Chapter 1 - The Shattered Glass
Chloe pushed the heavy oak front door open and walked into the house with a bright, excited smile.
Her boyfriend stood nervously beside her, dressed perfectly for their senior prom.
Marcus had been sweating in the car, anxious about meeting her father for the very first time.
He adjusted his crisp black tie and took a deep, shaky breath to calm his racing heart.
David, Chloe's father, was standing in the open kitchen pouring a glass of ice water.
"Dad, I want you to meet Marcus," Chloe announced cheerfully.
Her father turned around slowly to greet the young couple.
Then he completely froze in his tracks.
The cold glass slipped right out of David's hand.
It shattered against the expensive hardwood floor in a loud, echoing crash.
The physical resemblance was absolutely impossible to ignore.
Marcus had the exact same striking blue eyes that David saw in the mirror every morning.
He had the same crooked, charming smile that ran in the family line.
He even had the same small, crescent-shaped scar on his chin that every man in David's bloodline carried.
David stared at the teenage boy as if he had just seen a terrifying ghost.
Her dad suddenly stepped forward, ignoring the mess on the floor, and asked a very strange question.
"Who is your mother?"
Marcus blinked in obvious confusion but politely gave the woman's name.
"Her name is Sarah," Marcus replied softly.
"Why does that matter?" his daughter asked, stepping defensively in front of her date.
David did not answer her immediately.
Instead, he turned his back on them and disappeared down the hallway into his master bedroom.
He returned a long moment later holding an old, faded photograph.
He held it out toward the boy with violently trembling hands.
Marcus stared at the picture in absolute shock.
"That is my mom," Marcus whispered.
Chloe felt her stomach drop as she leaned in to look over his shoulder.
The picture had clearly been taken more than seventeen years earlier.
The young man standing intimately beside Marcus's mother in the photo was her own father.
David finally admitted in a broken voice that there had been another intense relationship long before his daughter was born.
It was a passionate romance that ended suddenly and mysteriously without any real closure.
It was a relationship that might have resulted in a son he never knew existed.
Now that possible son was standing right in his living room as his daughter's boyfriend.
The awkward silence in the room became incredibly suffocating.
Suddenly, a loud car horn honked from the driveway outside.
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"That is my mom," Marcus said quietly.
"She drove over because she wanted to come inside to take our prom pictures."
