Page 2 of Blackwood

Small.

Sharp.

Furious.

Claire held the child, slippery, bloodied, already fighting with a fire that didn’t match her tiny size. She let out another sharp, indignant cry, legs kicking and fists flailing. Claire’s breath hitched at the sound. Her heart clenched so tightly it hurt.

This was no ordinary delivery. This was a last wish, a dying prayer wrapped in six pounds of new life. Claire looked down at the little girl, so small and angry at the world already, and then up at the woman who had given everything to bring her here. Raina’s chest no longer moved. Her mouth hung open, her final breath carrying her soul away.

Tears blurred Claire’s vision. “I’ve got you,” she whispered to the baby, cradling her against her chest with trembling arms. “I’ve got you, Isabella.”

“She’s beautiful,” the nurse whispered.

Claire’s voice broke. “She’s in danger.”

She stayed long after the body was covered. The others had left. Claire stood alone under flickering lights, holding the tiny little one in her arms. Her gloves were stained. Her shoulders shaking. She’d delivered dozens of babies, but none like this. None that came with a whispered name. None who’d be hunted the moment she was claimed.

She looked down at the baby again. Her tiny face scrunched, her fists curled against the pink cotton blanket.

“You’re beautiful,” she whispered to the child. “Just like your mother.”

But beauty wouldn’t protect her. Power wouldn’t save her. And the name that should’ve been inked on her birth certificate would destroy her long before she ever learned to speak it. Claire’s thoughts spun, but one voice cut through the storm.

Her sister, Elise Harrington.

She lived with her husband in a quiet, beautiful lake house in Arkansas. One where morning mist curled off the water and trees glowed amber in the fall. Their home was filled with laughter, music, and love. A safe haven—warm, steady, and far from this cold, blood-stained city.

They’d wanted a child for years. Tried every test, every treatment, rode the emotional roller coaster of hope and heartbreak more times than Claire could count. And yet, they never gave up. Not on the dream. Not on the possibility.

Elise had the kind of love that could rewrite destinies. And maybe, just maybe, this was the child her sister had been waiting for.

Claire took a breath and made her choice.

She thought of Jack, NYPD, with his endless backdoors and favors owed. Between them, they could bend the rules just enough to make Isabella disappear. Not into shadows, but into safety. A new life, rewritten in silence and love.

It was dangerous. Illegal. But it was right.

That night, the cameras glitched for thirteen full seconds. Files went missing. A new name was scribbled in elegant, unfamiliar handwriting.

Isabella Marie Harringtonwas born.

Isabella, for Raina’s final wish. A name whispered through blood and breath. Marie, after the woman who raised Claire and Elise, whose kindness would live on in the little girl’s heart.Harrington, the name of the family that would protect her with every ounce of love and fire they had left.

By dawn, she wasn’t lost.

She wasn’t stolen.

She was saved.

I

Part One

Chapter 1

BELLA – Age 5

Fayetteville, Arkansas