Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER LEFT
The emergency generator came online six minutes later.
Lights flickered through the house.
Nathan immediately called the private security company he used for his corporate offices instead of the residential team assigned to the estate.
He no longer trusted anyone who had regular access to the property.
Two armed security specialists arrived within twenty minutes.
Nathan ordered them to secure every entrance and preserve the network cabinet, glove, hallway, and garage as evidence.
Victoria watched him from the living room.
Her earlier confidence was gone.
Grace sat on the sofa with Lily beside her while a private physician examined her shoulder.
The doctor confirmed a severe bruise and possible soft-tissue damage but no fracture.
Nathan stood several feet away.
He wanted to ask a thousand questions.
He forced himself to begin with one.
“Did Victoria hit you with the hockey stick?”
Grace looked toward Lily.
Nathan understood.
He crouched several feet from the child.
“You don’t have to hear this.”
Lily shook her head.
“I saw it.”
Grace closed her eyes.
Nathan looked at her.
“Tell me everything.”
Grace took a long breath.
“Lily came downstairs looking for me.”
“I was cleaning the study.”
“Victoria found her in the hallway.”
“She asked why Lily was in the house.”
“I told her Lily had been sick at daycare and I had no one else who could pick her up.”
Victoria interrupted.
“She was never authorized to bring a child here.”
Nathan turned.
“Be quiet.”
Victoria folded her arms.
Grace continued.
“Victoria started asking Lily questions.”
“What kind of questions?”
Grace hesitated.
“About her father.”
Nathan felt the answer before he heard it.
“She asked Lily whether she knew who her father was.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“And?”
“Lily said she had a picture.”
Victoria laughed bitterly.
“You see?”
Nathan looked at her.
“She brought the photograph here deliberately.”
Grace stood despite the pain.
“No.”
“I did not even know she had put it in her pocket.”
Victoria shook her head.
“You expect anyone to believe that?”
Grace took a step toward her.
“I expected you to leave my daughter alone.”
Nathan moved between them.
“What happened next?”
Grace’s eyes stayed on Victoria.
“She grabbed Lily’s cardigan and tried to take the photograph.”
Victoria scoffed.
“That is a lie.”
“Lily screamed.”
“I pulled Victoria away.”
“She went into the mudroom and came back with the hockey stick.”
Nathan felt his stomach turn.
Grace touched her shoulder.
“She swung at Lily.”
“I got in front of her.”
Nathan looked at the darkening bruise.
For several seconds he could not speak.
Finally he asked.
“Why would she do that?”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“Because she recognized the photograph.”
Nathan turned toward Victoria.
Victoria stared back at him.
He asked quietly.
“Did you?”
She did not answer.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Did you recognize it?”
“Yes.”
The single word fell like a stone.
Nathan looked at the photograph again.
It had been taken at Lake Geneva.
The cabin had belonged to one of Nathan’s college friends.
He and Grace had spent three days there during the happiest summer of his twenties.
He had almost proposed.
Three weeks later, Grace vanished.
Her phone disconnected.
Her apartment emptied.
A letter arrived telling Nathan she had met someone else and wanted no further contact.
Nathan remembered every sentence.
He had read it until the paper began tearing along the folds.
He looked at Grace.
“Did you write the letter?”
Grace shook her head.
“No.”
Nathan had expected the answer.
It still hit him hard.
“Did you leave voluntarily?”
Grace looked toward Lily.
“No.”
Victoria moved toward the bar.
Nathan stopped her.
“Sit down.”
“I need water.”
“You’ll survive.”
Victoria stared at him.
He pointed toward a chair.
“Sit.”
She sat.
Nathan returned his attention to Grace.
“What happened?”
Grace pressed her lips together.
“My mother called me while you were in New York.”
“She told me my younger brother had been arrested.”
Nathan frowned.
“I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
The words came from Victoria.
Grace’s face hardened.
Nathan turned.
Victoria realized her mistake.
Nathan leaned toward her.
“How would you know that?”
Victoria said nothing.
Grace answered instead.
“Because her father had been investigating my family.”
Nathan looked between them.
“Why?”
Grace’s voice became quiet.
“My father worked for Whitmore Holdings.”
Nathan knew the company.
Charles Whitmore’s private investment group had made billions in real estate, shipping, pharmaceuticals, and defense contracting.
Grace continued.
“My father was an accountant.”
“He found payments he couldn’t explain.”
“Shell companies.”
“Fake vendors.”
“Money moved offshore.”
Nathan looked at Victoria.
“Your father was laundering money?”
Victoria laughed.
“You are listening to a maid accuse one of the most respected businessmen in Chicago of financial crimes.”
Grace did not react.
“My father copied the records.”
“Three days later, he died.”
Nathan stared at her.
“You told me he died in a car accident.”
“That’s what the police said.”
“And what do you say?”
Grace looked directly at him.
“I say the brakes had been cut.”
Victoria stood.
“That is enough.”
Nathan turned.
“Sit down.”
“You cannot imprison me in this house.”
“You’re right.”
Nathan pulled out his phone.
“I can call the police.”
Victoria froze.
Nathan continued.
“And I can tell them my fiancée attacked an employee while her four-year-old daughter was present.”
Victoria slowly sat again.
Grace’s voice shook slightly.
“After my father died, my mother became terrified.”
“She begged me to stop asking questions.”
“Then Charles Whitmore requested a meeting.”
Nathan already knew where this was going.
“You met him.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At the Whitmore estate.”
Grace looked toward Victoria.
“She was there.”
Nathan’s eyes moved to Victoria.
Victoria no longer denied it.
Grace continued.
“Charles showed me photographs of my brother.”
“Outside his apartment.”
“At work.”
“Getting into his car.”
“He told me he could make my brother disappear.”
Nathan’s hands curled into fists.
“What did he want?”
“He wanted me to disappear from your life.”
Nathan stood completely still.
Grace swallowed.
“He said you were becoming important.”
“He said your company was going to become valuable.”
“He said his daughter had plans.”
Nathan looked at Victoria.
She whispered.
“I was twenty-four.”
Nathan’s face did not change.
“You were old enough.”
Victoria looked away.
Grace continued.
“They made me sign documents.”
“They made me write sample letters.”
“They took my phone.”
“They emptied my apartment while I was at the meeting.”
Nathan’s voice broke despite his effort to control it.
“And the letter I received?”
Grace nodded.
“Written from my handwriting samples.”
Nathan looked toward the window.
For five years he had believed Grace chose to leave him.
He had hated her.
Then missed her.
Then forced himself to stop doing both.
“What about Lily?”
Grace’s hand moved protectively toward her daughter.
“I found out I was pregnant two weeks after they sent me away.”
Nathan slowly turned back.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
Grace’s tears finally fell.
“I tried.”
Nathan’s anger rose.
Grace saw it.
“I wrote to you.”
“I called your office.”
“I contacted your attorney.”
“I even came back to Chicago when Lily was seven months old.”
Nathan frowned.
“You came here?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Grace looked at Victoria.
“She met me in the lobby of Cole Tower.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
Nathan turned to her.
“You saw Grace with my daughter?”
Victoria whispered.
“Yes.”
Nathan’s voice became frighteningly calm.
“And you never told me.”
Victoria’s eyes filled.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Nathan laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You thought you were protecting yourself.”
Victoria stood again.
“My father told me Grace was extorting you.”
Grace surged forward.
“You held my baby in your arms.”
Nathan froze.
Victoria closed her eyes.
Grace pointed at her.
“You asked me if Lily was his.”
“You looked right into my face while I said yes.”
Nathan could barely breathe.
He stared at Victoria.
“You held her?”
Victoria said nothing.
Nathan’s voice cracked.
“You held my daughter?”
Lily began crying.
Grace immediately turned away.
The rage disappeared from Nathan’s expression the moment he saw the child.
He stepped back.
“Take her upstairs.”
Grace hesitated.
Nathan softened his tone.
“Please.”
Grace lifted Lily carefully.
Before leaving, Lily looked over Grace’s shoulder at Nathan.
He wanted to say something.
Nothing felt adequate.
Grace disappeared upstairs.
Nathan waited until they were gone.
Then he turned toward Victoria.
“Get out.”
Victoria stared at him.
“Nathan.”
“The engagement is over.”
Her face crumpled.
“You don’t mean that.”
He looked at the ring on her finger.
“I have never meant anything more.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“My father will destroy you.”
Nathan’s eyes hardened.
“Tell him to try.”
She removed the ring.
For one moment, Nathan thought she might throw it.
Instead, she placed it carefully on the table.
Her voice dropped.
“You still do not understand Grace.”
Nathan looked at her.
Victoria smiled through tears.
“She never told you the worst part.”
“What worst part?”
Victoria walked toward the door.
“The reason my father was willing to do anything to keep Lily hidden.”
Nathan blocked her path.
“Tell me.”
Victoria looked up at him.
“Because Lily does not only make you a father.”
“She makes you the legal owner of something Charles has spent five years stealing.”
May you like
Then Victoria walked out of the room.
*
