Chapter 1
Snow swirled in the air around her, dusting the rose she held as she pushed through the wrought iron gate. Emily's leather gloved hands shook in anticipation, her footsteps crunching in the fresh fallen snow, guiding her through the cemetery. She came every year, on David's birthday, to lay a single rose on his forgotten headstone. As she approached the gray concrete slab, the flower caught her eye. A rose, redder than her own, covered his name on the grave, just like last year. And the year before. And every prior one for the 8 years since he'd died and she'd been released from Juvie. It didn't take a rocket scientist, or rather, a computer genius to figure out who had been leaving the roses. She knelt and brushed the snow off its perfect petals, laying hers beside it as she rested her hand on the stone.
"Emily Thorne seems quite fitting today, doesn't it?" His smooth voice called from behind her. She stood but didn't turn.
"For once." His face broke out into a smile at her response.
"But she wouldn't have wasted a day of plotting in a frozen cemetery leaving roses for David Clarke. That's all Amanda." A familiar scowl at the name twisted on Emily's face. She ignored his quip and asked,
"How do you always get here before me, Nolan?" His mocking tone and smirking face both sobered as he said softly,
"I have to. This was my only connection to you for 8 years, Ems. I didn't know whether you were dead or alive except for this one day. I waited."
"You watch me? Every year?" He nodded, but she didn't see, her back still turned to him.
"You always look your best here. Peaceful. Sometimes you even smile." Emily's lips spread into a thin smile as she turned around. Nolan laughed, a charming sound that she usually heard echoing off the glass walls in his Hamptons castle. He walked up next to her, impulse taking over as he slipped his hand into hers, surprised when she laced their gloved fingers together. There they stood, staring down at the grave of the man they'd both loved, the only one they'd trusted.
"Do you think she cares, Nolan? Do you think she even remembers the day he died? Or was it all lost on her after she betrayed him?" Bitterness seeped into Emily's tone as she berated Victoria.
"Only the Ice Queen knows herself but...I do know she cared today. She was here, just before you." Emily pulled her hand out of his and turned to face him, her cheeks frozen pink from the wind, matching his.
"You saw her? Did she see you?" He shook his head.
"She was with Charlotte, brought her to meet Daddy Dearest." Now his own voice sounded bitter. "They saw the rose, probably assumed it was Fauxmanda who put it here."
"That means Victoria thinks she's back. She'll probably start looking for her." Panic rose inside Emily's chest, but she wouldn't let it show to Nolan, keeping her composure, cold as the air surrounding them.
"I thought you said she was secure with Takeda."
"She is, but-" He took her hand again, his eyes, two deep pools of blue, staring straight into hers.
"Ems, not today. Don't think about Takeda, or Amanda, or Victoria. It's his birthday, for god's sake." She could hear the crack in his voice, the fight within him to keep tears at bay. Her own eyes welled as she bit her lip, looking back down at the gravestone, their matching roses now coated in fresh snow. They knelt together; she kissed her fingers and touched them to the gray concrete, closing her eyes to savor the moment of peace.
"I love you Dad." She whispered. Nolan rubbed her shoulders, wishing he could offer words of comfort, but knowing whatever he said would be useless because he felt the same.
"I wonder if that's what Charlotte said." The words escaped his mouth without warning. But Emily didn't tense at the mention of Charlotte, at the reminder of Victoria.
"I want to be the one to bring her here, Nolan, not Victoria. I want to tell her about him. I want to show her…"
"Show her the box?" She turned to him, her chocolate eyes still glassy with tears, and dropped her head, nodding sadly.
"But I can't. You know I can't. She-"
"She still loves Victoria. And Daniel. She'd tell them right away." But Emily had stopped listening to his somber warning. Her gaze had fallen on two tiny sparkles in the snow. She reached down and pulled them out, holding two glistening diamond earrings in her hand. She held them out to Nolan, confusion twisting on her face. He sighed.
"Victoria left them. I don't know what for, they're just-"
"They were a gift. He gave them to her the second week they were…together." Her voice was laced with disgust, the tears gone from her eyes.
"She gave them back." Nolan stated simply. Emily stood, almost crushing his hand and the earrings with her anger.
"So now she actually gives a damn?"
"Ems-"
"This is some sick…birthday present? He loved her!" She was shaking. Nolan gripped her shoulders, steadying her.
"Emily…leave them. Just leave them here for him. He loved her." Her dark eyes flashed to him.
"No, I'm taking them. I won't let a reminder of the woman who sent him here stay with him." Nolan knew better than to argue.
"You can put them in your little box on secrets." He followed as she stalked away from the gravestone, sparing a glance for the innocent man. He'd already told him he was sorry before Emily got there, sorry that he hadn't tried to stop the woman's vengeance, but not sorry enough to try harder. Nolan had a little bit of Emily Thorne in him too. When he caught up to her, she had calmed down, her pace slowed and her voice even again.
"Does Carol ever…visit?" Emily asked him. The question caught him off guard.
"She did once, the year after he died, but it was too risky. Coming all the way out here from Pennsylvania. What would she say if someone saw her, or worse, recognized her?" Emily nodded, hearing the fear in his voice for his aunt as they neared the front gate. Nolan wrapped an arm tight around her shoulders, feeling them tense at his touch. He hated that. Hated how her life in foster care had made her sensitive to the slightest physical contact. He wondered how she could be with Daniel, allow him to touch her in the most intimate way, and not let her disgust show. He didn't relent, and eventually her body relaxed into his soothing embrace, her fingers curling around the earrings clutched in her palm. Behind them, hidden among the snow in a gray, designer coat, a pair of amber eyes watched them. Charlotte Grayson had fought to keep her gasps and shock hidden throughout the blond pair's conversation, resisting the urge to expose herself and hug Emily tightly. Her sister. By blood, by paternity, not by marriage as Charlotte had assumed she would soon be. She stepped out from behind the tree she'd used as a cover, and snuck out of the cemetery from a different entrance, pausing to touch her frozen, gloved fingers to her father's gravestone.
