Chapter 1 - The Woman in the Rain
The first thing Adrian Vale saw was the baby.
Not Claire. Not the rain. Not the reporters moving through the Grand Meridian Hotel behind him.
The baby.
Six weeks old, wrapped in a white blanket that was already dark with rainwater at the edges, pressed against Claire Dawson’s chest while she sat on the marble driveway like someone had dropped her there.
“Adrian,” she said. “Please. Five minutes.”
He should have walked to her.
Instead, he stayed beneath the awning.
Vanessa Hart’s hand tightened around his arm. “Security is coming.”
Claire looked up, wet hair stuck to her face. “I’m not here for money.”
Adrian’s mouth hardened. “Then why are you here?”
“To stop you from making the worst mistake of your life.”
Inside the ballroom, three billion dollars waited behind closed doors. Investors. Lawyers. Cameras. Richard Hart. The merger that would turn Vale International into the largest private infrastructure group on the East Coast.
Adrian glanced at the entrance. “You knew what tonight was.”
“Yes.”
“So you chose tonight on purpose.”
“Because you blocked me everywhere else.”
Vanessa gave a small, disgusted laugh. “This is exactly what I warned you about.”
Claire ignored her. She shifted the sleeping baby in her arms. “Just look at him.”
Adrian did.
The child had dark hair. A tiny crease between his eyebrows. One fist pressed against his cheek.
Something in Adrian’s chest moved.
Then he remembered the report.
“I saw the DNA test.”
Claire stopped breathing.
He went on. “I’m sorry you came here like this, but I am not that child’s father.”
For one second Claire looked broken.
Then confused.
“What DNA test?”
Adrian frowned. “The report from your doctor.”
“My doctor never sent you a report.”
Vanessa stepped forward. “Enough.”
Claire’s eyes shot to her.
There it was.
Not guilt exactly. Something faster. A flash of panic.
Claire reached for a soaked leather bag beside her.
“Ask Vanessa who paid Dr. Keller twenty-five thousand dollars.”
Adrian’s head turned.
Vanessa’s face changed.
Only for half a second.
But this time Adrian saw it.
Claire pulled out a plastic sleeve filled with documents and held it through the rain.
“Your DNA test was fake,” she said. “And if you go upstairs and sign those merger papers, you won’t just lose your son.”
Adrian stared at her.
Claire’s voice dropped.
“You’ll lose your company too.”
Behind him, the ballroom doors opened.
Richard Hart stepped into the lobby and called Adrian’s name.
May you like
Claire looked past Adrian toward the man.
Then whispered, “He knows exactly what I’m talking about.”
