Chapter 3 - The Photograph from Four Years Ago
Damian reached the front door before the stranger could knock.
"Stay upstairs," he told Claire.
She ignored him.
"You're in my house."
"Claire."
"And that's my daughter being threatened."
Matthew moved beside them.
The footsteps stopped outside.
Damian opened the door.
Adrian Cole stood on the porch.
Damian's oldest friend looked from Damian to Matthew.
His face drained of color.
"You're alive."
Matthew gave a humorless smile.
"Apparently that surprises everyone."
Adrian stepped inside.
"I came as soon as I got Damian's message."
Claire looked at Damian.
"You called him?"
"I called the only person I still trust."
Matthew's expression sharpened.
"That might be your first mistake."
Adrian looked at him.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing yet."
"Stop," Claire said. "Both of you."
Lily appeared behind her.
Damian immediately softened.
Claire noticed it.
He crouched.
"Hey."
Lily clutched her stuffed rabbit.
"Is the bad man gone?"
"We don't know if there was a bad man."
"He was bad."
"Why?"
"He looked at me through the window."
Damian's jaw tightened.
Lily added, "He had a ring."
Everyone became silent.
"What kind?" Matthew asked.
"A bird."
Damian and Adrian exchanged a look.
Claire saw it.
"What?"
Damian stood.
"The Blackwood crest is a raven."
Claire stared.
"Someone from your organization?"
"Or someone who wants us to think so."
Damian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
No one spoke.
Then a distorted voice said, "You finally met her."
Damian's face hardened.
"Victor."
A laugh.
"You always were quick once someone pointed you in the right direction."
"Come near my daughter again and—"
"And what?"
Claire watched Damian struggle against instinct.
Threats had once been his language.
Now Lily was listening.
His voice became controlled.
"What do you want?"
"The same thing I wanted four years ago."
"What?"
"You gone."
The call ended.
Damian immediately called someone else.
"Trace it."
Then he looked at Claire.
"We need to move you."
"No."
"Claire."
"I spent four years running from your world."
"This isn't about my world anymore."
"It became about your world the moment someone called my daughter a Blackwood."
Damian flinched.
Claire saw it.
He didn't like hearing Lily described as belonging to his name.
Or perhaps he liked it too much.
Matthew stepped forward.
"Claire, he's right about one thing. This house is compromised."
She looked upstairs.
Lily stood hugging her rabbit.
Claire hated the answer.
"Where?"
Damian said, "My coastal house."
"No."
"It's secure."
"Exactly why I don't want Lily there."
Adrian frowned.
"What's wrong with secure?"
Claire looked at Damian.
"Men with guns?"
He didn't answer.
"Security cameras?"
"Yes."
"Locked gates?"
"Yes."
"People calling you boss?"
His silence answered.
"No."
Matthew said, "There's another option."
He knew a retired police captain named Helen Ward who owned an old inn thirty miles north.
No connection to Damian.
No public connection to Claire.
They left twenty minutes later.
Claire packed one bag.
Lily asked if they were going on vacation.
"Just for a little while."
"Is Damian coming?"
Claire glanced toward the doorway.
He had heard.
"No," she said.
Lily looked disappointed.
Damian hid his reaction badly.
At the inn, Claire put Lily to bed.
When she came downstairs, Damian was waiting on the porch.
"You said you weren't coming."
"I'm leaving."
"Then why are you here?"
"Because I wanted to make sure she arrived safely."
Claire folded her arms.
"She did."
He nodded.
Neither moved.
Finally he said, "I want the test."
Claire looked toward the upstairs window.
"Why?"
"I need certainty."
"You already know."
"I need something no one can manipulate."
That made sense.
She hated that it did.
"Fine."
His eyes lifted.
"Fine?"
"One test. Independent laboratory. I choose it."
"Agreed."
"And you don't tell anyone the result without my permission."
"Agreed."
"And a biological result doesn't make you her father."
His expression tightened.
"I know."
"Do you?"
He looked through the window.
"I missed everything."
Claire said nothing.
"Her birth."
"Yes."
"Her first word."
"Light."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"Her first word was light."
Something shifted in his face.
"When?"
"Eleven months."
He nodded as if memorizing evidence.
"First step?"
"Thirteen months. Into a laundry basket."
A faint smile.
"Why?"
"She wanted a sock."
The smile vanished almost immediately.
"First birthday?"
"Strawberry cake. She hated it."
"Second?"
"Chocolate."
"Third?"
"Vanilla."
"Fourth?"
"She asked for pancakes instead of cake."
Damian looked away.
Claire realized his eyes were wet.
She had never seen Damian Blackwood cry.
Not at his father's funeral.
Not when his brother died.
Not once.
He didn't cry now.
But he came close.
"I can't get those back."
"No."
"Can I have what comes next?"
Claire's defenses rose.
"I don't know."
"That's fair."
Again, the answer surprised her.
"Who are you?"
He almost smiled.
"The man you married."
"No. The man I married would have demanded."
"The man you married lost four years because he demanded instead of listening."
Claire looked at him.
"People don't change in an afternoon."
"No."
"Especially you."
"No."
"But?"
"But maybe they change when a four-year-old asks why they have her eyes."
Claire swallowed.
Damian reached into his jacket.
Claire tensed.
He pulled out a folded piece of paper.
Lily's lighthouse drawing.
"She left it in the café."
Claire stared.
"You kept it."
"Yes."
He unfolded it carefully.
Three figures beside the sea.
"I know I don't belong in this picture."
His thumb touched the tall figure.
"But I'd like the chance to earn a place in the next one."
Claire had no answer.
The DNA test happened the next morning.
Damian didn't touch Lily during the cheek swab.
He asked permission before sitting beside her.
Lily watched him with endless curiosity.
"Does this tell if you're my daddy?"
Damian looked at Claire.
"It tells whether I'm your biological father."
"What's biological?"
Claire smiled despite herself.
"It means whether you got some of your body from him."
Lily stared at Damian.
"I got his eyes."
Damian laughed.
It was small and startled.
Claire hadn't heard that sound in years.
Two days later, the result arrived.
99.99%.
Damian read it once.
Then again.
Lily stood beside him.
"So?"
Damian crouched.
His voice was rough.
"I'm your father."
Lily blinked.
"Really?"
"Really."
She considered this enormous information for approximately three seconds.
Then she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Damian froze.
Claire stopped breathing.
Slowly, almost carefully, his arms came around Lily.
His eyes closed.
Claire turned away.
She couldn't watch him receive in seconds what she had spent four years protecting.
Later, Lily made him tea from warm water and approximately six teaspoons of sugar.
Damian drank all of it.
She showed him her drawings.
Her shell collection.
The scar on her knee from falling off her bicycle.
He listened to every story as if someone were handing him missing pages from his own life.
For a few hours, Claire forgot Victor.
Then Matthew arrived.
He carried a folder.
"We found something."
Damian stood.
"What?"
"The original hospital access logs."
Claire's stomach tightened.
Matthew opened the folder.
"Victor didn't personally access Claire's prenatal file."
"Who did?"
Matthew placed a printed page on the table.
A name had been highlighted.
Damian read it.
His expression changed instantly.
Claire stepped closer.
The name belonged to someone who had been inside Damian's home the night their marriage ended.
Someone who had watched Claire leave.
Someone Damian still trusted.
Claire looked toward the front window.
A black car had just pulled into the inn's driveway.
The driver's door opened.
May you like
Adrian Cole stepped out.
And Damian quietly said, "Don't let him inside."
