Cole," I

ting a long time to be said out loud. I had met Richard C

harming at dinner tables and ruthless in boardrooms and he had always looked at me with an expre

erstood w

who I was every singl

" I said to Victor.

was younger than me by six years. Brilliant, stubborn, the kind of man who made enemies simply by being better

stry, same circles, same ambition. For years it was manageable. Then James b

name on it and my mother's name listed as a woman I had never met. Mei Shao. She had died three wee

s later. An accident that Victor's expression tol

records disappear. You were less than two months old. There was no one positioned to protect you quickly enough." He paused. "I was out

tion into the Marsh

look like a standard private adoption. Your parents were told only that the biologic

hold my face in his hands when I was small and tell me I was meant for something large

?" I asked. "Why not just leave

re close enough to keep an eye on but far enough from the Shao family that no connection would ever surface." Victor's j

tilted

ness arrangement between ou

se as long as you were a Cole by marriage you were under his roof, under his influence, and completely unaware of your own i

front of me. Three years of my life. Three years of cooking meals and attending events and shrinking myself down to fit a marria

My voice came out

y. "But that's not something I can promise you. What I can tell you is th

meone had paper clipped to the inside cover, a young man with dark eyes and a quiet confident expression that

pens now?

l process to establish that formally will take time but the groundwork is already in place. I've had a team working on this for three weeks since your DNA results came through." He held m

I signed my name. About walking out of that building and feeling for the first tim

ing that belong

ached into the file and pulled out a single document, sliding it across the desk. "Richard Cole doesn't just

od wen

ld him?" I

ion answered bef

t we need t