The Ring He Was Never Supposed to Wear

CHAPTER 2 - The Man at the Glass

The man did not come in.

He only stood there, one hand in his pocket, watching Mara through the glass as if he had every right to be there.

Guests kept talking around her, unaware that her world had tilted.

The little girl slipped back toward him. Mara caught her wrist gently. "Who are you?"

"Elena," the child said.

Mara looked from Elena to the man outside. "Is he really your father?"

Elena nodded. "He told me to give you the ring if you were the lady in the blue dress."

Mara nearly laughed from shock. There had been no one else in the hall wearing blue velvet. That was no accident.

Her friend Vivian hurried over, concern tightening her face. "Mara? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Maybe I have," Mara said.

Vivian followed her stare. "Good heavens."

Mara pushed through the side doors and stepped into the cold air. The man had moved to the edge of the terrace, under a weak garden light.

Up close, the resemblance was terrifying. The same dark eyes. The same line of the mouth.

But older. Harder.

And alive.

"Thomas?" she whispered.

His smile faded. "You shouldn't say that name so loudly."

Mara felt anger rise through the shock. "You let me mourn you."

"I didn't have a choice."

"What choice could there be after a fire?"

His eyes flicked toward the hall. "Not here."

Before she could answer, Elena appeared beside him, tugging his sleeve. "Daddy, did she know?"

"Know what?" Mara asked.

Thomas looked at her with a pain she did not understand.

"That someone has been asking about you for months," he said. "And they found us."

Inside the hall, a man in a gray coat had stopped at the doorway and was looking straight at them.

Mara had never seen him before.

But Thomas went pale.

"We have to leave. Now."

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