Chapter 1: The Photograph Nobody Could Explain
The banquet hall fell silent.
Crystal glasses lay shattered across the marble floor.
Moments earlier, Victoria Hayes had publicly accused the young waitress of flirting with her husband.
Now nobody was paying attention to the broken glass.
All eyes were fixed on the photograph.
Richard Hayes stared at it as though he'd seen a ghost.
The blanket wrapped around the infant carried an embroidered silver crest.
A lion holding a rose.
His family's crest.
A design that hadn't been used in over twenty-five years.
"Where did you get this?" he asked.
His voice trembled.
The waitress wiped tears from her face.
"My mother gave it to me before she died."
The room grew even quieter.
Richard looked at the picture again.
Then at the young woman.
For the first time, he noticed details he had somehow missed.
The same dark eyes.
The same cheekbones.
The same small dimple near her left cheek.
Features he saw every morning in his own mirror.
A cold feeling settled into his chest.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Emily Carter."
Richard's hands shook harder.
Because twenty-three years earlier, there had been another Emily.
May you like
A woman he had once loved.
A woman who vanished without explanation shortly after telling him she was pregnant.
