Chapter 1 - THE LITTLE GIRL IN MY FATHER'S PHOTOGRAPH
The little girl standing behind Elena Martinez's apartment window had the same eyes as my dead brother.
Not similar.
Identical.
The same unusual shade of green, with a thin ring of gold surrounding each pupil.
The same dark lashes.
And the same tiny scar above her left eyebrow.
I gripped the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
My younger brother, Michael Carter, had been dead for nine years.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
He was twenty-four when his car exploded outside a warehouse on the South Side.
The police called it an organized crime retaliation.
My father called it the cost of doing business.
I called it the day my family stopped being a family.
But three months before Michael died, I had found a photograph hidden inside my father's private safe.
Michael stood beside a beautiful dark-haired woman.
She was pregnant.
His hand rested protectively against her stomach.
On the back, someone had written three words.
Our little miracle.
My father caught me holding that photograph.
He snatched it away so violently that the frame shattered.
"Forget you saw this."
"Who is she?"
"Nobody."
"Is Michael having a baby?"
My father grabbed my shoulder.
"Daniel, there are things you don't understand."
I remembered the fear in his eyes.
My father, who had ordered men twice his size out of rooms without raising his voice, had looked frightened by a photograph.
Now, nine years later, I was staring at a little girl who could have been Michael's daughter.
My phone rang.
Marcus Bell.
My house manager and oldest friend.
"Boss, you home?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Across the street, Elena was washing dishes in a kitchen barely large enough for one person.
The little girl sat beside the old man, carefully tearing a piece of bread into smaller portions.
She gave him the largest one.
I felt something twist inside my chest.
"Daniel?"
"I'm here."
"What's going on?"
I swallowed.
"Marcus, do you remember my brother's girlfriend?"
Silence.
Then Marcus said, "Which girlfriend?"
"The one he was seeing before he died."
A pause.
"Why?"
"Because I think I just found his daughter."
Marcus didn't speak.
Then, very quietly, he asked, "Where are you?"
I looked at Elena's apartment.
"West Garfield Park."
His breathing changed.
"Daniel, listen carefully."
Something in his voice made me straighten.
"What?"
"Get away from that building."
I frowned.
"Why?"
Marcus hesitated.
Then whispered, "Because your father ordered that child hidden nine years ago."
My blood went cold.
"My father knew?"
"Daniel—"
"Marcus, what aren't you telling me?"
A long silence followed.
May you like
Then he said something that made my stomach drop.
"Your brother didn't die in that car explosion."
