Chapter 17 - The Last Lie
For one second Grace could not hear the station.
No announcements.
No footsteps.
No train brakes whining in the distance.
Only the words on the envelope.
BABY NOLAN — CUSTODY CONSENT.
Daniel bent to grab it.
Rosa got there first.
She kicked the envelope behind her.
Daniel lunged.
An officer shouted, “Hands where I can see them!”
Daniel stopped.
His eyes stayed on Grace.
“You don’t understand.”
Grace almost laughed.
There it was again.
The sentence.
His favorite room with no windows.
“I understand enough.”
“No. You don’t.” His voice cracked. “The company is insolvent. The fire reopened claims. Your shares are the only clean collateral left.”
“And the custody papers?”
Daniel looked away.
Grace’s stomach tightened.
A contraction.
Not a small one.
Rosa noticed immediately.
“Grace?”
“I’m fine.”
“You always say that right before something terrible.”
Daniel took one step toward her.
Police raised their weapons.
He stopped again.
“The custody document was Victoria’s idea.”
Victoria’s voice came from the stairs.
“Liar.”
Two officers held her by the arms.
Her dark glasses were gone. Her silver hair had fallen loose.
She looked at Daniel with pure disgust.
“You wrote it.”
Daniel turned on her. “You wanted the baby.”
“You wanted the shares.”
“You put Grace on the tracks before I got there!”
Grace’s breath caught.
Victoria’s face went blank.
Daniel realized what he had said.
Too late.
An officer near Grace touched his radio.
Rosa whispered, “Keep talking, idiots.”
Victoria shouted, “You told me to scare her!”
“By tying her in a car?” Daniel snapped.
“You said the train was delayed!”
“I said the freight was on a slow order!”
Grace stared at them.
This was the truth, or part of it.
Not one perfect plan.
Two cruel people making separate decisions, each assuming the other would control the damage.
Victoria had put Grace on the tracks to force a signature through terror.
Daniel arrived, saw Rosa interfering, and chose not to stop it.
Worse—he made it deadlier by blocking the door.
Not because he had planned every second.
Because when the moment came, he decided their deaths solved more problems.
That choice belonged to him.
Grace felt another contraction.
Harder.
Rosa caught her elbow.
“Hospital. Now.”
Daniel looked at Grace’s belly.
Something passed across his face.
Regret, maybe.
Or ownership.
Grace no longer cared which.
Police moved in and cuffed him.
Victoria began screaming at her son.
Daniel said nothing.
As officers pulled him away, he looked back once.
“Grace.”
She met his eyes.
He seemed to search for the old version of her—the one who explained him to other people.
She gave him nothing.
Then warm fluid ran down her legs onto the station floor.
Rosa looked down.
“Oh.”
Grace gripped her arm.
“Don’t say it.”
Rosa looked up.
“I think your water broke.”
Grace closed her eyes.
May you like
“I said don’t say it.”
And somewhere beyond the station roof, another train horn sounded.
