Chapter 7
I sent Marcus to Grace’s apartment with police.
By the time he arrived, the door had been forced.
The blue box was gone.
So were Lily’s medical records, Grace’s old phone, and every letter she had written to me and never sent.
Grace sat in the hospital bed and stared at nothing.
“That box had everything,” she whispered.
I stood beside the doorway, useless.
“I’m sorry.”
She looked at me.
“For which part?”
I deserved that.
“For not finding you. For believing the message. For letting Victoria into my life. For every second you had to be afraid alone.”
Her eyes filled, but her voice stayed sharp.
“You don’t get to fix this with apologies.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She studied me.
I held still.
Negotiations had taught me how to speak.
Fatherhood, in one night, was teaching me when not to.
Detective Aaron Vale arrived near midnight.
No relation, despite the name.
He had tired eyes and a calm voice.
He asked Grace about Charles.
She told him everything.
The apartment visit.
The threats.
The false message.
The hospital employee who warned her not to name me.
The preschool call.
The frozen bank account.
Detective Vale took notes.
Then he looked at me.
“Mr. Cole, Charles Whitmore sits on your board, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And Victoria Whitmore was scheduled to marry you in six weeks?”
“Yes.”
“And Grace Bennett has been employed in your home under a different agency file?”
My head lifted.
“What does that mean?”
He slid a paper across the small hospital table.
Grace’s employment file.
Different last name.
Different emergency contact.
Different address.
Grace stared at it.
“I didn’t submit that.”
Detective Vale nodded.
“The agency says the file was amended after placement.”
“By who?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“Your household administrator.”
My stomach turned.
“Denise.”
Grace whispered, “She was always watching me.”
I called Marcus.
“Find Denise.”
His answer came grim.
“She’s gone, sir.”
Of course she was.
Detective Vale closed his notebook.
“This is bigger than tonight.”
Grace held Lily tighter.
I looked at them both.
For the first time in my life, I understood what money could not buy.
Time back.
May you like
Trust back.
Safety once lost.
