Chapter 2 - CELESTE'S LAST WARNING

Adrian read the sentence three times.

I am afraid of Victoria.

His mother stared at the note as if it were a loaded gun.

"Where did you get that?" Victoria demanded.

Emma pulled Noah behind her.

"Celeste mailed it to me two days before she died."

"You forged it."

"I know my wife's handwriting."

"Grief makes people see what they want to see."

"Why was Celeste afraid of you?"

Victoria said nothing.

"My sister called me the week Noah was born."

Adrian turned toward her.

"She called you?"

"She was scared."

"Of what?"

"She said someone was changing legal papers around Noah."

"Enough."

Emma did not stop.

"She said if anything happened to her, I should stay away until Noah was safe."

"Why didn't you come to me then?"

"Because she told me not to trust anyone inside this house."

Emma saw it.

"Including you, at first."

The boy had pressed his face against Emma's leg.

"So you became his nanny under a fake name."

"Yes."

"You watched me for months."

"Yes."

"And you never told me you were Celeste's sister."

"I was waiting to know if she had been wrong about you."

Then a man's voice came from the doorway.

"She wasn't wrong about everyone."

A tall stranger stood in the hall wearing a rain-soaked coat.

A scar crossed one eyebrow.

Even the same slight bend in the nose.

Victoria stepped backward.

"No."

The stranger smiled without warmth.

"Hello, Mom."

"Who the hell are you?"

The man reached into his coat and placed a sealed envelope on the table.

"Gabriel."

Emma whispered the name as if she had heard it before.

"Why did he call you Mom?"

"Because I'm the son she erased."

"I'm the brother they never told you existed."

Adrian laughed once, but there was no humor in it.

"That's impossible."

"That's what she paid people to make you believe."

Gabriel opened the envelope.

Inside was a medical report from the night Celeste died.

Victoria's signature appeared at the bottom.

Adrian's hands went cold.

"What did you sign?"

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Gabriel's eyes never left Victoria.

"The refusal that delayed the procedure that might have saved your wife."