Chapter 6 - They Came for Lily Before Sunrise
Grace reached Lily’s bedroom before Nathan could stop her.
She locked the door.
Nathan followed.
“Grace.”
“No.”
She pushed a chair beneath the handle.
“They are not taking her.”
Nathan lowered his voice.
“I’m not letting them.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can promise I will stand between them and that door until we know who signed that order.”
Grace stared at him.
The doorbell rang.
Lily woke.
“Mommy?”
Grace immediately changed.
She sat on the bed and smoothed Lily’s hair.
“It’s okay, baby.”
Lily looked toward Nathan.
“Is the white-dress lady back?”
Nathan’s chest tightened.
“No.”
Grace looked at him.
He turned away to hide his reaction.
Elliot called from downstairs.
“Nathan.”
“You need to see this.”
Nathan descended and found a child-services supervisor named Helen Brooks waiting with the two men.
She appeared uncomfortable.
“I understand this is unusual.”
Elliot held out his hand.
“Show me the order.”
Helen gave it to him.
He read silently.
Then his eyes narrowed.
“This judge is retired.”
Helen frowned.
“What?”
Elliot showed her the signature.
“Judge Malcolm Trent left the bench six months ago.”
Helen immediately called her office.
Nathan watched her face change.
“That is the document we received.”
Elliot pointed at the seal.
“And that is not the current court seal.”
Helen looked horrified.
Nathan whispered.
“They sent child services with a forged order.”
Elliot nodded.
“Which means someone is desperate.”
Nathan looked toward the staircase.
Grace stood there holding Lily.
She had heard everything.
Helen removed her badge from her belt.
“I need to report this.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Will you state in writing that the order appears fraudulent?”
“Yes.”
Grace’s shoulders lowered slightly.
The crisis should have ended there.
Instead, Helen’s phone rang.
She listened.
Her expression hardened.
Then she looked at Grace.
“What?”
Grace asked.
Helen ended the call.
“A second complaint was filed.”
Nathan exhaled sharply.
“What now?”
Helen looked directly at him.
“Neglect.”
Grace almost laughed.
“Based on what?”
“Anonymous medical photographs of Lily.”
Nathan frowned.
“What photographs?”
Helen showed him her tablet.
The images displayed bruises on a child’s arms and back.
The face was partially obscured.
The label beneath them read LILY BENNETT.
Grace stared.
“That is not my daughter.”
Helen enlarged the image.
Grace pointed.
“Lily has a birthmark behind her left shoulder.”
“That child doesn’t.”
Nathan looked at Helen.
“You see it.”
“Yes.”
“Then document it.”
Helen did.
Elliot photographed the screen.
Nathan’s phone rang.
The laboratory.
He answered immediately.
“Mr. Cole?”
“Yes.”
“We completed the first-stage paternity analysis.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
Lily held her hand.
The technician continued.
“The probability of paternity exceeds 99.99 percent.”
Nathan stopped breathing.
Grace closed her eyes.
Lily looked between them.
Nathan crouched.
He did not know what to say.
He had imagined this moment all night.
Nothing he had rehearsed mattered.
“You really are my little girl.”
Lily studied him.
Then she asked the question that destroyed him.
“Did you not want me?”
Nathan’s eyes burned.
He shook his head.
“No.”
“No, Lily.”
“I didn’t know.”
She looked at Grace.
“Mommy knew.”
Grace’s mouth trembled.
“Yes.”
Lily looked back at Nathan.
“Then somebody lied.”
Nathan nodded.
“Yes.”
The child considered this.
Then she reached out and touched his cheek with two fingers.
Nathan remained perfectly still.
“Are you mad at Mommy?”
“No.”
“Are you mad at me?”
His voice almost failed.
“Never.”
Lily nodded once.
Then she hugged him.
Nathan closed his eyes.
Grace covered her mouth.
For the first time in four years, Nathan held his daughter.
The moment lasted eleven seconds.
Then Elliot’s phone rang.
He walked away to answer.
When he returned, his face was grim.
“The press already has the kidnapping story.”
Nathan stood, still holding Lily.
“How?”
Elliot turned his phone around.
Every major financial site carried the same breaking headline.
MILLIONAIRE CEO LINKED TO ALLEGED CHILD ABDUCTION SCANDAL.
Below it was a photograph of Grace being hired at Nathan’s house three months earlier.
Someone had been preparing the story long before that morning.
Nathan looked at Grace.
“This started before Victoria picked up that hockey stick.”
Grace nodded.
Nathan’s expression hardened.
“Then we stop reacting.”
He handed Lily carefully back to Grace.
“What are you doing?”
Grace asked.
Nathan looked at Elliot.
“We move the press conference forward.”
“To when?”
Nathan checked the time.
“Forty minutes.”
Elliot stared at him.
“You don’t have the board.”
“I don’t need the board.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
“I need the truth.”
But twelve minutes before Nathan was scheduled to speak, Elliot received a second sealed message from the estate archive.
This one contained an audio file.
May you like
The recording began with Nathan’s late father saying one sentence.
“If you’re hearing this, Charles Whitmore has already tried to take Lily.”
