Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO WATCHED MY SON GROW
The new DNA test was performed in a private laboratory outside New York.
No employees knew.
No family members knew.
Only Zara, me, Mina, and the doctor.
The results would take forty-eight hours.
Those forty-eight hours felt like forty years.
Prince began spending supervised afternoons with me at the hotel.
The first time he walked into my office, he stared at everything.
“Do you live here?”
I laughed.
“Sometimes.”
“That's sad.”
“Why?”
“Because hotels are for people who don't have homes.”
I stared at him.
Zara covered her mouth to hide a smile.
“He's observant,” she said.
“I noticed.”
Prince climbed onto the couch.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Do you have a dinosaur?”
“No.”
“Then your office isn't very good.”
I laughed.
It was the first genuine laugh I'd had in months.
Prince smiled.
That dimple.
My dimple.
I looked away because my eyes were burning.
Later, while Zara was signing books downstairs, Prince fell asleep in my office.
I covered him with my jacket.
Then I noticed something beneath his stuffed elephant.
A tiny envelope.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Prince as a baby.
And beside him—
my mother.
I felt ice in my veins.
The photograph was dated six months after Prince's birth.
On the back:
HE MUST NEVER KNOW WHO HIS FATHER IS.
I immediately called Zara.
She ran upstairs.
“Where did you get that?”
“Under his elephant.”
She stared at the photograph.
“I've never seen it.”
“Who is the woman?”
“You know who she is.”
I nodded.
“My mother.”
Zara's face went pale.
“Justin…”
“What?”
“She visited me.”
“When?”
“After Prince was born.”
My stomach dropped.
“What did she want?”
“She offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Five million dollars.”
“To disappear?”
“Yes.”
I looked at my sleeping son.
“And when you refused?”
“She threatened to take him.”
I clenched my fists.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“You had already abandoned us.”
“I didn't know the truth.”
“You didn't ask.”
Her words cut deeper than anything else.
Then Prince woke.
“Mommy?”
Zara immediately smiled.
“I'm here.”
He looked at me.
“Are you mad?”
I crouched beside him.
“No.”
“Your face is mad.”
I smiled.
“I'm just thinking.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
He nodded seriously.
“That's okay.”
I laughed softly.
Then he whispered:
“My grandma told me not to tell you something.”
Zara froze.
“What did she tell you?”
Prince looked at me.
“She said you're dangerous.”
I felt sick.
“Did she say why?”
“No.”
He hugged his elephant.
“She said if you ever found me, I should give her a message.”
“What message?”
Prince looked directly into my eyes.
“She said…”
He hesitated.
“Tell Justin his father knew where you were.”
I froze.
“My father?”
Prince nodded.
“And she said…”
“What?”
“She said your father was the reason Mommy had to run.”
Zara's face went white.
I looked at her.
“What is she talking about?”
Zara whispered:
“I don't know.”
May you like
But the look in her eyes told me she knew more than she had ever told me.
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