Chapter 2 - THE NAME ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATETheo did not sleep that night.
At 2:17 a.m., he sat alone in his penthouse, the tiny silver key resting beside his laptop.
He had hired the best investigators money could buy.
Within three hours, one name kept appearing.
Lily Parker.
Born eight years earlier.
Mother listed as:
Claire Parker.
Father:
Unknown.
Theo stared at the screen.
Claire.
He knew that name.
Not personally.
Professionally.
Claire Parker had been a social worker at St. Clare's fifteen years ago.
She had been the woman who helped Theo leave the orphanage.
The woman who had told him:
“You don't have to become successful to prove you're worthy.”
She had disappeared six years later.
No forwarding address.
No explanation.
Theo had searched for her once.
He stopped when his company exploded into success.
Now her name was sitting beside a little girl who somehow knew him.
At dawn, Theo returned to St. Clare's.
Lily was waiting.
“You came back.”
“I said I would.”
She smiled.
Theo crouched.
“Lily, do you know Claire Parker?”
Her smile disappeared.
“Mom.”
Theo froze.
“Your mother?”
Lily nodded.
“She told me never to say her name here.”
“Why?”
“Because they said she was sick.”
Theo's jaw tightened.
“Was she?”
“I don't think so.”
“Why?”
Lily looked around.
Then whispered:
“Because sick people don't hide keys.”
Theo looked at Benny.
“What else did your mother tell you?”
“That you're supposed to have this.”
Lily reached beneath her wheelchair and pulled out a small envelope.
Theo opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
A young Claire Parker stood beside a man.
Theo recognized him instantly.
His older brother.
Evan Walker.
Dead for fifteen years.
Theo's hands began to shake.
Evan had been declared missing after a boating accident.
His body had never been recovered.
Theo had been twelve when their parents died.
Evan had been seventeen.
The official story had always been simple:
Evan drowned.
But Theo had never believed it.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
Three days before Evan disappeared.
And beneath it:
If Theo ever comes back, tell him the truth.
Theo looked at Lily.
“Where did you get this?”
“Mom.”
“Where is she?”
Lily lowered her head.
“I don't know.”
Theo's phone rang.
His investigator.
“Mr. Walker, we found something.”
“What?”
“Claire Parker wasn't listed as Lily's mother in the original hospital record.”
Theo stood.
“What was she listed as?”
There was a pause.
“Emergency guardian.”
Theo felt the floor disappear beneath him.
“Then who gave birth to Lily?”
The investigator answered quietly.
“We're still looking.”
Another message arrived.
A photograph.
A scanned hospital document.
Theo opened it.
His entire body went still.
The mother wasn't Claire.
The mother was:
Sarah Walker.
Theo's dead mother.
The date of birth was eight years after her death.
Impossible.
Unless the records had been changed.
May you like
Unless someone wanted him to believe his mother was dead.
And suddenly the tiny silver key in his hand felt much heavier.
