Part 1:
“And now,” the host announced, barely containing her excitement, “the Grand Prize goes to the two contestants who achieved the first flawless score in tournament history. Congratulations to the twin brothers… Leo Holloway and Ethan Holloway!”
The auditorium erupted.
Thousands of people stood cheering, but I barely heard any of it.
Two teenage boys stepped into the spotlight.
Their faces appeared across the massive LED screens.
And I forgot how to breathe.
They looked like ghosts from my own childhood.
The same straight nose.
The same sharp jaw.
The same expression I had worn in photographs when I was thirteen.
But their eyes were unmistakably Elena’s—dark, intelligent, and unnervingly calm.
The woman I had abandoned thirteen years earlier.
While she was pregnant.
“Holloway,” the host repeated.
Elena’s maiden name.
Beside me, my wife Victoria suddenly jumped to her feet.
“What is this?” she screamed. “Where is Preston?”
A second later, the consolation rankings appeared on the screen.
Preston—Victoria’s son, whose entire academic reputation had been bought and polished with my money—was dead last.
Victoria slammed both hands against the velvet railing.
“This is rigged! I paid for the best tutors, the best schools, everything! How does my son lose to two fatherless nobodies?”
Fatherless.
The word hit me harder than anything else.
Because I knew exactly who their father was.
Me.
Victoria grabbed my jacket.
“Julian, do something! You’re the primary sponsor. Demand a recount. Have those boys disqualified!”
I seized her wrist and pulled her hand away.
“Shut your mouth, Victoria.”
She froze.
I leaned closer.
“Say one more word about those boys and I swear I’ll dismantle your entire life before we reach the parking lot.”
Her face changed immediately.
For the first time in years, Victoria looked afraid of me.
I rose from my seat.
My expensive suit suddenly felt like a costume.
A prison.
Then I walked toward the stage.
Toward the consequences I had avoided for thirteen years.
I had no idea that Elena had been preparing for this exact moment for almost as long.
Continue reading on the next page →
