Chapter 1 - Thirty Minutes Late
Thirty minutes should have meant nothing to me.
I had delayed shipments worth millions, kept senators waiting outside conference rooms, and once made three men sit in silence for four hours because one of them had lied to me.
But thirty minutes at Phoenix Sky Harbor changed my life.
My flight to Seattle had been delayed for maintenance. I was walking away from the departure board, already telling my assistant to move a meeting, when I saw her.
Tessa Monroe.
Six years older.
Thinner.
Exhausted.
Still unmistakably Tessa.
She was sleeping against the terminal window beside a battered navy suitcase.
Two little boys slept against her.
Twins.
Maybe five.
Maybe six.
One was curled against her lap with a teddy bear beneath his cheek. The other had fallen asleep holding the suitcase handle.
I forgot about Seattle.
I forgot about the shipment dispute waiting there.
I forgot that men throughout Arizona knew better than to make Grant Whitlock wait.
One boy turned his face.
Dark hair.
Heavy brows.
The slight indentation in his chin.
Mine.
I had seen that face in photographs from my childhood.
My pulse slowed.
Danger always did that to me.
But this wasn't danger.
It was something I didn't know how to survive.
“Tessa?”
Her eyes opened.
She saw me.
And panicked.
Both arms immediately went around the boys.
“Grant, don't come closer.”
That hurt more than it should have.
I stopped twenty feet away.
“What is this?”
She stood, placing herself between me and the children.
“Please.”
“Whose children are they?”
One twin woke.
His eyes met mine.
Gray.
Exactly like my father's.
Exactly like mine.
“Whose children, Tessa?”
Her mouth trembled.
Then she looked over my shoulder.
Not at airport security.
Not at the crowd.
She was looking for someone.
“Your mother never told you, did she?”
Everything around us disappeared.
“What did you say?”
“Grant—”
“My mother told me you ran.”
Tessa laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“I tried.”
I took out my phone.
“Mom. Get to the airport. Now.”
Tessa's face changed.
“No.”
Then I heard heels behind me.
“Grant.”
I turned.
Lorraine Whitlock was already there.
She hadn't needed time to get to the airport.
She had been inside it.
My mother stood thirty yards away in an ivory suit with two men beside her.
Tessa grabbed the twins.
Lorraine's composure cracked.
“Grant, get away from those children.”
One boy pressed himself against Tessa.
The other stared at Lorraine.
Then he pointed.
“Mommy.”
Tessa whispered, “Noah, don't.”
But he had already spoken.
“That's the lady who made Mommy run.”
My mother's face went white.
The two suited men started toward us.
I stepped between them and my sons.
I didn't know for certain they were mine yet.
My body apparently didn't care.
“Stop.”
Both men stopped.
Lorraine looked at me.
“Grant, you're making a mistake.”
“No.”
I looked at Tessa.
Then the boys.
Then my mother.
May you like
“For the first time in six years, I think I'm finally looking at yours.”
And behind Lorraine, one of her men quietly reached for his phone.
