Chapter 1
I kept Sophie beside me while I looked directly at my mother.
“I’ve sent fifty thousand every month. Tell me where it went.”
Helena’s face changed.
Not enough for the guests to understand.
Enough for me.
Nora stared at me as though I had spoken another language.
“What?”
I turned.
“Fifty thousand. Every month. Since Sophie was born.”
Her face drained.
“I haven’t received anything from you in three years.”
The ballroom disappeared around me.
I looked down at my daughter.
Worn cardigan.
Simple dress.
Shoes that had been cleaned carefully but were beginning to separate near one toe.
Fifty thousand dollars a month.
And my daughter looked like someone had learned how to make twenty dollars last a week.
Helena recovered.
“This is not the place.”
I stared at her.
“You made it the place when you put your hands on my daughter.”
Sophie tightened her fingers around mine.
That word mattered.
Daughter.
I had known Sophie existed.
I had been told Nora wanted no contact after our relationship ended and that she would accept financial support only if I stayed away.
I hated it.
But I respected what I believed was Nora’s choice.
Now Nora looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“You thought I kept her from you?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head.
“Roman, I thought you died.”
Silence.
Even the musicians had stopped.
I looked at Helena.
My mother lifted her chin.
“Nora misunderstood.”
Nora laughed through tears.
“You showed me a funeral announcement.”
My breathing slowed.
Helena’s eyes flickered.
I noticed.
“You showed her what?”
She said nothing.
Sophie looked up at me.
“Grandma said bad men got you.”
I felt something inside me turn cold.
Helena had not merely stolen money.
May you like
She had manufactured my death.
For my own child.
