Chapter 1 - The Pearl That Should Never Have Existed
“Get on your knees and pick up every pearl. If you miss even one, you're fired.”
Olivia Hayes stared at the broken $90,000 necklace scattered across the Blackwood dining room.
Her hand was bandaged. Her knees were bruised. Thirty wealthy guests watched as Eleanor Blackwood humiliated the twenty-seven-year-old maid.
“I didn't break it,” Olivia whispered.
“Are you calling me a liar?”
Olivia knelt.
She needed this job. Her seventeen-year-old sister, Madison, needed $3,200 for nursing school.
Then a voice silenced the room.
“Mother. That's enough.”
Alexander Blackwood stood.
At forty-three, he was one of New York's most feared Mafia bosses. His muscular arms, tattooed neck, and cold reputation had intimidated dangerous men for years.
But tonight, his attention was on something smaller.
A pearl beside his shoe.
He picked it up and noticed a tiny seam.
The pearl opened.
Inside was a folded photograph.
Eleanor went pale.
“Alexander, give that to me.”
He ignored her.
The photograph showed a woman in white, part of a brick building, and a baby's hand.
Later, Olivia admitted she had found another photograph while cleaning Margaret Blackwood's locked music room.
Margaret, Alexander's aunt, had supposedly disappeared twenty-seven years earlier.
But the photograph showed Margaret standing outside a hospital with a newborn.
Alexander's parents stood beside her.
Written underneath:
Margaret and baby, June 14, 1999.
Olivia explained that Eleanor had injured her hand and threatened Madison after discovering what she had found.
There was another troubling detail.
Martin Fletcher, Eleanor's longtime financial adviser, had fastened the mysterious necklace that evening.
Then Alexander received messages warning him not to trust his mother.
One included a picture of a silver baby bracelet.
The next asked:
WHY WERE THERE TWO BABIES BORN THAT NIGHT?
Olivia remembered seeing the bracelet in the hospital photograph.
“The name started with A-L-E.”
Alexander's stomach tightened.
His own name.
Alexander.
Suddenly, his phone rang.
The caller ID displayed two words.
MARGARET BLACKWOOD.
Eleanor grabbed his arm.
“Don't answer.”
“Why not?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Because if Margaret sees your face, she'll know which baby survived.”
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And for the first time in his life, Alexander realized that his mother wasn't merely hiding a family scandal.
She was terrified of someone remembering the truth.
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