Chapter 1 - The First Word
The first word Dominic Vale’s daughters ever spoke made forty-two people stop breathing.
“Mama.”
A wineglass slipped from Hannah Mercer’s tray.
It hit the marble floor and exploded beside her shoe.
She didn’t even flinch.
She was staring at three two-year-old girls sitting across Table Seven.
Three identical faces.
Three pairs of dark brown eyes.
Three tiny hands pointing directly at her.
“Mama,” they said again.
Dominic Vale rose so slowly that the entire restaurant seemed to rise with him.
“Lock the doors.”
Hannah’s heart slammed against her ribs.
“What?”
Four men in dark suits moved immediately.
The front entrance clicked shut.
The side exit locked.
The private dining-room door closed.
Hannah backed away.
“No. Absolutely not.”
Dominic looked at the children.
For two years, Lily, Grace, and Emma Vale had never spoken a meaningful word.
Not Dad.
Not milk.
Not no.
Not anything.
Dominic had taken them to specialists from Boston to Chicago.
Nothing.
Now all three were staring at a waitress they had supposedly never seen.
“Mama.”
Hannah shook her head.
“I don’t know these children.”
Dominic stepped closer.
“Say that again.”
“I. Don’t. Know. Them.”
Lily began pulling at the straps of her high chair.
Hannah moved before she could stop herself.
“Hey, sweetheart. Easy.”
Lily froze.
Dominic noticed.
So did Hannah.
Why had that word come out so naturally?
Sweetheart.
Like she had said it a thousand times.
Emma stretched both arms toward her.
Hannah’s stomach twisted.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Who are you?”
“Hannah Mercer.”
“Have you ever used another name?”
“No.”
“Have you ever met my wife?”
“I don’t know your wife.”
Dominic went still.
“My wife disappeared eleven months ago.”
Hannah swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Her car was found burned outside Yonkers.”
“I said I’m sorry.”
“They never found enough remains for a positive identification.”
Hannah glanced at the girls.
“That has nothing to do with me.”
Dominic studied her face as though searching for a crack.
Hannah hated the way everyone around them had gone quiet.
Her manager, Peter, appeared beside the kitchen entrance.
“Mr. Vale, maybe we should—”
Dominic looked at him.
Peter immediately stopped talking.
Hannah folded her arms.
“You don’t scare me.”
“That would make you unique.”
“It makes me tired. I’ve been awake since four-thirty this morning, my feet hurt, and some rich guy just locked me inside my workplace because his kids said one word.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
Then Grace started crying.
No sound came from her mouth.
Just tears.
Hannah saw it.
Her anger disappeared.
She crouched.
“Grace?”
Dominic’s face changed.
“How did you know that was Grace?”
Hannah stopped breathing.
She looked at the three girls.
Dominic had pointed them out earlier.
Hadn’t he?
She tried to remember.
Lily had been on the left.
Grace in the middle.
Emma on the right.
But they had moved.
The nanny had taken them from their chairs.
Hannah had still known.
“I guessed.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Dominic stepped toward her.
Hannah stood.
“If you touch me again, I’m screaming.”
“Then scream.”
“I’ll call the police.”
Dominic pulled out his phone and placed it on the table.
“Use mine.”
That frightened her more than anything else he had said.
He wasn’t afraid of the police.
He wasn’t afraid of witnesses.
He wasn’t afraid of consequences.
Emma suddenly slid from the nanny’s arms.
She ran toward Hannah on unsteady little legs.
Hannah caught her automatically.
The child buried her face against Hannah’s neck.
Hannah froze.
Emma inhaled.
Then relaxed completely.
Dominic turned pale.
Hannah whispered, “What?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
Emma lifted her head.
Her tiny fingers touched Hannah’s cheek.
“Mama.”
Hannah’s eyes burned.
“I’m not your mother.”
Emma stared at her.
Then something even stranger happened.
The child leaned close to Hannah’s ear.
Her voice was almost too soft to hear.
“Red door.”
Hannah’s blood went cold.
Dominic heard it too.
He looked at his daughter.
“Emma?”
The child pointed toward the rain-streaked restaurant window.
“Red door.”
Dominic turned toward his men.
“Get the cars.”
Hannah stepped back.
“No.”
“You’re coming with us.”
“You mean you’re kidnapping me.”
“If I intended to kidnap you, we wouldn’t still be discussing it.”
“That is not comforting.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Minutes later, Hannah stood in the alley behind Bellafonte while rain soaked through her thin uniform.
A black SUV waited.
Emma was still reaching for her.
Hannah stared at Dominic.
“I am not getting into that car.”
Dominic opened the rear door.
Inside, mounted on the seat pocket, was a small family photograph.
Hannah saw the woman in it.
She stopped breathing.
The woman was holding three newborn babies.
She had Hannah’s eyes.
Hannah’s mouth.
Hannah’s face.
The only difference was her hair.
Dominic watched Hannah turn white.
“That,” he said quietly, “is my wife.”
May you like
Hannah stared at the photograph.
And for the first time in her life, she was looking at a woman who could have been her identical twin.
