CHAPTER 2: THE EYES
Caleb didn’t raise his voice.
He didn’t need to.
“What happened here?” he repeated.
The silence thickened.
Sloane stepped forward smoothly, slipping the scissors behind her back.
“It’s nothing,” she said lightly. “A small misunderstanding—”
“Answer me.”
Her smile flickered.
Nora didn’t speak.
She couldn’t.
Fear held her in place—fear of losing everything.
But Lily turned her face.
And Caleb saw her.
Those eyes.
Brown, but not just brown.
Gold at the center, like light caught in glass.
Claire’s eyes.
His sister had the same impossible color—warm, luminous, unforgettable.
Claire, who had disappeared three years ago without explanation.
Claire, whose name no one in the Whitmore family spoke anymore.
Caleb took one step forward.
Then another.
“Come here,” he said gently.
Lily hesitated, clinging to Nora.
“It’s okay,” Nora whispered, though she wasn’t sure it was.
Lily looked back at Caleb.
Then slowly, she stepped toward him.
Caleb knelt.
At eye level.
His breath faltered.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“…Lily.”
“Lily,” he repeated softly.
His gaze shifted to Nora.
A quiet storm was forming behind his eyes.
“How old is she?”
“Three,” Nora said, barely audible.
Caleb closed his eyes for half a second.
Three years.
Exactly three.
When he opened them again, everything had changed.
“Who is her father?”
The question hit like thunder.
Nora froze.
“I—I don’t—”
“Tell me the truth.”
His voice wasn’t loud.
It was worse.
It was certain.
Tears filled Nora’s eyes.
“She never told me,” she whispered.
The room stirred.
Caleb stood slowly.
Then he turned to Sloane.
“Did you cut her hair?”
Sloane hesitated.
A fatal mistake.
“Yes,” she said finally, lifting her chin. “I wasn’t going to have a maid’s child ruining—”
“Enough.”
One word.
Cold.
Final.
May you like
The room shifted.
Power had changed hands.
