Chapter 1 - THE PLANE IN THE NIGHT
At 1:17 in the morning, Daniel finally found Nora standing alone beside the tall window in the room above the servants’ quarters.
She had already changed out of the champagne-stained blue dress.
She wore a simple white robe, and her dark hair fell loosely over her shoulders.
Daniel stopped in the doorway.
“I’m sorry.”
Nora did not turn around.
“For which part?”
The question landed harder than anger.
Daniel closed the door behind him.
“For my mother.”
“For leaving twice?”
“For all of it.”
Nora finally faced him.
“You keep apologizing for what your family does, Daniel.”
“I know.”
“But you never stop them before they do it.”
His jaw tightened.
“The merger could determine whether four thousand people keep their jobs.”
“And tomorrow determines whether I spend the rest of my life with a man who walks out every time his phone rings.”
Daniel stared at her.
For months, Nora had been patient.
Almost unnaturally patient.
Tonight, something had changed.
She was not crying.
She was not pleading.
She looked at him with the calm disappointment of someone deciding whether he still belonged in her future.
Daniel crossed the room.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
“Then believe me when I say tomorrow will be different.”
Nora studied him for several seconds.
“I hope so.”
Daniel reached for her hand.
Before he could touch it, headlights swept across the distant trees beyond Hawthorne Hall.
A convoy of black vehicles was moving along the private mountain road below.
Daniel frowned.
“Were we expecting more guests?”
“No.”
Nora knew exactly who they were.
Twenty miles away, a matte-black aircraft bearing no commercial markings had landed at a restricted terminal outside White Plains.
The passengers had cleared diplomatic protocols before the wheels touched American soil.
Prince Adrian of Varenne stepped onto the tarmac wearing a dark military coat.
Behind him came twelve members of the Royal Guard.
Their uniforms were midnight blue.
Silver ceremonial cords crossed their shoulders.
The sovereign standard of Varenne remained folded inside a locked case.
Adrian’s chief aide approached.
“Your Highness, the American authorities have approved the security movement.”
Adrian looked toward the dark hills.
“My sister has endured enough.”
“Do you wish to contact her?”
“No.”
He entered the first car.
“She asked us not to come quietly.”
Back inside Hawthorne Hall, Evelyn was still awake.
She sat in her private office with Madison Sterling and Charles.
On Evelyn’s desk rested a cream-colored envelope.
A private investigator had delivered it two hours earlier.
Across the front were the words:
NORA ELLIS - BACKGROUND DISCREPANCIES.
Madison leaned closer.
“Open it.”
Evelyn smiled.
“I intend to.”
Charles looked uncomfortable.
“Tomorrow is your son’s wedding.”
“Exactly.”
Evelyn broke the seal.
The first page contained Nora’s employment history.
The second contained foster records.
The third contained something strange.
A photograph.
It showed Nora at approximately sixteen years old stepping out of a black limousine in Europe.
Two uniformed men stood behind her.
Evelyn narrowed her eyes.
“Where was this taken?”
Madison lifted the photograph.
On the stone building behind Nora was a flag neither woman recognized.
Charles did.
His face changed immediately.
“Evelyn.”
She ignored him.
“What?”
Charles pointed toward the flag.
“I’ve seen that symbol before.”
Madison turned toward him.
“Where?”
Charles swallowed.
“At the Varenne embassy.”
Silence filled the office.
Evelyn slowly looked down at Nora’s photograph again.
Then she smiled.
May you like
Not with fear.
With opportunity.
