Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN DAMIAN BURIED
Damian read the sign twice.
Not because he failed to understand the words.
Because he understood them too well.
SOPHIE IS NOT MATTHEW'S.
Beside him, Rachel lowered the phone.
Sophie stood between them clutching her stuffed fox, watching the adults with the frightened patience children learned when they knew grown-ups were hiding something.
“Is Mommy coming home?” she asked.
Damian forced his voice to remain steady.
“I'm going to find out.”
Sophie looked at Rachel.
Not him.
Rachel crouched despite the pain in her ribs.
“You're staying here with Mrs. Bell, okay?”
“Are you going too?”
Rachel hesitated.
Damian answered.
“Yes.”
Rachel looked up sharply.
“You don't get to decide that.”
“Tonight I do.”
“No. Tonight especially, you don't.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You're injured.”
“And I'm the only person that woman trusted enough to put the fox charm in her hand.”
Rachel stood carefully.
“If she's afraid of you, taking six armed men into an airfield isn't going to improve things.”
Leo appeared at the office entrance.
“We found the airfield.”
Damian turned.
“Where?”
“Washington County. Private strip outside Canonsburg. One aircraft filed a departure request twenty minutes ago.”
“For where?”
“No destination listed.”
Damian reached for his coat.
Rachel did the same.
He looked at her ribs.
She looked at his face.
“Try stopping me.”
For the first time that night, something almost human crossed Damian's expression.
“Stay behind me.”
“That's not the same as winning.”
“No.”
He opened the door.
“But it's all you're getting.”
Twenty-six minutes later, Damian's SUV tore through the airfield gate.
No sirens.
No shouting.
No unnecessary theater.
Damian had spent his entire life around men who confused noise with power.
He preferred silence.
The private jet was still on the ground.
Its engines were running.
Claire stood near the hangar.
The gray-jacketed man was arguing with her.
The woman from the photograph stood several feet away, one arm wrapped around herself.
Rachel recognized her immediately.
“The woman from the SUV.”
Damian stopped walking.
Four years vanished.
He remembered dark hair beneath summer sunlight.
A laugh outside a restaurant in Shadyside.
A woman standing in his kitchen wearing his shirt and telling him she hated the way he organized coffee mugs.
Isabel Grant.
Matthew's wife.
Sophie's mother.
Dead.
Except she was twenty yards in front of him.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar crossed the left side of her forehead.
But alive.
“Isabel.”
Her head lifted.
The sound of her name seemed to strike her.
She stared at Damian.
Then at Rachel.
Her eyes dropped to Rachel's hand.
“The fox.”
Rachel removed the charm from her pocket.
Isabel's mouth trembled.
“You kept it.”
“You gave it to me.”
“I didn't know if Claire saw.”
“She did.”
Isabel's eyes moved toward Claire.
Something hardened.
The gray-jacketed man stepped between them.
“That is close enough.”
Damian's gaze settled on him.
“Move.”
“You don't understand what's happening.”
“Then this will be an educational evening.”
Claire swore.
“Damian, stop.”
“You had a woman trapped in the back of my vehicle.”
“It wasn't supposed to happen that way.”
Rachel stared at her.
“You locked the doors.”
Claire looked ashamed for half a second.
Then defensive.
“She was trying to jump out.”
“So you accelerated?”
“I panicked.”
“You threatened my father.”
“I needed you quiet.”
Rachel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“That's your defense?”
“No.”
Claire's voice weakened.
“It's the truth.”
The gray-jacketed man moved toward the aircraft.
Leo stepped in front of him.
“Mr. Mercer, I wouldn't.”
Damian looked over.
“You know him?”
Leo nodded.
“Dr. Elias Mercer. Former trauma physician. License surrendered eight years ago after an investigation involving falsified treatment records.”
Mercer gave a thin smile.
“Marino security remains thorough.”
Isabel suddenly stepped closer to Damian.
Mercer reached for her arm.
Rachel slapped his hand away.
Everyone froze.
Rachel's face was pale from pain.
“Touch her again.”
Mercer looked almost amused.
“And what exactly are you going to do?”
Rachel met his eyes.
“Find out.”
Damian looked at Leo.
“Remove him.”
Claire moved between them.
“No.”
Damian stared at his sister.
“You're protecting him?”
“I'm protecting all of us.”
“From what?”
Claire looked toward the jet.
Then toward Isabel.
“Mercer was supposed to move her somewhere safe.”
Isabel laughed bitterly.
“I didn't ask to be moved.”
“You weren't thinking clearly.”
“I've been thinking clearly for eighteen months.”
That landed.
Damian turned slowly.
“Eighteen months?”
Isabel looked at him.
“I couldn't remember much after the crash.”
“What crash?”
Her expression changed.
“The one that killed Matthew.”
Rachel inhaled.
Damian felt the night rearranging itself around him.
“You were in the car.”
“Yes.”
“Then whose funeral did I attend?”
Nobody answered.
Damian looked at Claire.
Claire looked away.
That frightened him more than anything.
“Claire.”
“It wasn't supposed to become permanent.”
“What wasn't?”
The jet engines continued humming.
Isabel stepped forward.
“After the crash, I woke up in one of Mercer's private recovery facilities. I couldn't remember my own birthday. I barely remembered Sophie.”
Damian's face went still.
“How long?”
“Years.”
Rachel whispered, “My God.”
Isabel continued.
“Pieces came back. Sophie first. Matthew next.”
“And me?”
A sad expression passed over her face.
“You came later.”
Mercer shook his head.
“This conversation needs to end.”
Leo blocked him again.
Damian didn't even look over.
“Let him leave the airfield and break his legs.”
Mercer stopped.
Claire snapped, “Damian.”
He finally looked at her.
“You don't get to criticize my manners tonight.”
Claire lowered her voice.
“You think I did all this because I wanted to hurt Isabel?”
“You threatened Rachel's father.”
“I know.”
“You abandoned Rachel and Sophie beside a road.”
“I know.”
“You helped convince me this woman was dead.”
Claire swallowed.
“Yes.”
The answer hit harder than a denial would have.
Damian took one step toward her.
“Why?”
Claire's eyes filled.
But when she spoke, she sounded angry rather than broken.
“Because you weren't the only person who would have learned who Sophie's real father was.”
Silence.
Rachel glanced at Damian.
Isabel closed her eyes.
Damian's voice dropped.
“Who is Sophie's father?”
Claire looked toward Isabel.
“Tell him.”
“No,” Isabel said.
“Isabel.”
“You don't get to make me do anything anymore.”
Damian felt something cold move through him.
He remembered Sophie's eyes.
Her temper.
The tiny crease between her eyebrows when she concentrated.
Features he had spent four years attributing to coincidence.
“Isabel.”
She looked at him.
“Is Sophie mine?”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
Before she could answer, Mercer suddenly shoved past Leo.
He reached the service vehicle beside the hangar.
Leo lunged.
Too late.
The tires screamed across the tarmac.
Damian's men moved toward their cars.
“Let him go,” Claire said.
Damian turned on her.
“You've lost your mind.”
“No.”
Claire's voice shook.
“If Mercer thinks we're chasing him, he'll release everything he has.”
“About Sophie?”
“About all of us.”
Damian stared at her.
Rachel said, “What does he have?”
Claire wiped her face.
“Proof of why Isabel gave birth under my name.”
Damian looked at the hospital bracelet.
CLAIRE M.
Suddenly its meaning changed.
Isabel spoke quietly.
“The bracelet wasn't Claire's.”
Damian looked at her.
“It was mine.”
Rachel frowned.
“Why would your infant bracelet say Claire?”
“Because at Allegheny Memorial, I wasn't Isabel Grant.”
She looked directly at Damian.
“I was admitted as Claire Marino.”
Damian's stomach tightened.
Claire whispered, “It was the only way I could hide her from our father.”
“Our father?”
Damian stared at his sister.
Their father, Arturo Marino, had ruled the family through fear disguised as tradition.
He had been dead eighteen months.
Claire's face crumpled.
“Damian, there are things you never knew about him.”
Isabel stepped closer.
“There are things you never knew about the crash either.”
“I identified you.”
“No.”
The word was soft.
Certain.
Damian frowned.
“I was there.”
“You were at the funeral.”
“I saw—”
“A closed casket.”
He stopped.
A memory returned.
Claire beside him in the hospital corridor.
Claire telling him the burns were too severe.
Claire holding his shoulders while he demanded to see the body.
Claire saying, Don't do this to yourself.
Damian slowly turned toward his sister.
Isabel's voice came from behind him.
“You never identified my body, Damian.”
Claire began crying silently.
Isabel finished the sentence.
“Claire did it for you.”
Damian stared at his sister.
Then Claire whispered the reason.
“I had to.”
May you like
Her voice broke.
“Because our father was still looking for Sophie.”
