Chapter 5
Mom stayed in the hospital for three weeks.
Three weeks of doctors and tests and police questions.
Three weeks of Evelyn fighting with William every single night at dinner.
About the security.
About the money.
About me.
“Twenty years,” William would say. “Twenty years she was gone. And now she shows up with a child and suddenly the entire Whitmore fortune is at risk.”
“The fortune was never yours to hoard, William,” Evelyn would answer. “It belongs to the family. All of it.”
“Sarah renounced her claim when she left!”
“She was eighteen! A child! Pregnant and terrified!”
I would sit at the end of the long dining table and eat in silence.
Julian would sit across from me, scrolling his phone, occasionally looking up with that half-smile of his.
Margaret would sip her wine and watch everything.
Saying nothing.
Judging everything.
I learned a lot in those three weeks.
I learned that Whitmore Industries was worth four billion dollars.
That William was the CEO.
That Margaret came from old money too—the kind that thought they were better than everyone else.
That Julian was next in line.
Or at least, he used to be.
Until I showed up.
I learned that Sarah was the favorite child.
The smart one.
The one everyone thought would run the company.
Until she got pregnant at seventeen.
Until she refused to name the father.
Until Evelyn, in a moment of rage she would regret for the rest of her life, told her to get out and never come back.
And Sarah did.
She took the necklace—the only thing her father had ever given her—and walked out the door.
And she never came back.
Until that night at the Waldorf.
I learned that the men who were chasing us worked for someone.
Someone powerful.
Someone who had been looking for Sarah for a very long time.
The police had theories.
Gangsters.
Blackmailers.
But they had no names.
No leads.
Nothing.
Then, on the twenty-first day, Mom woke up for real.
The doctors took the wires out of her jaw.
She could talk again.
Evelyn and I were sitting beside her bed when she opened her eyes.
She looked at Evelyn.
Then at me.
“Hi, baby,” she whispered. Her voice was rough. “Hi, Mom.”
Evelyn broke down.
She climbed onto the bed and held both of us.
Three generations.
Twenty years of pain.
All coming out in tears.
When we finally calmed down, Mom told us everything.
The real story.
The one she had never told anyone.
“I was seventeen,” she said. “Scared. Stupid. I fell in love with someone I shouldn’t have.”
“Who?” Evelyn asked.
Mom hesitated.
“His name was Marcus Voss.”
Evelyn went white.
“Voss?” she whispered. “As in… Voss Enterprises?”
Mom nodded.
“Your father’s biggest competitor,” Evelyn said. “The man who tried to ruin him.”
“I know,” Mom said. “That’s why I couldn’t tell you. I knew you’d never approve. We were together for six months. Secretly. Then I got pregnant.”
She looked down at her hands.
“Marcus was going to leave his wife. He said we’d run away together. Start over. But then… then his father found out. Jonathan Voss. The old man. He told Marcus if he left, he’d destroy him. He’d take everything. And then he came to me.”
Mom’s hands started shaking.
“He told me if I didn’t disappear, he’d kill Marcus. And then he’d kill me. And the baby. He said he’d make it look like an accident. He gave me twenty-four hours to get out of New York. And he said if I ever told anyone… if I ever came back… he’d finish the job.”
“So you left,” Evelyn said. Her voice was hollow.
“I took the necklace. I ran. I moved from city to city. State to state. I had Luna in a hospital in Ohio. No real name. No insurance. Nothing. I thought if I stayed hidden, we’d be safe. I thought eventually Jonathan Voss would die and it would be over.”
“He did die,” Evelyn said. “Three years ago.”
“I know,” Mom whispered. “I read about it. I thought we were free. I thought we could finally come home. But then the men found us. In Philadelphia. Six months ago.”
“Marcus?” Evelyn asked.
Mom shook her head.
“Not Marcus. His son. Christian Voss. Jonathan’s grandson. He took over the company when the old man died. And he found out about me. About Luna.”
“Why?” I asked. “What does he want?”
Mom looked at me.
Her eyes were full of tears.
“Because Marcus never told anyone about us,” she said. “But when Jonathan died, he found his father’s journals. Everything. About me. About you. About the deal we made. And Christian… he’s worse than his grandfather ever was. He thinks you’re a threat, Luna.”
“A threat?” I whispered. “I’m nine years old.”
“Because of the necklace,” Mom said. “The blue ruby. It’s not just jewelry. It’s the key to something. Jonathan Voss spent twenty years trying to get it back. He thought it proved that Marcus and I were married. That you were his legitimate heir. That you could claim half of Voss Enterprises.”
The room went silent.
Half of Voss Enterprises.
Billions.
More money than I could ever imagine.
“That’s why they’ve been chasing us,” Mom said. “That’s why they beat me. That’s why they shot at you at the Waldorf. Christian Voss will do anything to get that necklace. And to make sure you never get to court.”
Evelyn stood up.
Her face was like stone.
“Then we fight,” she said. “If Christian Voss wants war, we’ll give him one. Whitmore against Voss. Just like our fathers. But this time, we finish it.”
She looked at both of us.
“No one hurts my family. No one.”
But as she said it, I saw something in her eyes.
Fear.
Because she knew.
We all knew.
May you like
Christian Voss had been hunting us for two years.
And he wasn’t going to stop now.
