Theo was twenty-five when he discovered something that would change his life -- his adoption certificate, with any information about his birthmother other than her given names, Lilliana Nichole, blacked out. His father is dead and his mother away on business, so he can't ask them why they hadn't told him he was adopted ... and why the certificate had been defaced. He decides his only recourse is to hire a private detective agency to search for Lilliana.<br><br>It doesn't take long for Ric Baron of Moore Investigations to determine that locating Lilliana might be impossible. But he's more than willing to give it his all for the interesting young man who asked for the agency's help.<br><br>Soon after Ric begins his search, he receives a threatening email from someone who wants him to stop looking for Lilliana. From there, things escalate as Ric and Theo deal with the aftermath of the threat and their growing interest in each other. Can they learn the man's identity before he discovers Theo is Lilliana's son and goes after him? Only time will tell.

A Secret Uncovered

“All this is presuming she didn’t change her name once the adoption was finalized,” he grumbled as he set to work. “If she did, finding her now could be virtually impossible.”


By mid-afternoon he had his list, and it was longer than he’d expected. There were no Lilliana Nicholes on it, but there were over fifteen Lillianas with Nas a middle initial, and dozens more with no middle initial.


Copying the list to another file, he began correlating it in terms of addresses at the time of Theo’s birth—when he had that information, which he did for a little over half of them.


He was almost finished when his server let him know he, or rather the agency, had a new email. At first glance, he thought it was probably another spam as the subject line said ‘To whom it may concern’. He decided to open it anyway. If nothing else, I might get a laugh at what they’re trying to con me into.


Chapter 17