Chapter 1 - THE SONG ONLY MY DEAD WIFE KNEW
Preston Hale had spent most of his adult life becoming the kind of man Chicago feared. He controlled clubs, warehouses, politicians, and businesses no newspaper could fully explain. Yet none of his power mattered after his wife, Serena, died in a hospital room and their six-year-old son, Oliver, stopped speaking.
For two years, Preston brought in doctors, therapists, specialists, and private clinics from across the country. Nothing could reach the boy.
Then, during the annual foundation gala Serena had created for grieving children, desperation finally broke Preston’s discipline. Before four hundred members of Chicago’s elite, he announced that anyone who could make Oliver speak could have anything they wanted. Money. Property. Protection.
And, in one reckless moment, Preston promised that if the person was an unmarried woman, he would marry her.
The ballroom was still recovering from the shock when a young maid named Emma Carter stepped from the shadows.
She knelt beside Oliver and hummed a melody Serena used to sing to him every night—a private lullaby Preston had never heard anywhere else.
Then Emma whispered the opening lyric.
Oliver looked at her.
For the first time in two years, he spoke.
“Mommy?”
The entire ballroom froze.
But Preston barely heard the gasps.
He was staring at Emma.
May you like
Because there was only one question that mattered.
How did a maid he barely knew know the song of his dead wife?
