I stopped to help a woman who was dy//ing on the side of the road and lost my job because I arrived late, but when I returned to collect my things from my desk, my entire life was about to change.

“Christopher James Bennett.”

He entered the information into a tablet.

After checking the screen, he looked at me strangely.

“Have you ever used another last name?”

“No.”

“Were you adopted?”

My heart skipped.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Just answer.”

I glanced at Eleanor.

Then I admitted it.

“Yes.”

I rarely discussed my childhood.

My mother had raised me, and my biological father had disappeared before I was old enough to remember him.

After my mother remarried, my stepfather adopted me.

That was when I became Christopher Bennett.

“What was your original surname?”

“Vale.”

A sound escaped Claire.

I turned toward her.

She looked completely pale.

“What?”

I repeated the name.

“Vale.”

She stared at me.

“Christopher… what was your father’s name?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“My mother refused to talk about him.”

Claire sat down.

Eleanor moved toward her.

“Claire?”

But Claire continued staring at me.