Nicholas’s POV
Suspicion had a way of sinking its teeth into me and never letting go. It wasn’t subtle, polite, or quiet. It didn’t tap at the edges of my mind like a timid shadow.
It clawed, it gnawed, and it dragged me down into a pit of unease until I could think of nothing else. Lately, that suspicion had a name: Esther.
Or, more accurately, the children she had brought into our world, shadowing her like reminders of a life I was never meant to see.
I tried to tell myself it was a coincidence. It had to be a trick of my mind. Perhaps I imagined the resemblance, or maybe I even hoped for it. Perhaps the connection was entirely fabricated by my own obsession.
It didn’t mean they were mine. It didn’t mean they carried my blood. It couldn’t. It wouldn’t.
Then I saw him—Carl, laughi
