Chapter 1
I'd been gone for three years.
Presumed dead in a plane crash over the Atlantic.
Vanessa had seen to that.
She'd made sure the whole world believed Sylvester Stallone was gone forever.
But I was harder to kill than that.
I'd spent those three years in hiding.
Recovering.
Investigating.
Building my case.
Waiting for the right moment to come back.
That moment was now.
I approached my mansion.
The one I'd built with my own money.
The one Vanessa had been living in like a queen.
The one where my son was trapped.
Sage.
My only son.
Or so I'd thought.
I signaled to my security team.
They moved into position.
I walked up the front steps.
The bodyguard at the door recognized me immediately.
His eyes went wide.
He tried to speak.
But I just nodded.
He stepped aside.
He knew which side his bread was buttered on.
I pushed open the heavy oak doors.
And I walked into my home.
The first thing I heard was a scream.
A child's scream.
Then a woman's voice.
Cold.
Cruel.
Vanessa.
"Stupid boy! That worthless piece of garbage is never coming back! Your father is dead! And you're mine now!"
Then I heard it.
The sound of glass shattering.
And something heavy bouncing down the marble staircase.
I ran toward the foyer.
And I saw him.
Sage.
My beautiful boy.
Lying at the bottom of the stairs.
Crying.
Beside the broken remains of a picture frame.
And Vanessa.
Standing at the top of the stairs.
Triumphant.
Evil.
She saw me.
Her face went white.
Then she recovered quickly.
She put on her best concerned wife face.
"Sylvester! You're alive! I can't believe it! I thought you were dead! I've been so worried! And Sage—he fell! He was running with that photograph and he tripped! It was a terrible accident!"
Sage looked up.
He saw me.
His eyes went wide.
Disbelief.
Hope.
"Daddy?"
I knelt down beside him.
I pulled him into my arms.
He was real.
Warm.
Alive.
"I'm here, son," I said. "Daddy's here. I'm never leaving you again."
He clung to me.
Sobbing.
And then he whispered.
So only I could hear.
"Daddy… she did it. She threw the picture. She pushed me. She's been lying about everything."
I held him tighter.
I looked at the broken frame on the floor.
The photograph of me and Sage.
Taken when he was five.
Before the crash.
Before Vanessa's takeover.
I picked up the pieces.
And that's when I noticed it.
Something was wrong.
The frame was different.
Older.
Worn.
Not the one I remembered.
I carefully pulled the photograph from the broken glass.
And something fell out.
A small folded document.
Tucked behind the picture.
I unfolded it.
It was a birth certificate.
For a child.
A girl.
Born two years after Sage.
Father: Sylvester Stallone.
Mother: Vanessa.
My blood ran cold.
A daughter.
I had a daughter.
And Vanessa had never told me.
Before I could process it, I saw movement.
From behind the marble statue in the corner.
A man.
Holding a gun.
Pointed at me.
Everything happened in slow motion.
I pushed Sage behind me.
I stood up.
The assassin fired.
I dove to the side.
The bullet hit the wall where my head had been a split second earlier.
I charged him.
I was older now.
Slower.
But I was still Sylvester Stallone.
I tackled him.
We hit the floor hard.
The gun went flying.
I punched him.
Once.
Twice.
He went limp.
My security team ran in.
They secured the assassin.
They called the police.
Vanessa was screaming.
Claiming she had no idea who that man was.
Claiming it was all a terrible misunderstanding.
But I wasn't listening.
I was holding the birth certificate.
Staring at the name.
*Sophia Stallone.*
My daughter.
I looked at Vanessa.
And I knew.
The birth certificate wasn't the only secret.
The assassin wasn't the only surprise.
The boy was never the only child she had taken from me.
And I was going to find them all.
No matter what it took.
The police arrived minutes later.
They took statements.
They took the assassin into custody.
They collected the evidence.
Including the birth certificate.
And the broken frame.
And then one of the investigators pulled me aside.
"Mr. Stallone," he said. "We found something else. Taped to the back of the photograph. A sealed file. We haven't opened it yet. We thought you might want to be there."
He handed me a sealed envelope.
Old.
Faded.
With my name written on it.
In handwriting I didn't recognize.
I looked at Sage.
He was being checked by paramedics.
Shaken.
But alive.
Safe.
For now.
I looked at Vanessa.
She was talking to her lawyer.
Refusing to answer questions.
Cool.
Calculating.
Even now.
She thought she was going to get away with it.
She had no idea what was coming.
I tore open the sealed file.
May you like
And what I read inside changed everything.
Forever.
