Chapter 1 - THE DOCUMENT THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Aleric stared at the document for almost a full minute.
He didn't blink.
He didn't move.
He simply kept reading the final page as though the words might rearrange themselves if he stared long enough.
I watched him from across the desk.
For five years, I had watched this man control every room he entered.
He controlled conversations.
He controlled his mother.
He controlled the Sterling family image.
And, little by little, he had tried to control me.
But now his hands were shaking.
“What is this?” he finally whispered.
“You tell me.”
He looked toward the hallway.
Eleanor was standing outside the study.
Her face had gone completely white.
“Where did you get that?”
I turned toward her.
“The hospital archive.”
She stopped breathing.
The folder contained an amended birth record for Julian.
But Julian's original record had belonged to another child.
A baby born three months before Julian.
A baby listed as deceased.
Except the death certificate had never been properly filed.
And the mother's name was Eleanor Sterling.
My heart hammered.
“What did you do?” I asked.
Eleanor's lips trembled.
“You don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
Aleric stood.
“You went digging through private medical records?”
“I went looking for the truth.”
“You had no right.”
I laughed bitterly.
“No right?”
I pointed toward the nursery.
“You brought a baby into our home without telling your wife where he came from.”
Aleric lowered his voice.
“This isn't about Julian.”
“Then why is his name on a document connecting your mother to a child who was supposedly dead?”
Silence.
Then a tiny sound came from the hallway.
A baby's cry.
Julian.
Eleanor immediately rushed toward the nursery.
I followed.
She lifted him into her arms.
Her expression changed when she looked at his face.
For the first time, I saw something that looked like fear.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“What are you afraid of?” I asked.
She whispered:
“Someone knows.”
“Who?”
Before she could answer, the front door slammed downstairs.
A man shouted.
Then our security system began flashing red.
Aleric looked toward the stairs.
His face changed.
“That's impossible.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He whispered a name.
“Rowan.”
Then the lights went out.
May you like
And from somewhere inside the dark house came a woman's voice.
“Eleanor, it's time to tell her what happened.”
