Chapter 1 - Daddy
The word hit Nathan harder than the hockey stick ever could.
“Daddy…”
Lily stared at him from beneath Grace’s trembling arms.
Nathan could barely breathe.
He had seen the child around the house before.
He had noticed her coloring at the kitchen table.
He had heard her tiny footsteps in the hallway.
But he had never imagined that the little girl was his.
Victoria stood frozen several feet away.
Her white dress was still immaculate, but her face had lost every trace of color.
“Nathan, listen to me.”
He didn't look at her.
His eyes remained on Grace.
Grace was clutching her shoulder, fighting through the pain.
There was a bruise already forming beneath the sleeve of her uniform.
“Is it true?” Nathan whispered.
Grace swallowed.
“Yes.”
The answer destroyed the last piece of doubt inside him.
Nathan slowly walked toward Lily.
The little girl immediately buried her face against Grace.
Grace tightened her arms around her.
“She’s afraid,” Grace whispered.
Nathan stopped.
He suddenly understood something that terrified him more than the accusation itself.
His daughter was afraid of him.
Not because he had ever hurt her.
Because she had been taught to survive without him.
Nathan looked at Victoria.
“What happened?”
Victoria's eyes filled with tears.
“She attacked me.”
Nathan's expression hardened.
“I asked what happened.”
Victoria pointed toward Grace.
“She tried to steal Lily and run.”
Grace stared at her in disbelief.
“That’s a lie.”
Victoria's voice became desperate.
“She has been manipulating you from the beginning.”
Nathan looked down at the hockey stick on the floor.
Then at Grace’s bruised shoulder.
Then at the frightened child.
Something inside him went cold.
“Get out.”
Victoria blinked.
“What?”
“Leave my house.”
“Nathan—”
“Now.”
Victoria stared at him.
For the first time in five years, Nathan Cole had looked at her without love.
Only suspicion.
Only rage.
Only the terrible realization that his entire life might have been built on a lie.
And somewhere inside the walls of the Cole estate, another secret was waiting.
May you like
A secret his dead father had spent five years making sure Nathan would never find.
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