The Unfinished Vow

Chapter 2

Having spent over a decade in New York, Iris picked up on the amusement and the warning in Lucas' tone right away. Inside the room, everyone who had been doing something else stopped and turned to look at her. For a single moment, she felt as though she had been slapped, wishing she could sink straight through the floor.

"Don't talk nonsense. Iris is a friend."

Warren walked over to stand beside her, running interference on her behalf. "Let me introduce you. Iris Quinn, a top litigator at Silverman and Cole, LLP. If any of you ever need legal help, she is the one to call."

Nobody said a word.

Then Lucas tapped his knuckles against the poker table. "Did you all not hear what Warren just said, or have you suddenly gone mute?"

"We heard, we heard. Lucas, why are you grabbing your coat? Where are you off to?"

"That time already. I'm heading home to have dinner with my family."

He waved a hand casually and walked out without looking back.

Iris watched his retreating figure, her fingers curling into fists at her sides.

Once Lucas left, the gathering broke up. Outside on the narrow street, Iris walked with her head down, her boots pressing into the snow, but her mind was still full of the Lucas she had just seen. Every expression he had worn, every gesture he had made, every word he had spoken played on a loop in her head, etching itself deeper with each repetition.

"Iris. What was that about back there?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Warren. Catching the concern in his eyes, she forced a smile.

"Sorry. I made things awkward for you in there."

"It wasn't awkward. But Iris, that man is Lucas. If something like this happens again, I can't promise I'll be able to protect you."

Warren stopped walking and fixed her with a serious look. "The Sterling family has been in politics for three generations. Lucas is the sole heir. He is in business now, but sooner or later he will follow that path. If you tangle with him, you're the only one who ends up bleeding."

Iris knew he meant well. But the resemblance was just too much.

"Warren, did I ever show you a photo of my boyfriend?"

Thinking about it now, it felt absurd. She had known Warren for over a decade. She had introduced him to everyone else in her life. But he had never met Lucas. And then Lucas had died in that car crash before the introduction ever happened.

She pulled out her phone, scrolled to an old photo of the two of them together, and held it out to him. "Look. Don't they look alike?"

She did not watch his face. She was afraid of what she might see there: disapproval and pity.

Warren was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "They do look alike. But they cannot be the same person."

The words hit her like a bucket of ice water.

Iris drew in a sharp breath of frigid air and let out a bitter laugh. "I know they are not. I just thought, what if?"

She and Warren parted ways. Iris went back to her small, out-of-the-way rental. It was the home she and Lucas had shared. Even after he was gone, even after she started earning more money, she had never thought about moving.

She looked at the photo of the two of them on the entryway cabinet and did what she had done every single day for the past five years. She smiled and said, "Good evening. I'm home. Lucas, you'll never guess. I met someone today who looks so much like you. I almost believed it was you. But I know it wasn't."

Her Lucas had left her five years ago.

Outside the window, against the ink-black night, a vast spray of fireworks burst into bloom. Iris stood there staring at them, feeling nothing but the lonely chill of an empty room.

She did not sleep that night.

Early the next morning, she looked at the work message from her boss on her phone. She could not tell whether she was more relieved or exhausted. The client on the new case was Sterling Holdings. And the man at the head of the company was Lucas.

From the moment their paths had crossed again the night before, it felt as though some unseen thread had been pulling them tighter and tighter together.

She replied with a quick "Got it" to her boss and then pulled up everything she could find on Lucas. One detail stopped her cold.

Sterling Holdings had been founded five years ago. Before that, Lucas had not made a single public appearance.