CHAPTER 4 — The Mother Who Chose the Wrong Son
Rowan stood frozen.
His mother, Eleanor Bellamy, looked twenty years older than the last time he had seen her. Her elegant posture had disappeared, replaced by trembling shoulders and tear-filled eyes.
She held the faded blue baby blanket against her chest as though it weighed a thousand pounds.
"Tessa didn't force me," Eleanor whispered. "She convinced me."
Rowan's voice cracked.
"You helped her steal my daughter?"
"I thought I was saving this family."
Rowan stared at the woman who had raised him.
"You destroyed it."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"The doctors told us the third baby was the weakest. She needed constant treatment. Tessa said Maren couldn't afford it after the divorce. She said you would never forgive Maren if all three children stayed with her."
"So you let her take my daughter?"
"I believed Tessa loved you."
Rowan felt rage boiling inside him.
"You watched me accuse my wife."
Silence.
"You watched me throw the mother of my children out of our home."
Silence again.
"You watched those babies grow up without their father."
Tears streamed down Eleanor's face.
"I was wrong."
"No," Rowan replied.
"You weren't wrong."
"You made a choice."
At that moment, Rowan's phone buzzed.
It was Daniel Pierce.
"I found the nurse who signed the discharge papers," Daniel said urgently.
"She disappeared a year ago."
"And?"
"We found her."
"She's willing to testify."
"But someone else is already looking for her."
The line went dead.
Rowan didn't hesitate.
He ran out of the penthouse, ignoring Tessa's desperate cries behind him.
For the first time in a year...
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He wasn't chasing the past.
He was trying to save the only witness who could expose everything.
