Chapter 2 - The Call From Victoria’s Father
Nathan put the phone on speaker.
“Explain.”
There was a brief silence.
Charles Whitmore’s voice remained controlled.
“Not over the telephone.”
“You called me.”
“Because Victoria just activated the emergency protocol.”
Nathan looked at his fiancée.
Victoria closed her eyes.
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“What emergency protocol?”
Victoria said nothing.
Charles answered.
“One created years ago to protect both families.”
Grace went completely still.
Nathan noticed immediately.
“You know what he’s talking about.”
Grace’s face lost what little color remained.
Nathan stepped closer.
“Grace?”
Her voice was barely audible.
“Yes.”
Victoria’s eyes snapped toward her.
Nathan felt anger rising beneath his ribs.
“What happened five years ago?”
Charles interrupted.
“Nathan, listen carefully.”
“No.”
Nathan’s voice sharpened.
“You listen to me.”
“You have thirty seconds to explain why my fiancée was standing over a four-year-old child with a hockey stick.”
Charles went silent.
Nathan continued.
“And why that child just called me Daddy.”
Victoria grabbed Nathan’s arm.
“Please.”
He pulled away.
“Don’t touch me.”
The words hit her harder than a shout.
Grace tried to stand.
Pain flashed across her face.
Nathan instinctively moved toward her.
She flinched.
He stopped again.
The distance between them suddenly felt like five stolen years.
Nathan called his private physician.
“Dr. Patel.”
“I need you at my house.”
“Bring someone capable of examining a child.”
Victoria stared at him.
“You’re treating her like family already?”
Nathan looked at her.
“She is a terrified four-year-old.”
“That should be enough.”
Victoria’s lips tightened.
Charles spoke from the phone.
“You are making decisions emotionally.”
Nathan picked up the hockey stick.
Victoria stepped back.
He did not threaten her.
He simply studied it.
Then he placed it on the countertop.
“This belongs in evidence.”
Victoria’s expression changed.
“Nathan.”
“You are not seriously calling the police.”
Grace suddenly spoke.
“Don’t.”
Nathan turned.
Grace looked more afraid of the word police than she had looked of Victoria.
“Why?”
Grace lowered her voice.
“Because they’ll come for me.”
Nathan frowned.
“You were attacked.”
“That won’t matter.”
Victoria laughed softly.
Nathan looked at her.
The laugh vanished.
Grace continued.
“They prepared for this years ago.”
Nathan felt cold.
“Who prepared?”
Grace looked at Victoria.
Then at the phone.
“His father.”
Nathan’s fingers tightened.
“My father?”
Grace nodded.
“And hers.”
Nathan stared at the phone.
Charles spoke quietly.
“Be careful what you accuse dead men of.”
Grace’s eyes filled with fury.
“Your name is on the papers too.”
Nathan turned toward her.
“What papers?”
Grace looked at Lily.
“Not in front of her.”
Nathan immediately understood.
He walked toward the sitting room and called Mrs. Alvarez, the elderly housekeeper who had worked for his mother decades earlier and now lived in the guest cottage.
When she arrived, Lily refused to release Grace.
Grace whispered to her daughter for nearly a minute.
Finally Lily allowed Mrs. Alvarez to lead her toward the nearby sunroom.
Before leaving, Lily looked at Nathan.
“You won’t let the white-dress lady hurt Mommy?”
Nathan looked directly into her eyes.
“No.”
Victoria flinched.
Lily disappeared down the hall.
Grace faced Nathan.
“Your father found out I was pregnant before I did.”
Nathan stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“He had my medical records.”
“How?”
“I never found out.”
Grace rubbed her injured shoulder.
“He invited me to his office.”
“He had pictures of my mother’s apartment.”
“My younger brother’s school.”
“My bank records.”
Nathan’s expression hardened with every sentence.
“He told me that if I stayed with you, he would destroy everyone I loved.”
Grace’s voice broke.
“He said the Cole family would never allow a maid’s daughter to become part of the bloodline.”
Nathan looked at her uniform.
“You became a maid after that.”
Grace shook her head.
“My mother cleaned houses.”
“That was enough for him.”
Nathan felt sick.
Grace continued.
“He offered me money.”
“I refused.”
“Then he showed me a custody petition that had already been prepared.”
Nathan stared at her.
“For a child who wasn’t even born?”
“They knew the baby was yours.”
Grace looked toward the sunroom.
“They planned to take her the moment she was born.”
Victoria interrupted.
“This is ridiculous.”
Grace turned toward her.
“You were there.”
The kitchen became silent.
Nathan slowly looked at Victoria.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Grace stepped closer despite her pain.
“You were nineteen.”
“You sat outside his office.”
“You heard me crying.”
“You looked straight at me when I left.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Nathan saw recognition.
He stepped between them.
“Were you there?”
Victoria whispered.
“My father told me it was a business issue.”
Nathan laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“A business issue.”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know there was a baby.”
Grace stared at her.
“You knew three years later.”
Victoria froze.
Nathan turned.
“What happened three years later?”
Grace’s answer came slowly.
“She found us.”
Victoria backed toward the counter.
Nathan’s stomach dropped.
“And that’s when the threats started again.”
A car door slammed outside.
Nathan looked toward the windows.
Three police cruisers were entering his driveway.
Grace’s face collapsed with fear.
Nathan stared at his phone.
He had not called them.
Victoria whispered.
“I didn’t call.”
Nathan turned toward the front door as the bell rang.
Then a voice came through the intercom.
“Mr. Cole, this is Detective Warren.”
“We have a warrant for Grace Bennett.”
Grace pulled Lily’s blue backpack against her chest.
Nathan looked at her.
“What warrant?”
The detective answered through the locked door.
May you like
“Kidnapping.”
“And attempted international flight.”
