Chapter 14 - EMMA’S NAME
Damian replayed the sentence.
Emma doesn’t know who she really is.
Rebecca immediately began searching.
Emma Carter.
Twenty-five years old.
Born in Ohio.
Raised by a single mother, Katherine Carter.
Nursing degree unfinished after Katherine became ill.
Childcare certification.
No criminal record.
Nothing remarkable.
Until Rebecca opened Katherine Carter’s death certificate.
Maiden name:
Katherine Vale.
Vincent went still.
Damian noticed.
“You know it.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“Vale was Sofia’s mother’s family.”
Damian stared.
Rebecca searched again.
Sofia’s mother had a younger sister.
Katherine.
Estranged from the family at nineteen.
Emma was Sofia’s first cousin.
Emma and Sofia shared blood.
Damian sat down.
Sofia had known.
Maybe Sofia had arranged for Emma to enter Noah’s life.
But Emma said she never knew Sofia.
Both could be true.
Rebecca found Emma’s original employment application.
There was no family referral.
But attached to it was a recommendation from a childcare agency.
The agency no longer existed.
Its registered owner?
A trust established by Sofia eighteen months before her death.
Damian stared.
“Sofia put Emma in our path.”
Vincent nodded.
“Probably as a contingency.”
“Why?”
Rebecca opened another Black Crown file.
Sofia’s voice.
“If something happens to me, Noah will need someone outside the Hawthorne world.”
Damian watched.
“Someone August doesn’t understand.”
She smiled faintly.
“My cousin Emma doesn’t know me.”
Damian’s chest tightened.
“She doesn’t know what this family became.”
Sofia continued.
“That is why I trust her.”
Emma had not stumbled into Hawthorne Mansion.
She had been chosen years earlier without ever knowing it.
But August knew now.
Which made her valuable.
And expendable.
At Terminal Nine, Emma sat tied to a steel chair.
Noah slept against her chest because August’s men had loosened one arm long enough for her to hold him.
She kept her breathing slow.
For Noah.
Always for Noah.
A man stepped from the shadows.
Seventy-two.
Silver hair.
Black coat.
August Hawthorne looked like an older version of Damian stripped of mercy.
“So.”
His eyes studied Emma.
“Sofia’s little insurance policy.”
Emma said nothing.
August smiled.
“You really don’t know.”
“I know enough.”
“Do you?”
He crouched in front of Noah.
Emma tightened her arm.
“Don’t touch him.”
August smiled.
“You sound like his mother.”
“I’m his nanny.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You’re the reason Sofia believed her plan could survive.”
Emma’s heart pounded.
“What plan?”
“To destroy us.”
“You seem to be doing that yourselves.”
August’s smile vanished.
Good.
Emma stored the reaction.
Angry men talked.
Controlled men concealed.
August stood.
“Damian will bring the archive.”
“And then?”
“Then you go home.”
Emma knew a lie when she heard one.
“And Noah?”
“With his father.”
“Victoria?”
“Disposable.”
“Raymond?”
“Disappointing.”
“Vincent?”
“Dead soon.”
August said it all as if discussing furniture.
Emma looked toward the terminal windows.
Shipping containers.
Cranes.
Water.
Three guards visible.
Probably more.
She needed time.
“Why fake your death?”
August smiled.
“Now you’re asking useful questions.”
“Why?”
“Because kings become easier to attack when everyone knows where the throne is.”
“And Sofia discovered you.”
“She was clever.”
“You killed her.”
August’s expression changed.
“No.”
Emma stared.
“I offered her a place beside me.”
“She refused.”
“Yes.”
“So you had her killed.”
August looked toward Noah.
“Sofia is alive.”
Emma forgot to breathe.
August smiled.
“There.”
He watched her face.
“That expression is why I kept the secret.”
Emma whispered—
“Where is she?”
“Close.”
Her heart slammed.
“Does Damian know?”
“No.”
“Why keep her alive?”
August’s eyes cooled.
“Because Sofia still remembers the one password I never found.”
“The archive?”
“No.”
He leaned closer.
“The account containing three hundred million dollars of Hawthorne money she stole from me.”
Emma stared.
May you like
August smiled.
“And if Damian brings me the drive tonight, perhaps I’ll finally let him see his wife again.”
