CHAPTER 5 "Your Parents Didn't Betray You Last Week... They Betrayed You Twenty Years Ago."
The Rolls-Royce roared through the rain.
Nathan's hands never left the steering wheel.
His jaw remained locked.
Grace had never seen someone so perfectly calm while driving straight toward danger.
"Can they protect the children?" she asked.
Nathan didn't answer immediately.
"They'll die trying."
The certainty in his voice made her chest tighten.
Not because it frightened her.
Because she believed him.
By the time they reached the estate, flashing emergency lights illuminated the entire property.
Several guards lay injured across the front courtyard.
Paramedics rushed between them.
One SUV near the entrance still burned.
Nathan stepped out before the car had fully stopped.
"Report."
His chief of security, Adrian Cole, hurried over with blood running down one side of his face.
"They came in through the greenhouse."
"How many?"
"Eight."
Nathan's expression never changed.
"Casualties?"
"Three of ours wounded."
"And the children?"
Adrian finally managed a faint smile.
"Safe."
Nathan closed his eyes for one brief second.
Only Grace noticed.
It was the closest thing to relief he allowed himself.
Inside the mansion, Emma ran into Nathan's arms.
"Daddy!"
Nathan lifted her effortlessly.
"You weren't supposed to be awake."
"I was scared."
"I know."
Emma buried her face against his shoulder before reaching one tiny hand toward Grace.
"You came back."
Grace smiled.
"I told you I wouldn't disappear."
Lucas stood at the top of the staircase, watching silently.
He didn't smile.
But for the first time...
He didn't look at Grace with anger.
Nathan gathered everyone in the library.
The message painted across the nursery wall had already been photographed before being removed.
ONE CHILD FOR ONE WIFE.
Grace couldn't stop staring at the image.
"It doesn't make sense."
Nathan folded his arms.
"It does."
She looked at him.
"They're trying to force me to choose."
"Choose what?"
"You."
The room became silent.
Nathan continued.
"If I send you away..."
"...my children become targets until they find you."
"If I keep you here..."
"...everyone I love remains in danger."
Grace whispered,
"I'm the reason this is happening."
"No."
Nathan answered immediately.
"You are the excuse."
Just then, Adrian entered carrying a sealed evidence bag.
"We found this on one of the attackers."
Inside was an old silver locket.
Grace's breath caught.
"I know that."
Nathan looked at her.
"It belonged to my grandmother."
Her fingers trembled as she took the evidence bag.
"I buried her with this."
She carefully turned it over.
Scratched into the back were two tiny initials.
G.H.
Grace Holloway.
Her grandmother had engraved them herself.
"How is this possible?"
No one answered.
Because no one knew.
An hour later, Nathan's intelligence team traced the attackers' vehicle.
It had been abandoned at an old warehouse near the Illinois state line.
Nathan stood.
"I'm going."
Grace looked up.
"So am I."
"No."
"They have something that belonged to my family."
"They're expecting me."
"They're expecting both of us."
Nathan met her eyes.
"Exactly."
Grace stepped closer.
"I've spent my whole life letting other people decide where I belong."
"Not anymore."
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Finally, Nathan nodded once.
"Stay beside me."
The warehouse was abandoned.
Or at least...
It appeared to be.
Dust covered the floor.
Broken windows rattled in the wind.
Nathan raised one hand.
His security team spread out.
Grace noticed something strange.
The dust wasn't untouched.
Fresh footprints.
Children's footprints.
Her heart began racing.
"They've been here recently."
Nathan looked down.
"So have women."
"How can you tell?"
"The heels."
Before Grace could ask another question—
A slow clap echoed through the darkness.
Someone stepped into the light.
An elderly man.
Gray beard.
Expensive overcoat.
Elegant cane.
He smiled as if greeting old friends.
"Nathan."
Nathan's expression hardened.
"Arthur Bell."
Grace frowned.
"You know him?"
Nathan never looked away from the old man.
"Unfortunately."
Arthur's eyes drifted toward Grace.
"So..."
He smiled warmly.
"...this is Evelyn's granddaughter."
Grace froze.
"What did you say?"
Arthur tilted his head.
"You didn't know?"
Nathan slowly turned toward Grace.
"What is he talking about?"
Arthur chuckled.
"Oh..."
"I suppose Warren never told you."
"Told me what?"
The old man sighed dramatically.
"Your grandmother didn't die naturally."
Grace felt the room spin.
"No..."
Arthur nodded.
"She was murdered."
Silence.
"And your father accepted money to keep quiet."
Grace stared at him.
"You're lying."
Arthur calmly reached into his coat.
He removed a yellowed envelope.
"I've been keeping this for twenty years."
Nathan stepped forward.
Arthur tossed the envelope onto the dusty floor.
Grace picked it up with trembling hands.
Inside...
Was a faded photograph.
A much younger Warren Holloway.
Standing beside—
Isabella Moretti.
Both of them smiling.
The date printed on the back stopped Grace's heart.
May 18... Twenty Years Ago.
Five years before Grace believed her parents had even met Isabella.
Arthur spoke quietly.
"Your parents didn't betray you because you couldn't have children."
He paused.
"They betrayed you long before you were old enough to understand what betrayal meant."
Grace's knees weakened.
Nathan caught her before she fell.
Then Arthur delivered the sentence that shattered everything she believed about her past.
May you like
"Grace..."
"You were never supposed to grow up as Warren Holloway's daughter."
