Chapter 2 - ADRIAN WAS A LIE
“That’s impossible.”
Stellan looked down at Fern. “Is it?”
“You were Adrian?”
“For one night.”
“You lied about your name.”
“I lied about almost everything.”
Anger arrived before fear. “You disappeared.”
“I had to.”
“People always say that when they mean they chose to.”
His eyes sharpened, but he did not raise his voice. “Three men were killed the morning after that gala. One of them was supposed to be me.”
I went still.
Stellan explained only enough to make the room colder. His uncle Victor Cross had tried to seize the organization Stellan inherited after his father’s death. That night, Stellan had learned there was a traitor inside his own security detail. He used the name Adrian because his face had been hidden by the gala mask and because anyone connected to Stellan Cross became leverage.
“So you left me to protect me?”
“Yes.”
“You left me pregnant.”
His face changed.
“You knew?” I asked.
“No.”
Fern stirred. Stellan lowered his voice immediately.
“How premature?”
“Twenty-nine weeks.”
“Diagnosis?”
“Chronic lung disease. A small heart defect. She’s doing better.”
His gaze dropped to the medicine bag beside my chair.
“What does it cost?”
“That is none of your business.”
“If she is my daughter, it is exactly my business.”
I stood. “You don’t get to become her father because you recognized your own eyes.”
He looked at me then. Not like a boss. Not like a threat.
Like a man standing in front of a door he was afraid to open.
“DNA test,” he said.
“No.”
“Selene.”
“No. You don’t get to order me into your life.”
A knock hit the office door.
Mrs. Thornbury entered, pale.
“Mr. Cross, there’s a problem at the front gate.”
Stellan rose without waking Fern.
“What problem?”
She looked at me.
“A man is outside asking for Miss Vale and the baby.”
My blood froze.
Nobody at the mansion knew my last name.
Nobody except payroll.
May you like
Mrs. Thornbury swallowed.
“He says Fern belongs to him.”
