Chapter 1 - The Stick on the Floor

The hockey stick hit Grace across the shoulder before she could turn.

Pain exploded down her arm. She dropped to one knee on Nathan Cole's polished kitchen floor and threw herself over four-year-old Lily.

"Please," Grace gasped. "Don't touch my child."

Victoria Ashford stood above them in a white designer dress, both hands locked around the wooden stick. Her face was beautiful. Her eyes were not.

"You should have stayed gone," Victoria whispered.

Grace tightened her arms around Lily. "I tried."

"Not hard enough."

Victoria lifted the stick again.

The front door opened.

"Victoria?"

The stick slipped from her hands and cracked against the tile.

Nathan Cole stepped into the kitchen and froze. His fiancee stood three feet from the maid he had hired three months earlier. Grace was on the floor, bruised and shaking. A little girl was crying beneath her.

"What happened?" Nathan demanded.

Victoria's mouth opened at once. "Nathan, she attacked me."

Grace laughed once through the pain. It sounded broken. "Of course."

Nathan took one step forward. "Grace, are you hurt?"

Before she could answer, Lily lifted her tear-covered face.

Her small eyes moved from Nathan to Victoria.

Then she pointed at the hockey stick.

"She said Mommy should've died with Uncle Ethan."

Nathan stopped breathing.

Victoria went white.

Grace closed her eyes.

Ethan Cole had been Nathan's younger brother.

He had been dead for five years.

Nathan stared at Grace as if the room had tilted beneath him. "How does your daughter know Ethan's name?"

"Nathan," Victoria said sharply, "she's confused. She's four."

Lily shook her head. "I'm not confused. Mommy has his picture."

Grace caught Lily's hand, but it was too late.

Nathan's voice dropped. "What picture?"

Lily reached into the pocket of her pink sweater and pulled out a small, worn photograph.

Nathan recognized his brother before Grace could take it away.

Ethan was smiling into the camera, younger and sunburned, one arm wrapped around Grace.

On Grace's left hand was a wedding ring.

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On the back, in Ethan's handwriting, were six words.

For my wife, and our baby.