Chapter 4 - THE SECRET OF MAISIE'S BIRTH
For several seconds, I couldn't speak.
Nora watched me.
Her expression was exhausted.
Guarded.
And painfully familiar.
“Maisie's father?” I repeated.
She nodded.
I felt an irrational, immediate fear.
Five years old.
Nora and I had been apart for fourteen years.
There was no possibility Maisie was my biological daughter.
Yet something about Nora's expression told me the truth was going to change my life anyway.
“Who is he?” I asked.
Nora looked down.
“His name was Andrew Bennett.”
“Was?”
Her eyes filled.
“He died before Maisie was born.”
I swallowed.
“I'm sorry.”
She nodded.
“Andrew was a good man.”
I waited.
“He was an investigative accountant,” she continued. “He worked for one of your father's subsidiaries.”
My stomach tightened.
“Cole Industries?”
“Yes.”
Nora looked toward the window.
“He discovered financial irregularities. Unauthorized transfers. Fake vendors. Money disappearing through offshore accounts.”
I stared.
“Why didn't he report it?”
“He tried.”
She swallowed.
“Three weeks later, he died in a car crash.”
I felt cold.
“Nora…”
She shook her head.
“The police said it was an accident.”
I looked at her.
“But you don't believe that.”
“No.”
Nora reached toward the bedside drawer.
Inside was a small envelope.
She handed it to me.
“Andrew left this.”
I opened it.
A photograph.
Andrew standing beside my father.
And a third man.
I recognized him immediately.
Victor Hale.
My father's longtime chief financial officer.
The man who had mentored me when I joined the company.
The man who had congratulated me on the eighty-one-million-dollar deal the previous afternoon.
“Victor?” I whispered.
Nora nodded.
“Andrew told me Victor was moving money.”
I stared at the photograph.
My chest tightened.
“And my father?”
Nora looked away.
“I don't know what he knew.”
I sat back.
The room seemed to tilt.
“Why didn't you come to me?” I asked.
Nora laughed sadly.
“I tried.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course she had.
The letters.
The blocked calls.
The years of silence.
My father had built a wall between us.
And Nora had been trapped on the other side.
She looked at me.
“Ethan, I don't want your money.”
“I know.”
“I don't want you to feel responsible for Maisie.”
I shook my head.
“That's not why I'm here.”
She studied me.
“Then why?”
I looked toward the hallway.
Somewhere beyond the door, Maisie was drawing pictures with Rachel.
I swallowed.
“Because I saw a little girl standing in the snow, trying to save her mother.”
My voice broke.
“And I realized I had spent fourteen years becoming successful at everything except being the man I promised you I'd be.”
Nora's eyes filled.
Then she reached for my hand.
“Ethan, promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“If something happens to me, don't let Victor near Maisie.”
I went still.
“Why?”
Nora looked toward the door.
Then whispered:
“Because Andrew left evidence.”
My heart pounded.
“Where?”
May you like
She touched the amber necklace resting against her chest.
“Inside the star.”
