Chapter 1 - The woman upstairs
“His wife and son are already upstairs.”
For several seconds, I genuinely thought Chloe had made a mistake.
My six-year-old daughter Sophia stood beside me in the marble lobby of Vanguard Horizon, clutching the paper necklace she'd spent three hours making for her father. Glitter covered her fingers. Tiny crooked hearts surrounded the words she'd written herself.
For Daddy.
“Mommy?” she whispered. “Where's Daddy?”
Chloe smiled.
That smile answered more than her words had.
“You really didn't know?”
I knelt immediately and covered Sophia's ears.
Whatever happened next, my daughter would not hear herself described as the unwanted child.
When I stood again, Chloe was still smirking.
“Security can escort you out.”
I called my third brother.
Victor answered after one ring.
“Viv?”
“Take it all away.”
Silence.
“What happened?”
“Dominic brought another woman here as his wife. There's a boy with them. Chloe threatened Sophia.”
Victor's breathing changed.
“Everything?”
I stared at the elevators.
“Everything he thinks belongs to him.”
“I've already started.”
Less than two minutes later, the gala music upstairs abruptly stopped.
People began rushing toward the elevators.
Phones rang throughout the lobby.
Chloe's smile disappeared when her access badge suddenly flashed red.
Then the elevator doors opened.
Dominic emerged.
Behind him stood a beautiful blonde woman in a red gown.
Beside her was a boy perhaps eight years old.
Dominic saw me.
His face collapsed.
“Vivienne?”
Sophia slipped free of my hand.
“Daddy!”
She ran toward him with her necklace.
But the boy beside the blonde woman stepped forward too.
“Dad?”
Sophia stopped.
The handmade necklace fell from her fingers.
Dominic looked between the two children.
I expected an excuse.
Instead, the blonde woman stared directly at me.
Then she said something stranger.
“You're Vivienne Sterling?”
“Yes.”
Her face drained of color.
She grabbed the boy protectively.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
She wasn't looking at Dominic anymore.
May you like
She was looking at me.
“He told me you were dead.”
