Chapter 2 - THE MAN WITH THE GOLD CUFFLINKS
My four-year-old daughter was trembling in my arms.
And my older brother was standing in the doorway, staring at her as though she had just exposed something he had buried four years ago.
“He told the doctor Mommy wasn't supposed to wake up,” Annie whispered.
Gordon Thorne looked at me.
“Alister, she's a frightened little girl. She doesn't understand what she heard.”
I stood slowly, keeping Annie against my chest.
“Then explain what you were doing at Daisy's hospital yesterday.”
He didn't answer immediately.
That hesitation told me more than anything he could have said.
“I went to find out whether the woman who stole fifty million dollars from our family was actually dying.”
Annie buried her face in my neck.
“Daddy, please don't let him take me.”
Something inside me broke.
I'd watched grown men threaten my family without feeling half the fear I felt hearing those words.
I turned toward Edgar, who had appeared behind Gordon.
“Take Annie to my mother's room. Nobody enters without my permission.”
Annie tightened her arms around me.
“Are you coming?”
“Right behind you, sweetheart.”
“Promise?”
I kissed her forehead.
“I promise.”
She studied my face for a moment before allowing Edgar to carry her away.
When they disappeared down the hallway, I closed the bedroom door.
Then I faced Gordon.
“Start talking.”
He straightened his jacket.
“You're letting emotions cloud your judgment.”
“Yesterday. The hospital. Why?”
“Because Renata heard Daisy had resurfaced.”
“How?”
“Someone contacted her.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
I looked at his cufflinks.
Gold squares engraved with the Thorne family crest.
I'd given him those cufflinks when he became chief financial officer of our holding company.
“Annie recognized those.”
Gordon glanced down.
“Half the family wears our crest.”
“Not those cufflinks. There's a scratch across the left one. Jasper put it there during your wedding.”
His face hardened.
“You're interrogating your own brother over something a child supposedly remembers?”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“I'm interrogating you because Daisy told our daughter to hide from you.”
For the first time, Gordon looked genuinely hurt.
“I helped raise you after Father became ill. I protected you when rival families wanted your head.”
“I remember.”
“Then remember who stood beside you when Daisy disappeared.”
That was the terrible part.
I did remember.
Gordon had been the one who brought me the bank statements.
He'd held my shoulder while I stared at Daisy's empty apartment.
He'd told me not to search for a woman who didn't want to be found.
And I'd believed him.
“Where are the original transfer documents?”
He looked away.
“In corporate storage.”
“Edgar's retrieving them.”
A faint smile crossed Gordon's face.
“Then you'll see exactly what we saw four years ago.”
He opened the door.
Before leaving, he turned.
“Be careful, Alister. If that girl really is yours, someone has already taught her to be afraid of this family.”
I watched him walk away.
For the first time, I wondered whether he'd been warning me.
Or threatening me.
Twenty minutes later, my father summoned us to his private study.
Harold Thorne sat behind an enormous mahogany desk, looking older than I remembered.
My mother stood near the fireplace.
Jasper leaned against the window.
Gordon and Renata sat together.
Their adopted daughter, seven-year-old Lila, was upstairs with her nanny.
“Edgar?” I asked.
The elderly butler stepped forward.
“I found the archived transfer summary, sir. But the original authorization packet is missing.”
I looked at Gordon.
He raised both hands.
“Don't look at me.”
Edgar placed a thin folder on the desk.
“There's something else.”
Inside was a scanned bank document.
Fifty million dollars.
Transferred from the Thorne Family Reserve into an overseas investment account.
Daisy's name appeared beneath the authorization.
But so did another signature.
Gordon Thorne.
I stared at it.
“You told me she transferred the money herself.”
“She initiated it. I approved it.”
“Why?”
“Because that's how our financial system worked.”
I examined the date.
December 19.
Four years earlier.
Three days before Daisy disappeared.
My mother suddenly sat down.
“December nineteenth?”
Everyone looked at her.
Her hands were shaking.
“That was the day Daisy came to see me.”
Gordon's expression changed.
“Mother, perhaps this isn't—”
“She was crying,” Eleanor continued. “She wanted to tell Alister something important.”
“What?” I asked.
My mother looked at me.
“She said she was pregnant.”
The room went silent.
I felt as though someone had removed the floor beneath my feet.
“You knew?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I didn't know she'd gone through with telling you. She asked me not to say anything until Christmas.”
Christmas.
The same Christmas I'd given Daisy the gold ring.
The same Christmas I'd planned to ask her to marry me.
I looked at Gordon.
“You knew she was pregnant?”
“No.”
My mother shook her head.
“You were standing outside the morning room when she left. You asked why she'd been crying.”
“That doesn't mean she told me!”
But Jasper had stopped leaning against the window.
He was watching Gordon with an expression I'd never seen before.
Recognition.
“Gordon,” Jasper said quietly, “you told me Daisy couldn't have children.”
Gordon turned.
“What?”
“After she disappeared. Alister was talking about the family he thought they'd have. You told me Daisy had privately admitted she couldn't have children.”
“That was four years ago. I don't remember every conversation.”
Jasper's voice grew colder.
“I do.”
Renata stood.
“This is ridiculous. You're all attacking my husband because some woman sent a child here with a ring!”
I turned toward her.
“Daisy didn't send Annie here to claim money.”
“Then why bring her?”
“Because she's afraid.”
Renata's expression flickered.
For just a second, she seemed less angry than frightened.
Then she picked up her purse.
“I'm taking Lila home.”
My father spoke for the first time.
“No one is leaving until we understand what happened.”
Renata looked at him.
And something passed between them.
Something I couldn't identify.
I returned to Annie's room shortly after midnight.
She was sleeping beneath a thick white blanket.
My mother sat beside her, holding her tiny hand.
“She asked whether the pillows were hers to keep,” Eleanor whispered.
I looked at the little girl.
At the faded dress folded neatly beside the bed.
At the teddy bear missing one button eye.
Four years.
My daughter had been alive for four years.
And I hadn't known she existed.
“I failed her,” I said.
My mother touched my arm.
“You didn't know.”
“I should've looked for Daisy.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “You should have.”
I appreciated that she didn't offer me an easy excuse.
Edgar appeared carrying a sealed envelope.
“Sir. I contacted the hospital using the details embroidered on Miss Annie's teddy bear. The hospital confirmed Miss Bell is a patient there.”
He handed me a small yellow card.
“There's something you should see.”
It was a hospital visitor receipt.
Issued yesterday afternoon.
The visitor's name was Gordon Thorne.
But beneath it was an additional notation.
AUTHORIZED BY: HAROLD THORNE.
I stared at my father's name.
Then I noticed the handwritten instruction.
PATIENT'S ROOM RESTRICTED UNTIL FAMILY REPRESENTATIVE APPROVES RELEASE OF PERSONAL EFFECTS.
My mother leaned closer.
“Alister?”
I couldn't answer.
Because beneath the instruction was another signature.
Not Gordon's.
Not Daisy's.
My father's.
May you like
And beside it were four handwritten words.
DO NOT CONTACT ALISTER.
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