the billionaire’s jealous fiancée grabbed a quiet maid in front of four hundred guests and tore open her uniform just to humiliate her for smiling at the man she was about to marry—then a long scar across the maid’s back silenced the entire ballroom. the billionaire went pale

Nomi woke to the sound of rain hitting a metal roof.

For several seconds, she did not know where she was. Her head hurt, and her wrists were bound loosely in front of her with a strip of cloth. She sat on a wooden chair in a room that smelled of dust, old medicine, and damp plaster.

A single bulb hung from the ceiling.

Across from her stood Adrian Pike.

She recognized his face from the security footage at the estate. He was older than she had expected, with silver hair and the expression of a man who had spent a lifetime avoiding questions.

"You're awake," he said.

Nomi tested the cloth around her wrists.

"Untie me."

"In a moment."

"Now."

Adrian studied her, apparently surprised that she was not crying.

"You've been asking questions about a family you don't understand."

"I asked for my name."

"You have a name."

"I want to know whether it's mine."

He pulled a chair from the wall and sat opposite her.

"Your birth name was Margaret. Your mother was Caroline Callaway. Your father was Thomas Dwart. You were born into a family that had more money than sense and more enemies than it could count."

Nomi stared at him.

"Eleanor said her daughter was named Margaret."

"Caroline was the name she used before her marriage. Margaret was the name she chose afterward. Your birth certificate contains both."

"Why was I told I was abandoned?"

"Because it was easier than explaining what happened."

"What happened?"

Adrian glanced toward the window.

"Twenty-six years ago, the Ashcom and Callaway families were negotiating a merger between two property trusts. Your grandfather on the Ashcom side believed the Callaways were hiding assets. Your grandmother, Eleanor, believed the Ashcoms were stealing them. Both were partly right."

"And my parents?"

"Your mother discovered that the records had been altered. Your father tried to help her. When you were born, they intended to take the evidence to an attorney."

Nomi felt a chill.

"The clinic fire."

Adrian nodded.

"Someone set it deliberately. The official investigation blamed faulty wiring, but the fire started in a records room. The original birth files were destroyed. Your mother disappeared. Thomas Dwart was later reported dead, although his body was never identified."

"And I was declared stillborn."

"Yes."

Nomi looked down at her wrists.

"Who took me?"

"A nurse. She believed she was saving you. She moved you to another clinic and arranged for a foster placement. You were three when you were injured in a second incident, and the surgeon repaired the wound on your back."

"An incident?"

Adrian's expression tightened.

"You fell through a glass partition during an evacuation. Someone was chasing you. The surgeon documented your scar because he feared it would be used to identify you."

Nomi tried to remember. Her childhood was a corridor of disconnected images: a woman humming in a dim kitchen, a locked cupboard, a little red shoe, and the smell of smoke.

She closed her eyes.

"I remember a woman telling me to hide."

Adrian leaned forward.

"What did she look like?"

"I don't know."

"Did she have silver hair?"

Nomi shook her head.

"She had a red scarf."

Adrian sat back, unsettled.

"That wasn't in the records."

"Maybe the records are wrong."

For the first time, he looked uncertain.

Nomi lifted her head.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Because the original file is still in this building. Your grandmother has been searching for it, and Julian Ashcom has become involved. I need to know whether you recognize what it contains."

"Then show it to me."

Adrian hesitated.

"You don't understand what you're asking."

"Everyone keeps telling me that. No one ever explains."

He stared at her for a long moment, then rose and unlocked a metal cabinet.

Inside lay a sealed envelope, a hospital bracelet, and a small leather notebook.

Nomi reached for the notebook.

Adrian grabbed her wrist.

"Not yet."

She looked up at him.

"You kidnapped me to stop me from finding the truth, and now you're afraid to let me read it?"

His grip loosened.