Chapter 1 - THE MAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
The message remained on Mabel’s phone long after the flight attendant told her to switch it to airplane mode.
She stared at the photograph again.
Flynn stood beside Selina.
And beside them stood a man Mabel had buried eight years ago.
Her father.
Edward Carmichael.
The same silver hair.
The same narrow jaw.
The same scar above his left eyebrow.
The same watch Mabel had placed inside his coffin herself.
Her hands went cold.
It was impossible.
Her father had died in a private plane crash when she was twenty-six. The investigation had concluded that the aircraft suffered catastrophic engine failure over the Atlantic.
There had been no survivors.
Mabel had spent years mourning him.
Flynn had held her at the funeral.
He had whispered that her father would have wanted her to be strong.
Now the photograph told her something monstrous.
Her father had been alive.
And Flynn knew.
Mabel immediately called Phoebe.
The attorney answered before the first ring finished.
“Tell me you’re somewhere safe.”
“I am.”
“Good. Because Flynn just called my office.”
“What did he say?”
“He wants to know where you are.”
Mabel looked through the airplane window at the clouds below.
“Did you tell him?”
“Absolutely not.”
Mabel hesitated.
“Phoebe, I have a photograph of my father.”
Silence.
Then Phoebe’s voice became very quiet.
“What kind of photograph?”
“Alive.”
Another silence.
Mabel sent it.
Phoebe opened the image.
When she spoke again, her voice had changed.
“Mabel…”
“I know.”
“That’s Edward.”
“I know.”
“He’s supposed to be dead.”
“He is.”
“No,” Phoebe said. “I mean legally.”
Mabel frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means the man in this photograph may not be your father.”
Mabel stared at the screen.
“Then who is he?”
“I don’t know yet.”
A flight attendant passed through the cabin.
Mabel lowered her voice.
“Find out.”
“I already started.”
Then Phoebe added something that made Mabel’s stomach tighten.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Someone accessed the Carmichael Trust this morning.”
Mabel sat straighter.
“Who?”
“Your husband.”
Her heart stopped.
“He can’t.”
“He tried to.”
“Did he succeed?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you activated the emergency provisions.”
Mabel closed her eyes.
For the first time since leaving New York, she allowed herself to breathe.
Then Phoebe continued.
“But he wasn’t trying to withdraw money.”
“What was he trying to do?”
“He was trying to change the beneficiary designation.”
Mabel’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“To whom?”
Phoebe paused.
“Your unborn child.”
Mabel looked down at her stomach.
“What?”
“He wanted your baby named as the primary beneficiary.”
“That sounds like something a loving father would do.”
“It would,” Phoebe replied.
“If the child were his.”
Mabel froze.
“What are you saying?”
Phoebe lowered her voice.
“Someone submitted a sealed genetic document with the trust amendment.”
Mabel felt suddenly dizzy.
“Whose DNA?”
“Yours.”
Mabel swallowed.
“And the baby?”
“No result yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the sample was taken before you knew you were pregnant.”
Mabel stared at the photograph of her supposed-dead father.
The diary.
The trust.
Flynn.
Selina.
Her unborn child.
None of it was separate.
Someone had been building a plan years before she understood she was part of it.
Then another message appeared.
Unknown number.
One sentence.
Your father didn’t die in the crash, Mabel. He disappeared because he discovered what Flynn planned to do with your inheritance.
A second message followed.
And the baby you are carrying is the reason they are finally afraid.
Mabel stared at the screen.
Then the plane began descending.
She had escaped Flynn.
But she had not escaped the secret.
May you like
She had flown directly toward it.
And somewhere in California, a man who was supposed to be dead was waiting for his daughter.
