CHAPTER ONE
“UNCLE Payne?”
Thirty-three-year-old Payne Sterling glanced up from the screen of his laptop in time to see his favorite niece Catherine come flying in the study. He doubted her feet touched the ground.
His fiancée followed at a little slower pace in her wheelchair. Both women seemed panicked by something.
“You’ve got to see this!”
Catherine looked and sounded frantic as she thrust a paperback book at him.
“Easy, sweetheart.”
Puzzled, he took it from her, then gave it his full attention. To his surprise he discovered it was a romance novel of all things entitled Manhattan Merger, by Bonnie Wrigley.
Below the title was a picture of a man holding a woman in his arms. They were standing in the office of a New York City skyscraper where the Manhattan skyline was revealed in the background.
Upon a second look he realized it wasn’t just any office.
Or any man…
Even though it wasn’t a photograph, it was like looking at himself in a mirror.
He stared at it for a full minute in stunned disbelief.
“Promise you won’t tell mother I’ve been reading these, Uncle Payne. The thing is, over the last year I’ve noticed that quite a few of the men on the covers resemble you. But this one is you,” Catherine’s voice trembled. “Even his hairline is the same shape.”
He could see that.
“She’s right, Payne!” Diane cried out anxiously. “This man has your build and dark brown hair. It’s the same length. Everything is like you, even to the exact hue of your blue eyes. That’s why I told Catherine she had to show this romance to you.”
Both of them had lost color.
“He’s even dressed in the same kind of suit and shirt I’ve noticed you wear to work before, Uncle Payne! And that view out of those same kinds of windows is exactly what you see when you walk in your office. The person who did the cover has to know a lot of private things about you.
“Look!” She pointed to some items. “See that picture of a ship passing in front of a lighthouse? You have a similar picture hanging on your office wall! And what about that little picture of a bulldog propped on the desk?”
Payne had recognized those details at once, but he hadn’t wanted to say anything for fear of alarming either of them further.
The fact that he’d hired an architect to incorporate the old lighthouse at Crag’s Head into a home where he’d been living for the past few years had set off more warning bells.
He eyed his fifteen-year-old niece whose hair was the same pale gold as his sister’s. “Have you read this yet?”
“No— As soon as I showed it to Diane, we decided to bring it straight to you!”
“You did the right thing.”