Chapter 1
William recognized his sister’s handwriting before he finished reading the first line.
For a moment, the overturned wine-label display, the scattered menus, and Damian groaning beneath the collapsed trolley disappeared from his attention. All he could see was the faded photograph in his hand and the familiar slant of letters written by a woman who had been dead for nearly four years.
IF THEY EVER COME TO YOU, PROTECT THEM.
William slowly raised his eyes.
Emma stood several feet away with Noah strapped against her chest. She looked frightened enough to run, but too exhausted to know where she would go.
“You weren’t begging at my table by accident.”
Emma stared at him.
Victor stopped moving beneath the tilted display.
That reaction told William more than any answer could have.
He turned the photograph over.
His sister, Elena Parker, stood in the center.
She was younger in the picture. Smiling. One hand rested on the shoulder of a man William recognized as Daniel Reynolds, the husband she had secretly married against their father’s wishes.
Beside them stood a small girl.
Emma.
William’s jaw tightened.
He looked at her again.
“How old are you?”
“Five.”
The photograph was at least four years old.
That meant Elena had known Emma.
Loved her.
And William had never even heard the child’s name.
Noah whimpered against Emma’s chest.
She immediately lowered her head and whispered something soothing to him.
William watched the instinct.
Protect the baby first.
Always.
Then Emma looked at the photograph in his hand.
“My mom said if things got bad, I had to find the man with the ring.”
William looked down at his family signet.
“When did she tell you that?”
Emma swallowed.
“She didn’t.”
William went still.
Emma pointed at the photograph.
“It was in her coat when they brought her home.”
Victor’s face changed.
William saw it.
“Who brought her home?”
Emma looked directly at Victor.
May you like
“Him.”
And suddenly Victor’s desperate reach for the photograph made perfect sense.
