Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

Chapter Eleven: The manipulator Emma drove straight to the Reeds family estate, her fingers tight around the steering wheel the entire way. The familiar iron gates came into view and she exhaled slowly, composing herself. She needed to look like a woman in pain, not a woman with a plan.Nathan's mom had always had a soft spot for her. From the moment Emma had placed a grandson in her arms, she had become the old woman's favourite daughter rather than daughter-in-law. It was a card Emma had never hesitated to play. And today she was going to play it well.The housekeeper let her in without question and led her to the sitting room where Mrs. Reeds was having her afternoon tea. Mrs. Reeds looked up the moment Emma walked in, reading her face immediately. That was the thing about older women who had seen a lot they always thought they could read a room. Emma let her think she could."Emma? What's wrong?"Emma sat down across from her, folding her hands in her lap. She let the silence str

Chapter ThirteenSarah's phone buzzed against the conference table.She had been mid-sentence when she felt it. She held up a finger, glanced at the screen and every other thought left her head.Mom, could you come to the school? Someone is following us.She knew her son. Adin did not send messages like that for nothing. He didn't exaggerate didn't reach out unless something was actually wrong. If he had stopped to type those words and press send, it was because something real was happening and he didn't know how to handle it alone.Her chair scraped back before she had fully decided to stand."I'm sorry," she said, already reaching for her bag. "Family emergency."Nobody argued. She was already walking.She typed back in the elevator.I'm on my way. Stay wherever you are. Is Madam Cassy with you?She didn't wait for a reply. She shoved the phone in her bag and walked faster.The drive to the school felt longer than it was. Every red light felt personal. Her mind wouldn't stay still;

Chapter FifteenNathan's black SUV pulled up at the entrance of the hospital just as the evening was settling in.He sat in the car for a moment before getting out. The envelope was in his jacket pocket, right where he had put it after leaving the school. He could feel it. It was a small thing just a few strands of hair in a sealed envelope, but it felt heavier than it had any right to.Because what was inside that envelope had the power to shift everything. His life, his family, the story he had told himself about who he was and what he had done and what had been done to himHe got out of the car and walked in.The hospital was one of the few places in the city Nathan actually trusted. Not because hospitals were trustworthy by nature-he had seen enough of the world to know better than that-but because this particular doctor had been his family's physician for over fifteen yearrs.Nathan had made sure of that over the years in the quiet way he did most things-not with threats, but wit

Chapter SeventeenDavid walked in just after midnight. He did not look like a man who had been searching for anyone. His jacket was loose, his pace unhurried, and when he saw Emma and her mother still sitting in the living room he stopped only briefly before stepping further inside, dropping his keys on the console table the way he always did, like a man arriving home from an ordinary evening."It's late. Why are you both still awake?"Emma did not answer that. She had not been sitting there for two hours to talk about the time."Did you find them?"He looked at her with the kind of patience that had always made her feel like a child asking the wrong question. "I lost track of them but don't worry sweetheart. They won't hide forever."He smiled when he said it. Showing his full set teeth.Emma watched him. She had known her father long enough to know when he was performing, and he was performing now. The steadiness in his voice, the casual shrug of his shoulders, the way he looked jus

Chapter Nineteen: Not The Biological Father Nathan had not been able to focus on a single thing all day.He had snapped at his everyone, He moved through three meetings without retaining anything that was said in any of them. His responses had been adequate, the correct words assembled in the correct order, but there was nothing behind them. He was operating entirely on the surface of the day while something underneath kept pulling at him and refusing to be named or set aside.He knew what it was. He simply did not want to look at it directly.He had picked up his phone to call the doctor four times and put it back down each time because he could not answer the basic question of what he actually wanted to hear when someone picked up. That was the thing he kept running into. He was a man who built every decision around a clearly defined desired outcome, who never entered a room without knowing exactly what he was working toward. And yet every time he sat with the question of what he w