Chapter 1 - THE MAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Daniel pulled the sealed folder from inside his coat.
My mother's name was written across the front in faded black ink.
Laura Bennett.
I stared at it while the rescue harness tightened around my body.
The helicopter blades hammered the storm above us.
Every instinct told me to ask a thousand questions.
But another sharp pain ripped across my abdomen.
I gasped.
Daniel's eyes immediately dropped to my stomach.
"Contraction?"
"I don't know."
His face changed.
He pressed his headset.
"Get us airborne now."
The medic beside him wrapped a thermal blanket around me and checked my pulse.
I tried to reach for the folder.
Daniel gently stopped my hand.
"Not yet."
"Who are you?"
His jaw tightened.
"The man your mother should have told you about."
Another contraction hit.
This one was stronger.
I cried out and grabbed Daniel's sleeve.
The medic looked at the monitor and swore under his breath.
"She's going into labor."
Daniel became perfectly still.
For one second, the powerful stranger who had arrived in a private helicopter looked terrified.
Then his training returned.
He leaned close to me.
"Emma, listen to my voice."
"My baby."
"We're getting both of you out."
"What if Michael comes back?"
Daniel's expression hardened.
"He won't get near you again."
I looked through the helicopter window as the cliff disappeared beneath us.
Somewhere above that mountain, Michael believed I was dead.
He believed my body would disappear under the snow.
He believed he would return home as a grieving widower.
He believed fifty million dollars was waiting for him.
And he had absolutely no idea that I was breathing.
Neither did Ashley.
That was when Daniel gave an order I did not understand.
"No police announcement."
The medic looked at him.
"Sir?"
"No public report identifying her."
Daniel's eyes stayed on mine.
"Officially, Emma Carter remains missing until I say otherwise."
I swallowed hard.
"Why?"
"Because your husband thinks he won."
Daniel sat beside me and placed the sealed folder across his knees.
"I want him to keep thinking that."
Another contraction tightened through my body.
Daniel took my hand.
His grip was steady.
"Your mother once made me promise that if anything happened to her, I would protect you."
"Then where were you?"
The question escaped before I could stop it.
Pain flashed through his eyes.
"I was looking for you."
"For thirty years?"
"For thirty years."
The helicopter banked toward Denver.
Daniel looked down at the folder.
"Your mother disappeared before she could tell me she was pregnant."
My breath caught.
He looked back at me.
"Emma, I believe I'm your father."
Then the monitor beside me began screaming.
The medic turned pale.
"We're losing the baby's heart rate."
May you like
And suddenly, nothing about Michael, Ashley, the money, or the photograph mattered.
My son was in danger.
