“I still don’t see where this is going. What is the emergency? Are those men back? Did my mother contact them?”
“If those men are back on the radar, they’re working smarter this time.”
My heart starts to race. “What do you know? Just tell me.”
“I followed the legal case between you and your mother. I know who your attorney was and I know who her attorney was.”
“And?”
He sets a folder in front of me. “Look inside.”
I flip it open and I’m staring at a birth certificate for a Nick Marks. Mother: Melanie Marks. Father: Nathan Marks. The attorney who represented my mother. My heart is now skipping beats. I flip the document to find a court document changing the name of Nick Marks to Nick Rogers.
I swallow and I almost choke. I can’t catch my breath. I can’t breathe. “I need to go,” I say, but he catches my arm.
“Easy, honey. Let me help you.”
“No. No. I—”
“Listen to me,” he says firmly. “If he’s involved with the mercury hunters, this is bad news. We need to come up with a plan together.”
“I needto go,”I say, pulling away from him. “I’ll call you. I just…not now.” I all but run for the door, and barely remember the moment I get in the car. Nick’s car. Oh God. My entire life is wrapped around a man conning me. So many things don’t add up, but the bottom line is that Nick is Nathan Mark’s son. He never told me that. I start the engine and I don’t even know where I’m headed. I end up parked in the parking lot of the high rise that is supposed to be our new home.
I sit there thirty seconds, or maybe thirty minutes. I have no concept of time. My phone rings and I reach for it, my hand shaking as I find Nick calling. I answer it.
“Hey sweetheart,” he says.
His voice, rich and masculine and beautiful and deceitful tears holes in my heart. “I know,” I say.
“What?”
“Nick Marks. I know who you are.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Nick
Nick Marks.
That name is a blade in my heart. The connection to my father that brought me to Faith. It’s also the connection I’ve always known could rip her out of my reach. “Faith, sweetheart—”
“Don’t speak,” she orders, her voice breathless. “It won’t help you. And it just hurts me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. I would never hurt you.”
“And yet you did.”
“Where are you? I’ll come to you and explain.”
“You made me trust again and now you made sure that I will never trust anyone again.”
Rita and North walk into my office. “Get the fuck out,” I snap.
Rita’s eyes go wide and North is already tucking tail and running. Rita backs out and shuts the door. “Where are you?”
“Was it the mercury? Were you after a big payoff? Of course you were. Money loves money.”
“What mercury? Faith, talk to me.”