The Boy Who Walked Into a Diner With an Old Photograph—and Called the Most Feared Man in Town “Dad”
Chapter 01 - The Boy Who Walked Into a Diner With an Old Photograph—and Called the Most Feared Man in Town “Dad”
## chapter 01 - The Question at Booth Seven
Booth Seven belonged to Jax Mercer.
The boy stopped beside the table.
Jax looked up slowly. His beard hid most of his expression, but not the warning in his eyes.
The boy swallowed. His fingers tightened around something folded inside his palm.
Jax waited.
Noah reached into his jacket and placed an old photograph on the table. It showed a younger Jax in a leather vest, his hair shorter, his smile unfamiliar. In his arms was a newborn wrapped in a hospital blanket.
Jax stopped breathing.
Mae, standing behind the counter with a coffee pot, nearly dropped it.
The photograph had been taken nine years earlier, on a night Jax had spent almost a decade trying to forget.
Noah pointed to the baby.
“That’s me.”
Jax’s hand moved toward the picture, then froze.
“No,” he said. “It isn’t.”
“My mother said you might say that.”
At the mention of his mother, something changed in Mae’s face.
Jax noticed.
“Who is she?” he asked.
Noah’s brave expression cracked for the first time.
“Lila Bennett.”
The diner seemed to go silent around them.
Jax stared at the boy, then at the photograph beneath his tattooed hand.
Lila had vanished from his life before the baby in that picture was old enough to open his eyes.
Noah drew out the folded paper and pushed it across the table.
“She told me to give you this if she didn’t come back by sunrise.”
May you like
Jax looked at the diner clock.
It was already eight forty-two.
