Chapter 1 - The Echoes in the Mirror
“Mister, do you have four brothers too?”
The little boy asked me that while standing beside three other six-year-olds at the sinks of an expensive Chicago restaurant. All four had dark, wavy hair. Two had my gray-green eyes. One had the same small cleft in his chin that I'd inherited from my grandfather. And every one of them looked enough like my childhood photographs to make my stomach turn.
Three hours later, I was supposed to propose to another woman.
There were two hundred guests waiting in the adjoining ballroom, a photographer hired for the announcement, and a diamond ring in my jacket pocket. Our families had spent nearly a year preparing for that night. I couldn't stop staring at four little boys who looked like they belonged in my family.
My name is Evan Blackwood. I'm thirty-five, and I work for Blackwood Logistics, the Chicago-based freight company my father founded. My father, Robert Blackwood, built the business into one of the most influential private transportation groups in the Midwest. He had strong opinions about everything, including whom I should marry.
Catherine Wynn was the daughter of his longtime business partner. She was intelligent, accomplished, and genuinely kind to me. We'd been dating for almost two years. Our relationship wasn't completely arranged, but our families had certainly encouraged it. A proposed business partnership between their companies had made everyone increasingly eager for an engagement.
Catherine and I had talked about marriage. I'd agreed to propose that evening. Yet somewhere beneath the expensive suit, the ring, and the carefully prepared speeches, I knew I was choosing a future that pleased everyone more than it excited me.
Seven years earlier, I'd loved someone very different. Her name was Sofia Morales. She taught elementary school, laughed when she was nervous, and once spent an entire Saturday helping me repaint the kitchen of an apartment I didn't even own. We were together for three years. I wanted to marry her.
Then she disappeared from my life so abruptly that I spent months trying to understand what had happened. Dad told me she'd accepted money from his office to move away and end the relationship. He showed me a copy of a payment request. He said Sofia had chosen financial security over me. I was twenty-eight, furious, and too proud to ask whether he'd told me the whole truth. I changed my phone number after moving apartments and threw myself into the company. Eventually I stopped asking about her.
Until that evening in the restaurant bathroom.
The four boys were standing in front of a row of sinks, trying to wash chocolate frosting off their fingers and shirt cuffs. The tallest one was carefully holding a paper towel beneath the tap.
“Don't get your jacket wet, Theo,” another warned.
I smiled automatically. “Big dinner tonight?”
“Grandma's birthday,” the first boy said. Then he looked at me again. “You look like us.”
The other three turned. One tilted his head exactly the way I used to do when I was confused. Another pointed at my chin. “You have the little hole too!”
I reached up instinctively. It wasn't a hole. Just a shallow cleft I'd always hated in photographs. Their resemblance was unsettling, though resemblance alone couldn't tell me who their father was.
“What are your names?” I asked.
“I'm Cal,” said the tallest.
“Benji,” said the boy holding the towel.
“Theo,” said the one with chocolate on his sleeve.
The smallest raised his hand. “Max. We're all six.”
“Brothers?”
“Same birthday,” Cal announced proudly.
I looked from one face to another. Four boys. Six years old. Sofia and I had broken up a little over seven years earlier. My heart began pounding.
A woman called from beyond the restroom doorway. “Boys? Are you finished? Your aunt is waiting.”
I recognized the voice before I saw her. Sofia. I hadn't heard her speak in seven years.
Cal hurried toward the door. His brothers followed, laughing about which one had gotten the most frosting on his shirt. I stayed beside the sinks until I could breathe normally.
Then I stepped into the corridor.
Sofia stood near the doorway in a dark green dress, holding four small jackets over one arm. She looked older than I remembered. More tired. Just as beautiful. But she wasn't alone.
My father stood directly in front of her. He was holding a cream-colored envelope. And his expression was something I'd never seen before. Fear.
“Robert, I told you we're here for my aunt's birthday,” Sofia said. “We didn't come looking for your family.”
My father lowered his voice. “Not tonight. You know what I've offered to cover if you keep those boys away from Evan.”
I stopped walking.
Sofia shook her head. “I have never agreed to keep my children hidden from anyone.”
Dad glanced toward the ballroom. “You know what's happening tonight. Don't create a problem.”
Then he noticed me. His face went white.
I looked at the boys standing beside Sofia. Then at my father. “You know them?”
He didn't answer.
“Dad. Who are those children?”
Sofia turned. For several seconds, she simply stared at me. Then she whispered my name. “Evan?”
Cal looked between us. “Mom, do you know him?”
Sofia closed her eyes. I felt the diamond ring pressing against the inside of my jacket pocket.
My father stepped toward me. “Son, we need to talk privately.”
I moved away from him. “No. You can answer me right here.”
May you like
He stared at the boys. Then he said quietly: “I handled a very complicated situation years ago. Everything I did was to protect your future.”
I looked at Sofia. Her eyes were filling. And for the first time, I understood that the woman I'd believed had abandoned me might have been trying to reach me all along.
