Chapter 2 - The Photograph Nobody Should Have Had
Cassidy read the sentence three times.
The words remained unchanged.
ASK KIERAN WHICH ONE OF THEM IS YOUR FATHER.
She immediately turned the photograph facedown so Noah could not see it.
“Who gave this to you?”
“A man by the fence,” Noah said. “He knew my name.”
Kieran’s expression changed so subtly that Cassidy almost missed it. His eyes became still; every trace of warmth vanished behind precise concentration.
“When?” he asked.
“Today.”
“What did he look like?”
“Kieran,” Cassidy warned.
He lowered his voice. “Noah, you’re not in trouble. Anything you remember could help us make sure he doesn’t bother you again.”
The boy frowned. “He wore a gray hat. He had a funny ring. A snake.”
Kieran exchanged a glance with one of his men.
“Reyes,” the man said.
Kieran crouched slowly, maintaining space between himself and Noah.
“Thank you. You did exactly right by telling your mother.”
Noah studied the tattoos visible above Kieran’s collar. “Are those drawings?”
“One of them is.”
“Which one?”
“A small compass.”
“Why?”
“So I remember how to find my way home.”
The answer softened Noah immediately. It frightened Cassidy for an entirely different reason.
Kieran was good with him.
Too good.
They relocated to a private medical residence owned by one of Kieran’s legitimate foundations. Cassidy refused his downtown penthouse and anything resembling confinement. The residence near Lincoln Park had ordinary locks, visible security, a children’s room, and three clearly accessible exits.
Kieran agreed to every condition.
Mrs. Kim came with them.
Once Noah was asleep, Cassidy placed the photograph on the kitchen table.
“Start talking.”
Kieran sat opposite her. He looked larger in the modest kitchen, as if his world had entered a space never built to contain it.
“The picture was taken eight years ago,” he said. “Reyes arranged financial transactions for several of my businesses. Brendan Shaw worked for him.”
“Doing what?”
“Building software that moved money between accounts without attracting attention.”
Cassidy closed her eyes briefly. Brendan had told her he designed security systems for banks.
“He lied about everything.”
“Not everything. He was talented.”
“And you?”
“I inherited an organization built on fear. I’ve spent years turning much of it into legal businesses.”
“Much of it?”
Kieran met her gaze. “You asked for the truth.”
“That is a convenient version of honesty.”
“It’s the only version I have.”
Cassidy pushed the photograph toward him. “Why would anyone suggest you might be Noah’s father?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never met me before the hospital?”
“No.”
“Never knew Brendan had a child?”
“No.”
She searched his face for hesitation and found none.
Kieran took out his phone and displayed a photograph. It showed a younger Brendan standing outside a courthouse beside a woman Cassidy did not recognize.
“That’s Elena Reyes,” Kieran said. “Gabriel’s younger sister.”
Cassidy felt a new unease. “What does she have to do with this?”
“She disappeared six years ago—the same month you left Brendan.”
“Did he hurt her?”
“I thought he had betrayed her. Reyes thought I had hidden her.”
“And what happened?”
“Nobody knows.”
A door creaked down the hall. Cassidy tensed, but it was only Noah stepping into the kitchen in dinosaur pajamas.
“I can’t sleep.”
She opened her arms, and he climbed into her lap.
Kieran stood. “I’ll leave you both alone.”
Noah looked at the photograph before Cassidy could cover it.
“That’s the man from the park.”
Cassidy’s hand tightened around him.
“Which man?”
Noah pointed at Brendan.
“You saw him?”
“He watched me on the swings. Mrs. Kim asked if he needed something, and he walked away.”
Mrs. Kim, standing in the doorway, went pale.
“That was him?” she whispered. “I thought he was another parent.”
Kieran immediately called his security team.
Cassidy carried Noah back to bed and remained until his breathing deepened. When she returned, Kieran stood by the window, speaking quietly into his phone.
He ended the call.
“Brendan entered Chicago four days ago under another name.”
“Why now?”
“Because Reyes recently discovered an old account containing twelve million dollars. The access key disappeared six years ago.”
“And he thinks Brendan has it?”
“Brendan created it.”
“What does this have to do with me?”
Kieran’s gaze settled on the necklace Cassidy wore every day—a thin silver chain with a small metal pendant Brendan had given her shortly before she left.
“May I see that?”
Instinctively, she covered it.
“No.”
“Cassidy, the design isn’t jewelry.”
“It’s a pendant.”
“It’s a hardware key.”
She removed the necklace with shaking fingers. Kieran examined the tiny geometric markings.
“Brendan gave you this?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night before I left.”
Understanding appeared in Kieran’s face.
“He didn’t give it to you because he loved you. He gave it to you because nobody would search a frightened woman carrying his child.”
Cassidy stood so suddenly the chair scraped backward.
“He didn’t know I was pregnant.”
Kieran looked at her with something close to pity.
“Are you certain?”
Before Cassidy could respond, her phone rang.
UNKNOWN NUMBER.
She answered without speaking.
Brendan’s familiar voice came through the line for the first time in six years.
“Cass, don’t give the necklace to Kieran.”
Her blood turned cold.
“How did you get this number?”
“You need to listen. Vasquez isn’t protecting you. He’s protecting what you’re wearing.”
Kieran watched her face.
Brendan continued.
“And before he tells you another lie, ask him what happened to Elena Reyes.”
The call ended.
Cassidy lowered the phone.
Kieran already knew what Brendan had said.
“He told you to ask about Elena.”
“Yes.”
Kieran’s silence lasted too long.
Cassidy moved between him and the hallway where Noah slept.
“What happened to her?”
May you like
His answer came quietly.
“She died in my house.”
