PART 2
Nathan Cole first noticed the boys on a rain-soaked Thursday afternoon in Boston.
And for one horrifying moment, he truly believed his mind was playing tricks on him.
He had just come out of a terrible investor meeting at the Harbor Crescent Hotel, one of the last properties still making money after his expansion project fell apart. Rain slammed against the lobby’s glass doors as tired guests hurried across the marble floors with umbrellas and expensive luggage.
Nathan barely registered any of it.
At forty-one, he now appeared older than he was.
The clean, cutting confidence that had once landed him on magazine covers had faded into something quieter.
Something more breakable.
His fitted charcoal coat hung loosely on a body that had never fully recovered the weight he lost after Emily vanished.
Sleep almost never lasted beyond three hours.
And silence had become impossible to bear.
He was heading for the exit when a burst of laughter froze him in place.
Not just any laughter.
A child laughing.
Clear.
Carefree.
Painfully familiar.
Beside the hotel fountain, two little boys ran after each other in circles while their babysitter failed badly at settling them down.
Twins.
Maybe four.
Dark hair.
Long limbs.
And the same gray-blue eyes Nathan had stared into in mirrors his entire life.
His legs stopped working.
The taller boy almost crashed into him before stumbling back.
“Sorry!” the child chirped.
Nathan stared.
The boy stared back.
Then grinned.
Exactly the way Emily once had.
Something deep inside Nathan’s chest ached.
The babysitter rushed over at once.
“Boys, come on. Your mom said no running.”
Mom.
Nathan’s heartbeat jumped.
The second twin tipped his head with curious concern.
“Mister, why do you look sad?”
The question cut straight through him.
Nathan parted his lips.
Nothing came out.
Because all at once, every part of him was screaming one impossible word.
Mine.
The babysitter finally caught sight of his expression and shifted uneasily.
“Sorry again,” she said quickly, ushering the boys away.
But before they rounded the corner, one of them glanced back.
And Nathan saw it.
A tiny crescent-shaped birthmark just under the child’s jaw.
The exact same mark Nathan had beneath his own left ear.
Inherited.
Uncommon.
Impossible to mistake.
The floor seemed to tilt beneath him.
Nathan stood motionless in the center of the hotel lobby while the rain roared outside.
Twins.
Emily.
Four years.
His knees almost buckled.
—
“Mr. Cole?”
His assistant’s voice sounded far away.
“Sir?”
Nathan blinked forcefully.
The lobby slowly sharpened around him again.
“Who was that woman?” he asked, his voice rough.
“What woman?”
“The boys’ mother.”
His assistant looked uncertain.
“I’m not sure. One of the long-term guests, maybe?”
Nathan’s heart slammed against his ribs.
Every logical thought battled the truth he already felt.
Emily had disappeared four years earlier.
No message.
No explanation.
Nothing.
And now two little boys with his eyes had just appeared in front of him.
His sons.
The realization struck him with crushing force.
Emily had been pregnant when she left.
Pregnant.
And he had never known.
Nathan grabbed the edge of the marble reception desk to keep himself upright.
Memories tore through him.
Emily absently resting a hand over her stomach the week before their anniversary.
Emily refusing wine at dinner twice in the same month.
Emily looking exhausted all the time.
How had he not seen it?
Because he had not been paying attention.
That truth destroyed him on the spot.
“Find out who’s staying in suite records with children,” Nathan ordered.
His assistant paused.
“Sir, legally—”
“Please.”
The desperation in Nathan’s tone surprised even him.
Twenty minutes later, he stood alone in his harbor-view office while his assistant came back with a tablet in her hands.
Nathan’s fingers were already trembling before she said a word.
“The reservation is under Emily Bennett.”
Bennett.
Not Cole.
A false last name.
Or perhaps not false at all.
Perhaps she had erased him completely.
“She checked in three days ago,” the assistant continued cautiously. “Two children listed. Ethan and Elliot Bennett.”
Nathan shut his eyes.
Ethan and Elliot.
His sons had names.
His sons were real.
And they had lived their whole lives without him.
Guilt nearly choked him.
“Where is she now?”
“She left the hotel this morning.”
“Where?”
“We don’t know.”
Nathan drew in a sharp breath.
Panic rushed back immediately.
The same panic that had consumed him four years before when Emily vanished without warning.
Only now, it was worse.
Because this time, he understood what he had truly lost.
—
Emily Bennett—once Emily Cole—had made a life in a quiet seaside town outside Portland, Maine.
The boys adored it there.
Tiny bookstores.
Fishing piers.
Winter snowstorms.
Blueberry pancakes every Sunday morning.
