Eva swallowed, then lifted her chin. “If it’s really yours, tell me what’s engraved on the back.”
Richard stopped breathing. “It says… ‘R + M forever.’”
Eva turned the medallion. The engraving gleamed under the lights.
Richard’s hands trembled as he took it. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.”
“When’s your birthday?”
“I don’t know. I was found on December twelfth.”
The same day. The crash. The funeral. The baby he’d been told never lived.
“You’re coming with me,” Richard said, gripping her arm—not in anger, but desperation.
“No!” Eva protested. “Give it back!”
He threw a thick stack of cash onto the table. “Ten thousand for ten minutes. Double if you come now.”
“Thirty,” she said softly. “And you return the necklace.”
“Deal.”
In a private room, Richard called Dr. Alan Brooks. “DNA test. Now.”
Eva demanded payment first. Richard wrote a check—fifty thousand.
Samples were taken. The wait felt endless.
“You’re not leaving,” Richard said later as she tried to go.
“This is kidnapping.”
“Until I know the truth, you’re my guest.”
He took her to his penthouse—cold, immaculate, lonely. His lawyer, Mark Sullivan, arrived and scoffed at Eva.
“A cleaner with a priceless heirloom? Obvious scam.”