The name hit me like a physical blow.
Daniel Lawson.
My father.
No…
That couldn’t be possible.
I looked at the man standing in the helicopter.
Then back at Evelyn.
Her face had gone completely pale.
Victor looked as though he’d seen a ghost.
“No…”
he whispered.
“You were supposed to be dead.”
The man smiled.
“That version of me is.”
The helicopter landed slowly in the clearing.
The wind whipped through the trees.
Lucien instinctively moved in front of me.
Protective.
Always protective.
The man stepped out.
Elegant.
Powerful.
Familiar.
And yet…
Something felt terribly wrong.
He looked exactly like my father.
But his eyes…
They were colder.
Harder.
“Who are you?”
I whispered.
His smile widened.
“I was wondering when you’d ask that.”
⸻
Evelyn took a shaky ste
