CHAPTER 4 – The Woman Who Never Stopped Looking
Three black SUVs raced through downtown Chicago.
Rain blurred the city lights into streaks of silver.
Victoria held Noah tightly in the back seat while Emily leaned against her shoulder, still trying to understand why her mother suddenly refused to let go of the homeless boy.
Noah stared silently out the window.
"You've never ridden in a car like this before?"
Victoria asked gently.
He shook his head.
"I've slept under cars."
Her heart shattered all over again.
Emily quietly reached into her backpack.
She pulled out a chocolate bar.
"You can have this too."
Noah smiled.
A real smile.
Small.
Shy.
The first Victoria had seen.
For one beautiful second...
He looked exactly like the baby she had lost.
Then her phone rang.
The screen displayed one name.
JAMES CARTER.
Her family's longtime attorney.
She answered immediately.
"James."
His voice sounded panicked.
"Victoria..."
"Where are you?"
"Why?"
"You need to disappear."
She frowned.
"What happened?"
"I've been searching your father's private archives."
"And?"
"I found something."
Victoria's breathing slowed.
"What?"
"He never intended Noah to disappear forever."
Silence.
"He planned to bring him back."
"What?"
"On one condition."
James hesitated.
"When Noah turned eighteen..."
"...he would inherit the Ashford empire."
Victoria stared at the windshield.
"I don't understand."
"Neither did I."
"Until I found another document."
"What document?"
"A DNA report."
Victoria gripped the phone tighter.
"James..."
"...whose DNA?"
There was a long silence.
Finally...
"Your father's."
Victoria's world stopped.
"No."
"He tested himself against Noah."
"No!"
"Victoria..."
"No!"
Her father couldn't be Noah's biological father.
Impossible.
James's voice became almost a whisper.
"The report proves..."
"...Harold Ashford was not only your father."
"He was Noah's father too."
The phone slipped from Victoria's hand.
Emily picked it up.
"Grandpa?"
Victoria couldn't breathe.
Her entire body shook.
The man she had called Dad...
The man who had controlled every moment of her young life...
Had committed the unthinkable.
He had abused his own daughter.
She had been drugged after a car accident at nineteen.
She remembered weeks missing from her memory.
Doctors blaming medication.
Her father insisting she rest.
She had believed every word.
Until now.
Noah noticed the tears streaming down her face.
"Did I do something wrong?"
Victoria immediately grabbed his hands.
"No."
"Never."
"You are the greatest truth I've ever found."
Just then...
The armored SUV exploded sideways.
A truck slammed directly into them.
Glass burst across the cabin.
Emily screamed.
The driver lost control.
The vehicle spun across four lanes of traffic before crashing through the guardrail.
Everything went black.
When Victoria opened her eyes...
Smoke filled the air.
The driver wasn't moving.
The bodyguard lay unconscious.
Emily cried somewhere nearby.
"Noah!"
No answer.
Her heart stopped.
She crawled through broken glass.
"Noah!"
Still nothing.
Then...
She heard footsteps.
Outside.
Several armed men surrounded the wreck.
One of them opened the rear door.
He smiled.
"There he is."
Noah was alive...
But a tranquilizer dart protruded from his neck.
The boy collapsed into the stranger's arms.
Victoria screamed with every ounce of strength she had left.
"NOAH!"
The man looked directly at her.
Then removed his sunglasses.
Victoria froze.
She recognized him immediately.
It wasn't one of Victor Laurent's men.
It was Daniel Ashford—
Her younger brother.
The man she had trusted her entire life.
He smiled coldly.
"You should have let him stay dead."
He stepped into the helicopter waiting on the highway.
Within seconds...
May you like
Noah disappeared into the night once again.
(To Be Continued...)
