Chapter 5
Daniel turned toward Tyler like he had been punched.
“What did you say?”
Tyler laughed again, but his voice shook.
“You heard me.”
Ashley covered her mouth.
Olivia whispered, “Tyler, stop.”
Rebecca stepped out from behind the corner.
“No, please continue.”
Everyone froze.
Tyler’s face went white.
The elevator doors opened behind him.
Nobody moved.
Rebecca looked at Daniel.
“Your Honor’s order requires full disclosure. I suggest you all stop making this worse in hallways.”
Daniel looked at me.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
But Olivia did.
I could see it.
Her pearls shook against her throat.
Back at the hotel, Emma played with blocks while I sat on the bathroom floor trying to breathe.
Another child.
Possibly Daniel’s.
Funded by me.
Hidden by Olivia.
And my little girl had been neglected while they fed someone else’s secret.
Rebecca called at five.
“We found Lily’s mother.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“Who?”
“Madison Carter. Former nanny. She worked for Olivia four years ago.”
The room tilted.
I remembered Madison.
Young.
Quiet.
Always tired.
Olivia told me she stole jewelry and disappeared.
“What happened to her?”
“She died two years ago.”
My chest tightened.
“How?”
“Officially, overdose.”
“Officially?”
Rebecca paused.
“Madison’s sister says she never used drugs.”
The next morning, we met Madison’s sister in a coffee shop outside Nashville.
Her name was Grace Carter.
She had Madison’s eyes and a folder clutched to her chest.
“I’ve been trying to reach you for years,” she said.
“Me?”
She nodded.
“Madison told me Olivia was using your money.”
I felt cold.
“She knew me?”
“She knew of you. She said Olivia bragged that her daughter-in-law paid for everything.”
Grace opened the folder.
Photos.
Texts.
A birth certificate.
Lily Carter.
Father listed unknown.
But in Madison’s handwriting on the back:
Daniel knows.
My throat closed.
Grace slid over another paper.
A letter Madison wrote before she died.
If anything happens to me, Olivia Miller has Lily. She says Daniel’s wife can never know because Sarah would stop paying.
I looked up.
“Olivia had Lily after Madison died?”
Grace nodded.
“For six months. Then she placed her at Little Oaks full time and told everyone Lily lived with relatives.”
“Where is Lily now?”
Grace’s eyes filled.
“That’s why I came. I don’t know.”
Rebecca’s phone rang.
She stepped away, listened, then turned back with a hard expression.
“Little Oaks says Lily was picked up yesterday.”
“By who?”
May you like
Rebecca looked at me.
“Olivia.”
