closed her eyes.
This was how it ended.
She had known this day would come eventually.
She had spent five years hiding.
Changing apartments.
Changing jobs.
Never staying anywhere longer than six months.
Never letting Lily play outside without watching every corner.
Never using her real address.
Never posting photographs.
Never telling anyone who Lily's father truly was.
She had survived because she stayed invisible.
Until yesterday.
Nathan Cole had unknowingly hired her as a temporary housekeeper through a luxury staffing agency.
Neither of them recognized each other immediately.
Five years had changed everything.
Grace no longer wore expensive dresses.
Nathan no longer smiled.
Victoria recognized Grace the instant she stepped inside the mansion.
And that had changed everything.
Victoria lifted the broken hockey stick again.
"Goodbye."
The front door opened.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the entrance hall.
"Nathan?"
Victoria froze.
The hockey stick slipped from her fingers and clattered onto the marble floor.
Nathan Cole stood in the doorway wearing a charcoal suit, his tie loosened after a fourteen-hour meeting.
His eyes swept across the kitchen.
The shattered glass.
Blood on the floor.
Grace kneeling.
A terrified child clinging to her.
His fiancée standing over them.
His heartbeat stopped.
"What..."
No one answered.
Nathan walked forward slowly.
His expensive shoes left faint prints through drops of blood.
Grace tried to stand but collapsed again.
Nathan instinctively caught her before she hit the floor.
His hands came away stained red.
His voice turned dangerously quiet.
"Victoria."
She forced a nervous laugh.
"It isn't what it looks like."
Nathan looked at the bruise already forming across Grace's shoulder.
"What happened?"
Victoria answered too quickly.
"She attacked me."
Grace laughed weakly.
The sound was filled with exhaustion instead of humor.
Nathan looked at Grace.
She had always seemed strangely familiar.
Something about her eyes.
Her voice.
The way she tucked loose hair behind one ear.
But he couldn't place it.
Until now.
Grace whispered his name.
"Nathan..."
Five years disappeared.
Rain.
College.
Late-night coffee shops.
A tiny apartment filled with dreams instead of money.
The girl who believed in him before anyone else.
The woman he had searched for until she vanished without a trace.
His face turned pale.
"...Grace?"
Tears filled her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
Nathan stared.
"It really is you."
Victoria's stomach tightened.
This wasn't happening.
Grace had disappeared exactly as planned.
She wasn't supposed to come back.
She definitely wasn't supposed to appear inside Nathan's house.
Lily peeked out from behind Grace's shoulder.
Her blue eyes met Nathan's.
She stopped crying.
Children often sensed safety before adults did.
She studied his face carefully.
Then looked at the photograph hanging above the fireplace.
Nathan.
Same eyes.
Same smile.
Same tiny dimple.
She looked back at him.
"Daddy?"
Silence swallowed the room.
Nathan blinked.
"What..."
Lily smiled through tears.
"Daddy."
Grace closed her eyes.
She had prayed this moment would never happen.
Not like this.
Not covered in blood.
Not inside the home of the woman who wanted her daughter dead.
Nathan looked at Grace.
Then at Lily.
Then back again.
His breathing became uneven.
"No..."
Grace nodded once.
"She's yours."
Everything inside Nathan collapsed.
He had spent five years believing Grace abandoned him.
Believing she had chosen another life.
Believing every lie his father carefully placed before him.
But now...
There stood a little girl with his eyes.
His smile.
His mother's chin.
His blood.
His daughter.
Victoria stepped backward.
"Nathan, she's lying."
Neither of them looked at her.
Grace reached into her pocket with trembling fingers.
Nathan instinctively helped her.
She pulled out a faded envelope, yellowed by time.
"I wanted to give this to you..."
Nathan unfolded it.
The first page was a hospital report.
PATIENT: GRACE CARTER
PREGNANCY: 8 WEEKS
Estimated Father: Nathan Cole
The second page was never mailed.
A handwritten letter.
Nathan...
If you're reading this, it means I finally found the courage.
I'm pregnant.
I wanted to tell you in person.
I'm scared.
But I know we'll figure it out together...
The ink stopped abruptly.
Half the page had been torn away.
Nathan's hands trembled.
"You wrote this?"
Grace nodded.
"I never got the chance to send it."
Victoria interrupted.
"She's forged everything."
Grace looked directly into Nathan's eyes.
"Ask your father."
Nathan frowned.
"What?"
"He knows."
The room suddenly felt colder.
Grace continued.
"The night I disappeared..."
"He came to see me."
Nathan's heart pounded.
"He said if I didn't leave, you'd lose everything."
Victoria's face drained of color.
Grace kept speaking.
"He knew about the baby."
Nathan slowly turned toward Victoria.
She wasn't looking at him anymore.
She was staring at Grace.
Not with anger.
With fear.
Real fear.
Nathan noticed it instantly.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Victoria swallowed hard.
Before she could answer, a black luxury sedan stopped outside the mansion.
Three men stepped out.
One of them wore a dark suit Nathan recognized immediately.
His father's chief attorney.
Nathan walked to the window.
The lawyer wasn't alone.
Two police officers accompanied him.
Grace saw them too.
Her face turned white.
"They found us."
Nathan looked back.
"What do you mean?"
Grace whispered only four words.
"They're taking Lily."
The doorbell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then someone began pounding on the front door.
"Mr. Cole!"
The attorney's voice echoed through the house.
"We have an emergency custody order."
Nathan stared in disbelief.
Custody?
For a child he had only learned existed thirty seconds ago?
Someone had planned this.
Long before he came home.
And whoever was behind it...
May you like
Already knew Lily was here.
END OF CHAPTER 1
