Everyone Laughed at the Single Father at the Reunion—Then a Billionaire Crossed the Room for Him
Chapter 2
Thomas Hale had spent twelve years learning how to become invisible.
It was easier that way.
After leaving the academy, he had worked wherever someone would pay him.
He hauled timber.
Repaired fences.
Loaded grain.
Drove wagons.
Planted fields.
When his wife, Margaret, died from fever, he became both father and mother to Clara.
He had no inheritance.
No influential relatives.
No grand house.
Only a small farm, an aging mare, and a child who believed he could fix anything.
Thomas never corrected her.
He simply worked.
That was why the reunion felt so uncomfortable.
The men he had once studied beside had inherited estates.
Some had entered politics.
Others had married into wealthy families.
Charles Whitcomb had become a respected merchant.
Thomas had become the man who repaired Charles’s wagons when the wheels broke.
Now they stood in the same room.
Charles lifted his glass.
“To old friends.”
A few people laughed.
Thomas forced a smile.
Charles approached.
“You know, Thomas, I remember you always talking about owning your own estate.”
“I remember.”
“And now?”
Thomas shrugged.
“I have a farm.”
“A farm.”
Charles glanced around.
“How many acres?”
“Forty.”
The laughter came again.
Thomas looked at Clara.
She was staring at a tray of sugared pears.
He wished they were somewhere else.
Charles leaned closer.
“Still stubborn, I see.”
Thomas answered quietly.
“Still talking too much, I see.”
The laughter stopped.
Charles’s face darkened.
Then someone behind him chuckled.
Thomas turned.
It was a young woman named Eleanor Price.
She had been one of the few people at the academy who had ever spoken kindly to him.
She smiled faintly.
“You haven’t changed.”
Thomas looked at her.
“Neither have you.”
Before anything more could be said, Nathaniel Blackwood entered.
Thomas had never met him.
He had seen him from a distance once, standing beside a carriage surrounded by servants.
Nathaniel was rumored to own warehouses along the river and trading ships that carried goods between ports.
But what Thomas noticed now was his face.
The billionaire was staring at him as though he had seen a ghost.
Then Nathaniel walked toward him.
Charles moved aside.
Nathaniel stopped directly in front of Thomas.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he whispered:
“Where did you get that?”
Thomas looked down.
“What?”
Nathaniel pointed at Clara’s small wooden pendant.
It hung around her neck.
Thomas’s stomach tightened.
“My wife made it.”
Nathaniel’s face went pale.
“Your wife?”
“Margaret Hale.”
Nathaniel stepped backward.
“Hale?”
Thomas nodded.
“What is it?”
Nathaniel stared at the pendant.
Then he looked at Thomas.
“I knew her.”
