Chapter 7 - The Shadows of the PastThat evening, back at the mansion, celebration turned to quiet reflection.
Martha had tucked June into bed upstairs, but Lila sat downstairs in Sawyer’s study, turning a small, charred silver locket over and over in her tiny hands.
Sawyer wheeled over, pausing beside her desk. “Where did you get that, Lila?”
The little girl looked up, unshed tears shimmering in her eyes. “From the fire. The night our parents died. A bad man came to our house and threw a burning bottle through the window. My daddy tried to save us, but... but he couldn't walk. He was trapped in his chair, just like you used to be.”
Sawyer’s breath caught. He knelt down beside her chair, ignoring the ache in his knees. “What was your father’s name, Lila?”
“David,” she whispered. “David Hale.”
The room spun.
David Hale. His estranged, younger brother who had vanished years ago after a bitter family feud over the company’s founding patents.
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These girls weren’t just street orphans he had randomly rescued out of charity.
They were his nieces.
