Chapter 1 - THE DRAWING HE COULD NOT DENY.
Six-year-old Lily stood between the black-clad guests, clutching a worn teddy bear and a folded page.
“She made me promise to give this only to you.”
Ethan Mercer stepped from the memorial crowd and knelt at her eye level.
“Who gave you that bear?”
“The woman who drew what’s inside.”
Lily unfolded the paper. In the center was one imperfect red crayon heart, tilted slightly to the left.
Ethan stopped breathing.
His wife, Anna, had drawn the same heart on every note she left him before dying in a private hospital fire seven years earlier.
“I’ve seen that heart before,” he whispered.
Lily’s eyes filled.
“She said you would know who I am when you saw it.”
Ethan looked at the child’s blonde curls, then at the heart.
Behind him, his mother Eleanor said coldly, “This is a memorial, not a place for a servant’s child to perform.”
Lily hugged the bear tighter.
May you like
Then she whispered, “Anna said you are my father.”
The entire reception hall went silent.
