Chapter 1 The Face In The Frame
Lila Hart first saw his face on a screen she hadn’t meant to look at.
The café television was mounted too high, angled toward no one in particular, the volume low enough to be ignorable. It played continuously—market updates, weather alerts, muted anchors mouthing urgency. Lila had trained herself not to look. Screens had a way of dragging the world into places she’d worked very hard to keep small.
She was packing Elliot’s lunch when the barista reached for the remote and turned the sound up.
“—Adrian Blackmoor remains elusive,” the anchor said. “The tech billionaire has yet to comment on today’s revelations, though sources confirm—”
Lila froze.
Her hands stilled around the brown paper bag. The café noise receded, blurring into something distant and underwater. She looked up slowly, the way one did when approaching something already broken, afraid to make it worse.
The face on the screen was older than she remembered. Sharper. The softness she’d once mistaken for gentleness had hardened into something deliberate. His hair was darker, styled with precision. His jaw tighter. His eyes—God, his eyes were exactly the same.
Adrian.
No.
Not Adrian.
The man she had known had never given a name.
The anchor continued speaking, oblivious to the quiet devastation unfolding in a corner of the café. “Blackmoor, often referred to as the ‘media ghost,’ has avoided public appearances for years, choosing instead to operate from behind layers of corporate opacity—”
Lila’s breath caught painfully in her chest.
Blackmoor.
She had never heard the surname before. But the face—there was no mistaking it. She had memorized it once in the half-light of a borrowed apartment, traced it with her eyes while he slept, studied it in the morning as though committing it to memory might somehow make the night real.
She had been twenty-four. He’d been quiet, guarded, careful with his words in a way she’d found reassuring at the time. He’d said he traveled often. That his life was complicated. That names didn’t matter.
She had believed him.
On the screen, Adrian Blackmoor stood at the top of marble steps, flanked by men in dark suits. Cameras flashed, lights reflecting off glass and steel behind him. He didn’t look toward the press. He never did, apparently. The footage cut to stock images of soaring towers, sleek campuses, numbers ticking upward.
Billionaire.
Media ghost.
Untouchable.
Lila looked down instinctively.
Elliot sat at the small table by the window, legs swinging gently as he colored with focused intensity. His brow was furrowed in concentration, his tongue peeking out slightly as he stayed carefully within the lines. He was five years old, with her hair and—
Her chest tightened.
—and his eyes.
The same dark, watchful gaze. Too observant for a child his age. Too aware.
Lila turned back to the television just as the anchor said, “Blackmoor Technologies is expected to announce its next acquisition later this week. Analysts predict—”
She didn’t hear the rest.
Her hands were shaking now, visibly so. She pressed them flat against the counter, grounding herself in the cool laminate surface. This wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. She had disappeared. She had erased herself so thoroughly that even she sometimes forgot the shape of her former life.
She had done everything right.
She had moved cities. Changed numbers. Dropped out of school quietly. Taken work under contract, always remote, always careful. She had never put Elliot’s face online. Never used his full name in public. Never spoken about the man who had given him half his DNA.
She had hidden.
The screen flickered as the segment ended. The café returned to its ordinary rhythm—cups clinking, milk steaming, the low hum of conversation. Lila realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to exhale slowly.
“Mom?”
Elliot’s voice was soft, uncertain.
She turned too quickly, her movement sharp enough that he noticed. His small face tilted, eyes searching hers with an intensity that always made her feel seen through.
“You’re shaking,” he said.
“I’m fine,” she replied automatically.
He frowned. “You don’t look fine.”
Children noticed everything. Especially the ones who learned early to watch quietly.
Lila walked over and crouched in front of him, forcing her expression into something calm, something practiced. She brushed a curl away from his forehead, letting her fingers linger there longer than necessary.
“I’m just tired,” she said. “Finish your picture, okay?”
He studied her for another moment, then nodded. But he didn’t go back to coloring. Instead, his gaze drifted past her—toward the television, now showing an advertisement for a luxury watch.
“Who was that man?” he asked.
Her heart stuttered.
“What man?”
“The one before,” Elliot said. “The serious one.”
Lila swallowed. “Just someone on the news.”
“Oh.” He paused, then added, “He looks like me.”
The words landed like a blow.
She forced a small laugh, brittle at the edges. “Lots of people look alike.”
Elliot didn’t look convinced. He rarely was when adults tried to smooth things over.
“Do I have a dad?” he asked suddenly.
The question wasn’t new. It never was. But the timing—God, the timing—
Lila closed her eyes briefly, steadying herself. “We’ve talked about this.”
“I know,” he said. “You said it’s complicated.”
“It is.”
“But you know who he is.”
She opened her eyes.
Elliot was watching her carefully now, his head tilted slightly, his expression thoughtful. There was no accusation in his voice. Just curiosity. A quiet, persistent need for truth.
Lila reached for his small hands, wrapping her fingers around them. They were warm, solid. Real. The only thing anchoring her to the present.
“Yes,” she said softly. “I know who he is.”
“Is he bad?”
The question cut deeper than the last.
Lila hesitated.
The truth was, she didn’t know. Not anymore. The man she had known—who had held her gently, who had listened more than he spoke, who had kissed her like he was afraid of breaking something—felt like a ghost now. A fragment. A lie, perhaps.
The man on the screen looked capable of terrible things.
“No,” she said finally. “I don’t think so.”
Elliot seemed to accept that, nodding once before returning to his coloring. But Lila’s hands trembled again as she stood.
She paid quickly, barely registering the barista’s polite goodbye. Outside, the air was crisp, the sky overcast. The city moved around them, indifferent.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket.
Once.
She ignored it.
Again.
Her stomach dropped.
She didn’t need to look to know what it was. A blocked number. Or worse—a private one.
She waited until they reached the corner, until Elliot was distracted by a dog being walked past them, before she glanced down.
Unknown Caller.
She stared at the screen as it continued to vibrate, her pulse roaring in her ears.
This was how it began. Not with a knock on the door or a dramatic confrontation. But with a ripple. A disturbance in the careful stillness she had built.
The phone stopped ringing.
A second later, a message appeared.
We need to talk.
No name. No explanation.
Her fingers hovered over the screen, then lowered. She didn’t respond.
She couldn’t.
Not yet.
She slipped the phone back into her pocket and reached for Elliot’s hand. He wrapped his fingers around hers without looking, trusting, unaware.
Lila looked up at the grey sky and felt the weight of five years pressing down on her chest.
The truth had found her.
And this time, there would be no disappearing.
