Chapter 1 - THE DAUGHTER IN SEAT 3B
For several seconds, the engines were the only sound I could hear.
“Naomi never wanted you to know she was pregnant.”
Julie’s words should have made me angry.
Instead, they made me cold.
I looked at Lily.
She had gone back to coloring, completely unaware that her existence had just split my life into a before and an after.
“How old is she?”
Julie closed her eyes.
“Four.”
“When is her birthday?”
“October seventeenth.”
I did the math even though I already knew.
Naomi and I had spent six months together five years earlier.
Then she disappeared.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
A dead phone number.
An empty apartment.
One email containing five words:
Please don’t look for me.
I had looked anyway.
For months.
Then longer.
Eventually pride did what heartbreak couldn’t.
It made me stop.
Now Lily looked up.
“Why are you staring at me?”
I swallowed.
“You remind me of someone.”
“My mommy?”
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“Everybody says I look like Daddy too.”
My pulse stopped.
Julie’s head snapped toward her.
“Lily.”
“What?”
“You told me your daddy leaves,” I said carefully.
Lily shrugged.
“He did.”
Julie leaned toward me.
“Enough.”
“No.”
My voice was quiet.
That made her freeze.
I lowered it further.
“Who does Lily think her father is?”
Julie stared at me for a long moment.
Then she whispered:
“A man named Daniel.”
Something ugly twisted in my chest.
“Naomi married?”
“No.”
“Then who is Daniel?”
Lily answered before Julie could.
“Daddy Daniel went to heaven.”
The anger vanished.
I looked at Julie.
She nodded.
“Daniel Ellis. Naomi’s childhood friend. He helped her after she left New York.”
“He raised Lily?”
“For three years.”
Every breath became harder.
Another man had carried my daughter when she was sick.
He had heard her first words.
He had been there for birthdays I didn’t know existed.
I had spent those same years sitting in penthouses and negotiating deals that suddenly seemed embarrassingly small.
“Did he know?”
Julie’s eyes softened.
“Yes.”
“And he still raised her?”
“Yes.”
I looked back at Lily.
She had drawn three people now.
Herself.
Naomi.
A man with brown hair and glasses.
Daniel.
I had no right to hate him.
The opposite.
I owed a dead stranger more than I could ever repay.
Then Julie touched my sleeve.
“There’s something else you need to know.”
“What?”
She looked toward Lily before leaning closer.
“Daniel didn’t die in an accident.”
My attention sharpened.
“What happened?”
“He was killed.”
The cabin seemed suddenly smaller.
“By whom?”
“We don’t know.”
“That’s not good enough.”
Julie’s voice dropped.
“Two nights before he died, he called me and said someone had found Naomi.”
My blood went cold.
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“Then what did he say?”
Julie swallowed.
“He said if anything happened to him, I should never let Lily go to New York.”
I slowly turned toward the window.
We were already descending.
Into New York.
And Julie whispered the final part:
“Because whoever killed Daniel wasn’t looking for Naomi.”
May you like
She looked directly at the little girl beside me.
“They were looking for your daughter.”
