CHAPTER 1: The Man in the Suit

His name was Daniel Hargrove.

He had come into the market for bottled water and aspirin, nothing more. But up close, the little girl looked too frightened, too careful, too tired for him to step away.

He glanced at the baby first. Tiny. Calm. Safe in the blanket, but far too small to be in the arms of a child.

Daniel took out his wallet. “I’ll pay for the milk.”

The girl shook her head.

“I didn’t just need money,” she said.

That made him pause. “Then what do you need?”

Her mouth trembled. “My mom said I had to find you.”

Something in Daniel’s chest tightened.

Mr. Miller looked up sharply from behind the counter. Two customers by the drinks fridge stopped pretending not to stare.

Daniel lowered his voice. “Do I know you?”

The girl looked down at the baby for courage, then back at him. “She said you’d know when you saw the picture.”

Picture?

“Where are your parents?” Daniel asked.

“My mom is gone,” the girl whispered. “And he’s my baby brother.”

That answer changed the room.

Daniel’s expression softened at once. “What’s your name?”

“Lucy.”

“And your brother?”

“Ben.”

The names hit him for reasons he could not yet explain.

Then, with slow shaking fingers, Lucy reached into the front pocket of her pink hoodie and pulled out an old black-and-white photograph.