Chapter 1: The Face That Shouldn't Exist
“Daddy… why does that girl look exactly like me?””
Damian Brooks stopped walking.
His seven-year-old daughter, Ava, was pointing toward a little girl sitting at the far end of a wooden bench outside a neighborhood bookstore.
The girl wore a lavender dress and white sneakers. Her dark curls were parted in exactly the same way as Ava’s, with two small braids framing her face. Even the shape of her cheeks, the little gap between her front teeth, and the way she tilted her head were identical.
For one strange second, Damian wondered whether he was looking at a reflection.
He tightened his grip on Ava’s hand.
“Probably just a coincidence, sweetheart,” he said.
But he didn't believe it.
Damian was thirty-six, dressed in a navy blazer over a black turtleneck, and had spent most of his adult life learning not to let strangers see when something unsettled him.
Today, that skill was failing.
The girl was sitting beside a Black woman who appeared to be in her late thirties. The woman was standing a few feet away, checking something on her phone while keeping one eye on the child.
Damian took a step closer.
The little girl looked up.
Her eyes were Ava’s eyes.
Same warm brown. Same tiny crease beneath the left one.
Then Damian noticed something hanging around her neck.
A small silver bird pendant.
His heart seemed to miss a beat.
He knew that necklace.
He had bought it for Olivia.
His wife.
The woman he had not seen in nearly two years.
Damian released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
“Excuse me, sweetheart,” he said, crouching slightly in front of the girl.
“Can I ask you something?””
The girl studied him cautiously.
“What's your name?”” Damian asked.
“Ruby.””
“That's a beautiful name.””
“Thank you.””
His eyes moved to the silver pendant.
“Where did you get that necklace?””
Ruby instinctively touched it.
“My mommy gave it to me.””
Damian's fingers went cold.
“Your mommy?””
Before Ruby could answer, the woman turned around.
She saw Damian.
Her phone slipped slightly in her hand.
“Damian?””
He straightened.
The woman stared at him as if she had just seen someone walk out of a grave.
“Do I know you?”” he asked.
She swallowed.
“My name is Nora. Nora Bennett. I knew Olivia.””
The name hit him harder than he expected.
“Olivia?””
Nora nodded.
“Your Olivia.””
Damian glanced at Ruby again.
“Why does this little girl have my wife's necklace?””
Nora stepped closer, her expression tightening.
“Because Olivia gave it to her.””
“Who is Ruby?””
Nora looked down at the child.
“She's seven.””
“I can see that. Who is she?””
Nora took a breath.
“Damian, Olivia didn't leave you because she stopped loving you.””
For the first time in almost two years, something inside him shifted.
Hope.
Small. Dangerous. Almost painful.
He took another step toward Nora.
“What are you talking about?””
“Your wife asked me to find you. She wanted you to know the truth.””
Damian stared at her.
“What truth?””
Nora opened her mouth.
But Ruby suddenly grabbed her hand.
“Mommy!””
Nora looked down.
Ruby was staring past the bench toward the street.
“It's the car!””
“What car, baby?”” Nora asked.
“The black one. The one that followed us yesterday.””
Damian turned.
A black SUV had slowed beside the curb.
Its windows were tinted.
The vehicle rolled forward several feet before stopping directly opposite them.
Nora immediately pulled Ruby behind her.
“Damian,” she whispered.
He looked at her.
“Don't let whoever is inside get near the girls.””
His expression hardened.
He moved Ava behind his body, keeping her small hand locked in his.
“Stay close to me, sweetheart.””
“Daddy, what's happening?””
“I don't know yet.””
The SUV's engine continued humming.
Then the driver's window began to descend.
Slowly.
A man's hand appeared on the window frame.
Then a dark sleeve.
Then a face.
Damian stopped breathing.
The man inside the vehicle had his exact face.
The same jawline. The same nose. The same small scar above his right eyebrow.
Even his closely trimmed beard and short black hair were identical.
But the stranger wore a charcoal-gray jacket over an open-collar black shirt.
Two men.
One face.
Nora looked from the man in the SUV to Damian.
Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
Ava peeked around her father's shoulder.
She stared at the stranger.
Then she looked up at Damian.
“Daddy…”
Damian lowered his eyes.
Ava squeezed his hand.
“That man came to my school yesterday.””
Damian felt the blood drain from his face.
“What?””
“He said he knew you.””
The little girl's voice trembled.
“Then he told me to call him Daddy, too.””
Inside the SUV, the stranger looked directly at Ava.
And smiled.
It was the exact smile Damian used whenever he wanted his daughter to feel safe.
Damian pulled Ava closer behind him.
May you like
His eyes never left the stranger.
And for the first time in his life, he was looking at another man who had every reason to be mistaken for him.
