Chapter 1 - THE SUV BEHIND US
The gray SUV was close enough now that I could see the driver’s sunglasses through the rear window of our taxi.
“Mom?” Ethan asked.
I forced my voice to stay calm. “Everything’s fine.”
It wasn’t.
Emma was pressed against my side, hugging the little purple backpack she had refused to check at O’Hare. Ethan kept glancing backward, old enough to understand that something was wrong but young enough to believe I could fix anything.
Adrian’s voice came through my phone.
“Evelyn, tell the driver not to stop.”
“Who are they?”
“I don’t know.”
“You always know.”
A short silence.
“That’s why I’m worried.”
The taxi swung onto Lower Wacker.
The gray SUV followed.
Then two black Mercer vehicles appeared behind it.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Adrian, my children are in this car.”
“Our children.”
“Not now.”
“Fine. Keep talking to me.”
The gray SUV accelerated.
Our driver cursed.
Then one Mercer SUV moved between us and the gray vehicle.
The second pulled alongside the taxi.
Daniel Cross lowered his window.
“Stay with us!”
I wanted to scream.
Six years without Adrian, and within an hour of returning to Chicago I was in the middle of something that looked like a war.
The driver followed Daniel into an underground parking garage beneath a downtown hotel.
Security gates dropped behind us.
The twins began crying.
I pulled them against me.
Adrian arrived less than three minutes later.
He crossed the garage so fast that even his men struggled to keep up.
He opened the taxi door, saw Ethan and Emma unharmed, and stopped.
For one second, the most feared man in Chicago looked close to collapse.
Then his eyes found mine.
“What medical records were accessed?” I asked.
“Boston Children’s.”
My blood went cold.
“They’ve barely been patients there.”
“I know.”
“What did they look at?”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Blood work. Genetic panels. Birth information.”
“Why?”
“We’re finding out.”
“No. I want to know why anyone connected to your world cares about their blood.”
His silence terrified me.
Daniel handed Adrian a tablet.
“We traced the login.”
Adrian looked at the screen.
His expression changed.
“Who?” I demanded.
Daniel answered.
“The request came through Mercer Consolidated’s family office.”
I stared at Adrian.
“Your company searched my children?”
“No.”
“Your name is literally on the building.”
“My people didn’t authorize it.”
Then Daniel said something worse.
“The person who accessed the records wasn’t checking whether the twins were sick.”
I slowly turned toward him.
“What were they checking?”
Daniel enlarged the request.
PATERNAL HERITAGE MARKER COMPARISON.
Adrian stopped breathing.
I didn’t understand.
Then he whispered:
“They were confirming the children were mine.”
Ethan looked up.
“Confirming what?”
I closed my eyes.
Too late.
Adrian knelt.
But before he could answer, Daniel’s phone rang.
He listened for ten seconds.
Then his face went pale.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The Mercer succession trust was accessed yesterday.”
Adrian stood.
I had never heard of any trust.
But from the look on his face, I knew it mattered.
“How many people know?” he asked.
Daniel swallowed.
“Anyone who opened that file now knows that if you have biological children…”
He glanced at Ethan and Emma.
“…they become controlling heirs.”
And suddenly I understood.
May you like
Someone hadn’t searched for my children because they wanted to know who their father was.
They had searched because proving Adrian was their father had just cost someone an empire.
