Chapter 1

The study fell silent when I pushed the unsigned trust agreement away.

My mother spoke first.

“Sebastian isn’t an outsider. He has been our son for twenty-five years, and he has been the heir for just as long.”

She took my hand, speaking as if she were helping me accept a decision that had already been made.

“You’ve only been back for a year. Of course some things still feel unfamiliar. You survived on your own for a long time. You’re stronger than Sebastian, and you’re better at adapting to change.”

“So I’m the one who has to adapt?”

“That isn’t what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

She had no answer.

Vivienne stepped between us.

“Callum, we postponed this welcome dinner three times. Now that it has finally happened, do you really have to make everyone uncomfortable tonight?”

I looked at her.

“Was I the one who postponed it?”

Her expression changed.

I answered for her.

“The first time, Sebastian had to accompany Father to the Harbor Point signing. The second, he was in a car accident. The third, my future wife came home from London, and Sebastian had to attend the Ashbournes’ dinner in her honor.”

Celia tightened her grip on her wineglass.

Before I disappeared, our parents had hoped that Celia and I would marry one day. After I was found, my father said the arrangement between our families still stood.

Yet over the past year, Celia had accompanied Sebastian to three formal events.

I, the man everyone still called her future husband, had been left out of all of them.

“Why are you dragging me into this?” she asked, frowning. “Postponing the dinner didn’t change the fact that you’re the Whitmores’ eldest son.”

“You’re right.”

Her expression eased slightly.

“If time doesn’t change who I am, then changing the trust won’t erase the twenty-five years Sebastian has been their son.”

Sebastian’s eyes immediately reddened.

“Stop fighting over me. I’ll withdraw from the trust. I’ll give up my position as heir.”

He reached for the papers, but my mother caught his wrist.

“No one is asking you to do that.”

Vivienne moved to his side.

“You were raised to take over Whitmore Holdings. You joined the company at eighteen and began representing Father at board meetings when you were twenty-five. Callum comes back after one year, and you’re supposed to hand over your entire life?”

I looked at her.

“What do you mean, I came back?”

“You were the ones who found me and asked me to return.”

When Vivienne first saw me a year ago, she held me and cried.

I had disappeared at a Christmas market when I was three, after she let go of my hand. For twenty-five years, she had blamed herself for losing her little brother. She told me she had never stopped searching.

My mother said there had not been a single day when she had forgotten me.

My father promised that the doors of Whitmore House would always be open to me. They had already missed my entire childhood, he said. They would never let me feel as if I had no family again.

I believed them.

That was why I gave up a partnership at Vale Risk Advisory, moved to Boston, and joined Whitmore Holdings.

I had not returned for the trust or the company.

I returned because I believed they truly wanted me home.

A year later, I understood that they wanted me back, but they had never intended to change anything to make room for me.

My mother softened her voice.

“We haven’t abandoned you. You’ll have your own trust, shares, and more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life. Sebastian will simply continue running the company. That doesn’t make you any less our son.”

“If the inheritance has nothing to do with whether I’m your son, why do you need me to sign it away?”

She said nothing.

My father’s expression darkened.

“Sebastian knows the company and has the board’s confidence. You’ve only worked at Whitmore Holdings for a year. Do you expect me to remove him immediately and hand you the entire company?”

“I never asked you to hand me the company.”

“Then sign.”

“No.”

My father stared at me.

“Sebastian has agreed to transfer some of his personal shares to you, and we’ve established a separate trust in your name. What else do you want?”

“I want to know why you brought me back.”

“Because you’re our son.”

“In public, I’m only the son you lost and found again. Sebastian is still your sole heir. At the company, I do the work, and he takes my reports to the board. At Whitmore House, he lives in the wing reserved for the heir while I live in the guest suite.”

I pointed to the agreement.

“Now you want me to sign away every right I have to question any of it.”

Vivienne frowned.

“Why do you have to keep score over everything? We found you. We gave you the Whitmore name. Do shares and titles matter more than being part of this family?”

“I never came back for the Whitmore name. I don’t care about the trust or the money.”

“Then why are you so determined to compete with Sebastian?”

“Because you said you loved me. You said you had searched for me for twenty-five years and promised I would never feel as though I had no family again.”

I looked at each of them.

“But every time you have to choose between me and Sebastian, I’m the one you ask to step aside.”