CHAPTER 9
On her way home, Nina felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out and glanced at the screen.
Frank.
Her chest tightened. For a few seconds, she just stared at the name that had once filled her with warmth and now stirred only disgust.
She declined the call and returned her attention to the road. She turned at the traffic light, and the phone went off again. This time, it was Leonard.
Nina answered without hesitation.
“Did you find something?”
“I sent you Lynn’s new address.”
Nina froze.
“That quickly?”
“And her photo,” he added. “If you need more information, I can send you details about her adoptive parents, her school, anything you want.”
Nina closed her eyes.
For so many years she’d told herself it was enough just to know Lynn was okay. But now that this information was in her hands, fear swept over her.
She drew a deep breath, but her heart still raced too fast.
“No,” she said, and her voice betrayed her with a tremor. “This is enough.”
She realized she didn’t want to dig that deeply into Lynn’s life. She planned to help from a distance, if Lynn ever ran into financial trouble. Even if the divorce took most of Nina’s assets, she would still find a way to take care of her.
Leonard was silent for a couple of seconds, then said evenly,
“Got it. If you change your mind, call me.”
The call ended.
For a few more seconds, Nina just held the phone in her hands. A notification glowed on the screen.
A photo.
Lynn.
Her daughter.
Her breath caught as if she’d been struck. For years she’d convinced herself she didn’t need to know what Lynn looked like, that it was enough just to know she was alive. Now she wasn’t sure that was true anymore.
At this point, she had no real reason not to see her. To help her. To support her.
If she’d done this earlier, Frank would’ve destroyed her.
If anyone had found out about her past, about the child she had given up, the company’s stock would’ve crashed, and the family would’ve been publicly disgraced.
This would’ve destroyed their reputation.
They hadn’t been insignificant for a long time.
Her father had built his pharmaceutical company from the ground up, and every step they took could affect their position.
If this had come out back then, the board could’ve forced Frank out as CEO.
But now…
Now she could finally afford to do what she wanted, without looking back at anyone else’s expectations.
Nina pulled over to the shoulder, turned on her hazard lights, and looked at the screen.
In the photo was a young woman who looked about eighteen. Nina knew for a fact she was almost twenty-one. Slender, tall, with long fair hair that caught the sunlight like gold. She had the same oval face as Nina, the same high cheekbones, the same soft line of the chin.
She looked like Nina’s younger sister. Or like her daughter...
Only the eyes were different. They were green and piercing. Just like Jasper Garth’s.
In that moment, something inside her went completely cold. Her throat tightened so much it became hard to breathe.
Nina hadn’t wanted to see this.
Jasper’s face flashed before Nina’s eyes — the image she’d dreamed of erasing from her memory.
Sharp cheekbones. A cold, piercing stare.
She remembered him too clearly, as if they hadn’t been apart for twenty years at all, as if they’d only parted a couple of days ago.
And now she saw his features in her daughter.
A shiver ran through her.
Her fingers pressed the lock button without her realizing it, the screen went dark. She clutched the phone to her chest, squeezing it until her fingers went numb. Tears burned in her eyes, but she didn’t cry.
She just needed to drive. Anywhere. As long as she didn’t sit still. As long as she didn’t drown in these thoughts, didn’t sink deeper into the spiral of pain that was already tightening around her.
Nina started the engine and slammed on the gas.
The road blurred before her eyes. She didn’t think about where she was going. She just pressed the gas and followed the flow of traffic until something inside led her exactly where she’d been drawn all along.
She stopped only when she realized where she was.
A quiet neighborhood. Narrow streets lined with townhouses, neat little yards, cars parked in tidy rows by the driveways.
And one of those houses was Lynn’s.
From the look of the area, money clearly wasn’t a problem for her. Which meant Nina’s help wasn’t needed. She should leave. Right now. But she didn’t.
Nina killed the engine but stayed in the car.
She just stared at the house in front of her.
Warmth and cold twisted strangely in her chest. For so many years she’d shoved any thoughts of her daughter deep down inside her.
Sometimes she’d allowed herself to imagine their meeting.
But now, sitting in the car just a few yards away, she had no idea what to do.
She didn’t know if Lynn even wanted to see her.
And the scariest part was what she’d say if Lynn saw her first. She couldn’t tell her the truth.
Pretend to be some distant relative? Ridiculous.
Say she was lost? Just as absurd. And why had she even decided she could meet her at all?
Lynn might live in another city and only have this address on record.
Nina sat in the car for what felt like forever. The clock on the dashboard said only twenty minutes had passed, but it felt like time had frozen.
She didn’t understand why she’d come.
What she wanted. What she was waiting for.
There was no answer.
She closed her eyes, rested her forehead against the steering wheel, and breathed heavily, trying to calm the chaos in her head. But the anxiety wouldn’t loosen its grip. Her chest felt tight. Her temples throbbed.
Nina exhaled hard, clenched the wheel, tore her eyes from the house and looked back at the road and suddenly noticed a tiny ball of fur right in the middle of the street.
A kitten. Small, fluffy, snow-white, with dark little spots on its ears.
It sat huddled miserably against the asphalt, trembling. Its tiny paws twitched faintly. It was cold — probably freezing.
Nina straightened sharply. How had it ended up here? The kitten looked like a pedigreed cat. Lost? Thrown out? She scanned the area, but there was no one around. The street wasn’t busy, but if someone came speeding through, the little thing wouldn’t survive.
Without thinking, Nina flung the door open and jumped out of the car. The cold evening air hit her in the face. The kitten was still sitting there, as if it were afraid to move. She approached slowly, carefully, crouched down, and held out her hands.
“Hey, baby… what are you doing out here?”
It looked at her with huge blue eyes, and something in her chest clenched painfully. Nina gently picked it up and felt the frantic hammering of its tiny heart.
And at that very moment, a door slammed behind her.
Footsteps sounded. Nina froze. She slowly turned her head… It was Lynn.
She stood in the doorway. Slim, beautiful, young, with long fair hair. Exactly like in Leonard’s photo.
She was wearing pajama pants and a warm sweater, but even in simple clothes she looked strikingly elegant.
She looked terrifyingly like Nina.
A wave of terror swept over Nina as Lynn looked straight at her. Nina couldn’t move.
Everything inside her twisted into a tight, icy knot. Her chest seized so hard it became difficult to breathe. They just stared at each other, and Nina couldn’t force out a single sound.
And then, with a growl, a massive German shepherd burst out of the garage and tore down the street.
“Russell!” Lynn cried out in alarm.
She immediately turned her attention to the dog.
“Dad! Russell got out! Call him, he won’t listen to me!”
Dad.
That word snapped shut in Nina’s mind like a trap. Lynn was calling someone her father.
A moment later, he appeared. A tall, broad-shouldered man stepped out of the yard. He seemed to fill the entire space around her; even the air grew heavier.
Nina saw his face — and her world collapsed.
Something inside her snapped, froze. The ground dropped out from under her. She wasn’t ready for this. Not even in her worst nightmare could she have imagined it would be him.
Jasper Garth.
The man who had destroyed her life. The man she loathed with every fiber of her being. The man who was Lynn’s biological father.
Even after all these years, despite the age, the changes, the faint streaks of gray, she recognized him instantly. You never forget people like that. Not after they rip your life to pieces.
She couldn’t move.
How…
How had it happened that her daughter ended up with him?