Chapter 1 - The Word That Stopped Him Cold
The hockey stick came down before Nathan Mercer could understand what he was seeing.
WHACK.
Grace Bennett cried out as the wooden shaft slammed into her upper shoulder. She collapsed sideways against the marble floor, but somehow kept both arms locked around her fourteen-month-old daughter.
Little Lily screamed.
Victoria Hale stood over them in her burgundy designer dress, both hands wrapped around the hockey stick.
“STAY DOWN.”
She lifted it again.
The rear glass door flew open.
Nathan stepped into his kitchen and froze.
His briefcase slipped from his hand.
Victoria swung.
Nathan crossed the room in three strides, caught the stick before it landed, and ripped it from her hands.
“What the hell are you doing?”
He threw it across the marble.
Victoria stumbled backward.
“Nathan, you don’t understand—”
She reached toward Grace.
Nathan moved between them.
His hand struck Victoria’s cheek with a sharp crack.
She slammed against the kitchen island, staring at him in disbelief.
Nathan immediately dropped beside Grace.
“Grace. Look at me. Are you hurt?”
Then Lily lifted her wet, terrified face.
Her eyes locked on Nathan.
Something strange passed across the child’s expression.
Recognition.
“Daddy?”
Nathan stopped breathing.
Victoria went white.
Grace tightened her arms around Lily.
Nathan slowly turned toward her.
“What did she just say?”
Grace’s lips trembled.
“She’s your daughter.”
Silence swallowed the kitchen.
Nathan stared at Lily.
“No.”
Not because he didn’t believe Grace.
Because the dates suddenly crashed together in his mind.
Grace had worked in his home for eighteen months.
Lily was fourteen months old.
And before Grace had ever become his employee, there had been one night Nathan had spent years trying to forget.
Victoria suddenly lunged forward.
Nathan blocked her.
Lily whimpered and reached inside her pale pink dress.
Her tiny hand emerged holding an old silver locket.
Victoria saw it.
All the color disappeared from her face.
Nathan noticed.
Lily held the closed locket toward him.
Victoria grabbed for it.
Nathan caught her wrist.
“Don’t touch her.”
Lily’s fingers shook around the silver chain.
“She told me to hide this.”
Nathan stared at the locket, then at Victoria.
“Who?”
Victoria said nothing.
But for the first time since Nathan had known her, Victoria Hale looked genuinely terrified.
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And Nathan realized the biggest shock in the room might not be that Lily was his daughter.
It might be why Victoria was so desperate to get that locket.
