Chapter One

Sienna's Pov

“Mommy, you’re staring again.”

I blinked and looked down at Ava.

My four-year-old daughter sat at the kitchen table, swinging her legs while eating cereal. She was watching me with the kind of concern only a child could have, her little brow furrowed in concentration.

I forced a smile. “I am not.”

“You are.”

“I was thinking.”

“That’s staring,” she declared with the absolute certainty of a four-year-old.

I laughed despite myself. Leave it to Ava to call me out before seven in the morning.

Today was important. Very important. My first day at Calloway Industries meant a better position, better pay, better hours—the kind of job that could finally let me stop worrying every time Ava needed new shoes or got sick. I should have been excited, but instead, I felt nervous. Maybe because it seemed too good to be true. Or maybe because every good thing in my life always seemed to come with a catch.

“Finish your breakfast,” I told her.

Ava saluted me with her spoon. “Yes, ma’am.”

I shook my head, smiling. Sometimes I forgot she was only four.

By eight-thirty, I’d dropped her off at daycare and was standing in front of the tallest building in the city. Calloway Industries stretched into the sky like it owned the clouds, and honestly, the Calloways probably did own everything else. I adjusted my blazer and walked inside, muttering under my breath, “Don’t mess this up, Sienna.”

The lobby was already busy with employees rushing in every direction, phones ringing, elevators opening and closing. Money moved through this building every second, and standing here, I felt impossibly small. I hated feeling small.

A woman from Human Resources greeted me and handed me a visitor badge. “Conference Room Twelve. The executive team is waiting.”

The executive team. Great. No pressure.

I followed her directions to the elevator, and my stomach twisted tighter with every floor that passed. When the doors finally opened, I took a deep breath and walked toward the conference room.

The door was already open. Several people sat around a long table—people I recognized from company articles. Department heads. Executives. People with power.

Then I saw him.

My entire world stopped. For one impossible second, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Dark hair, strong jaw, broad shoulders, dark eyes. No. My heart slammed against my ribs.

I knew that face. I had traced that jawline with my fingertips four years ago. I had kissed that mouth. I had spent one unforgettable night with that man. The father of my daughter.

The room suddenly felt too small, too hot, too loud.

He looked up. Our eyes met, and my pulse exploded as the memories hit all at once—the hotel bar, his laugh, the tattoo on his arm, the way he looked at me like I was the only woman in the room. Four years vanished in a heartbeat.

The man frowned slightly. Not in recognition, but in confusion, like he’d never seen me before. Something felt terribly wrong.

“Miss Vale?”

I jerked. Everyone was looking at me. Wonderful. First day and I was already embarrassing myself.

The man stood. “You’re our new project manager?”

His voice hit me next—cold, controlled, professional. Not him. The face was right, but everything else was wrong.

I stared, struggling to make sense of what I was seeing.

“Yes,” I finally managed.

His expression didn’t change. No recognition, no shock, nothing. As if we’d never met. As if Ava didn’t exist. As if that night had never happened.

A strange feeling settled in my stomach—not anger, but confusion. The man from four years ago had warmth. This man felt like ice.

“I’m Roman Calloway,” he said.

Roman. The name landed heavily. Not Cole. The name from the hotel had been Cole—I remembered that clearly. The realization hit me so hard I almost sat back down.

Twins. They had to be twins. There was no other explanation.

The meeting started, but I heard almost none of it. People talked, charts appeared on screens, numbers were discussed, but my mind was racing. Roman. Cole. Calloway. Twins. My eyes kept drifting toward him, and every time they did, I noticed another difference. The posture. The voice. The expression. The way he carried himself. The man I remembered smiled easily. Roman looked like smiling required actual effort. Still, the resemblance was terrifying.

Ava had his eyes. Or not his. Cole’s. But the difference suddenly felt meaningless.

By the time the meeting ended, my head was pounding. People filed out, and I gathered my papers quickly, needing air, answers, maybe both.

I stepped into the hallway.

“Miss Vale.”

My entire body froze. Roman stood behind me, too close, too familiar, too wrong.

“Yes?”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “I feel like we’ve met before.”

My pulse stopped. For a moment I thought everything was about to come crashing down. Then he continued.

“Have we?”

I forced myself to breathe. “No.”

A lie. A huge one. But technically true—I had never met Roman, only his brother.

Something unreadable flashed across his face. Then he nodded. “Strange.”

“What is?”

“You looked shocked when you saw me.”

I laughed nervously. “First-day nerves.”

His gaze lingered, like he didn’t believe me, like he knew something wasn’t right. Then his phone rang. He glanced at the screen, and his expression hardened instantly.

“Excuse me.”

I watched him walk away. The moment he disappeared around the corner, I grabbed my phone with shaking hands.

The search took less than thirty seconds. Calloway family. Images. Articles. Profiles. And there he was—Roman Calloway, CEO, billionaire, the public face of the company.

Then I saw another picture, and my breath caught. Standing beside Roman was another man. Identical. Same face, same eyes, same jaw. But unlike Roman, this one was smiling.

The caption read: COLE CALLOWAY — Former Executive Director.

I stared at the image as my stomach dropped. There was no doubt, no uncertainty, no possibility I was mistaken. The man in that photograph was Ava’s father.

Then I noticed the date. The article was two years old. Beneath the photograph was a single sentence that made my blood run cold.

“Cole Calloway has not been seen publicly since the scandal that forced his departure from Calloway Industries.”

My phone rang.

I jumped. June. My best friend.

I answered immediately. “Sienna? How was your first day?”

I looked at the photograph again, at the smiling man who had disappeared, at the face that matched my daughter’s perfectly.

Then I whispered, “June… I think I just found Ava’s father.”