CHAPTER 2 — The File They Never Wanted Him to Read
Rowan Bellamy didn't sleep that night.
The anonymous phone call echoed through his mind like a warning he could no longer ignore.
"You abandoned three children."
Three.
Not two.
Three.
At sunrise, he was already standing outside the office of Daniel Pierce, the private investigator who had handled every detail of his divorce.
Daniel looked startled when Rowan walked in unannounced.
"I need every document," Rowan said, his voice flat. "Nothing edited. Nothing removed."
Daniel hesitated.
"I already gave you the case file."
"No," Rowan replied, stepping closer. "You gave me the version someone paid you to give me."
The investigator's face drained of color.
For nearly a minute, neither man spoke.
Finally, Daniel unlocked a gray filing cabinet hidden behind his desk and removed a thick envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL.
"I should have given this to you a year ago," he admitted quietly. "But I was threatened."
"By who?"
He swallowed.
"Tessa Whitmore."
Rowan's jaw tightened.
Inside the envelope were documents he had never seen.
Phone records.
Bank transfers.
Security camera stills.
A receipt showing that Tessa had rented the hotel room where the so-called affair photographs had been taken.
Another document proved someone had entered Rowan's home using a copied security code three days before Maren's jewelry was "discovered."
The signature authorizing the temporary security access belonged to Tessa.
Every page destroyed another piece of the life Rowan believed he understood.
Then Daniel handed him a small flash drive.
"I kept one thing off the record."
Rowan plugged it into the office computer.
A hidden security video appeared.
The timestamp was the night before Maren had been thrown out of the mansion.
The footage showed Tessa slipping into Maren's dressing room carrying a velvet jewelry box.
Minutes later, she walked out empty-handed.
She had planted the Bellamy family necklace herself.
Rowan felt physically sick.
"I accused my wife..."
His voice cracked.
"I destroyed my family."
Daniel looked down.
"There's more."
He opened a sealed medical folder.
Inside was a hospital report from the week after the divorce.
Maren had gone into premature labor after collapsing from severe emotional stress.
The delivery had lasted nearly twelve hours.
Complications had followed immediately.
The report listed three newborns.
Baby A.
Baby B.
Baby C.
Rowan stared at the page.
Three heartbeats.
Three children.
But only two discharge records.
"Where is Baby C?" he whispered.
Daniel slowly shook his head.
"I've spent months trying to find out."
Before Rowan could ask another question, Daniel's office phone rang.
The investigator answered.
Within seconds, his expression changed completely.
He slowly lowered the receiver.
"They're gone."
"Who?"
"The hospital archive."
"What?"
"The maternity records were destroyed in a fire last night."
Rowan froze.
A fire.
Just hours after someone warned him about a third child.
Someone wasn't covering up the past anymore.
Someone was actively erasing it.
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And Rowan realized he wasn't chasing old secrets.
He was racing against people who were still protecting them.
