Prologue
320 Words
I’ve spent the last five years convincing myself Adrian Cole doesn’t remember me.
It’s a ridiculous lie, but it’s the only one that lets me breathe.
Every morning, I walk into his glass-walled office with his coffee—two shots of espresso, oat milk, no sugar—while he signs contracts worth more than I’ll earn in a lifetime. Every evening, I leave before the lights go off, slip home to our tiny apartment, and press a kiss to the forehead of the boy who has his father’s gray eyes and his stubborn chin.
Adrian has no idea.
Or at least, I thought he didn’t.
The first sign something was wrong came in an unmarked envelope left at my door. No return address. Just a single sheet of glossy photographs. Ethan. My Ethan—clutching his dinosaur lunchbox in front of his preschool. His smile frozen mid-laugh, a hand waving toward a camera he couldn’t see.
Tucked between the photos was a note in blocky black print:
Does Adrian know he has a son?
My knees gave out before I finished reading. The letter slipped from my hands, landing facedown on the kitchen floor. I remember staring at the back of it like maybe, if I didn’t turn it over again, it would disappear.
But fear doesn’t disappear. It grows teeth.
By Monday, the air in the office felt heavier. Adrian’s gaze lingered a fraction too long when I handed him his schedule. His voice was quieter when he told me to close the door. I did. And then he said my name—my real name, the one I’d buried under a new last name and a thousand careful lies.
“Leila Hart,” he said, each syllable slow enough to feel like a warning. “We need to talk.”
And just like that, the life I’d built—every careful wall, every secret—began to crack.
- Writer
