Chapter 8
I brought Grace and Lily to the guest house.
Grace refused the main house.
I did not argue.
The guest house had its own alarm, its own lock, and no memories of Victoria.
Clara stayed with them.
Marcus stationed guards outside.
Grace noticed and stiffened.
“No men at the door.”
I nodded.
“Female security.”
Marcus adjusted immediately.
Grace looked surprised that I listened without debate.
Good.
Let surprise become habit.
Lily slept on the sofa with one hand in Grace’s.
I sat on the porch in the rain until dawn, reviewing everything Marcus found.
Charles had invested in my company five years ago.
One month after Grace disappeared.
Victoria had met me at a charity gala six months later.
Denise had been hired by Victoria’s recommendation.
The cleaning agency that placed Grace in my house had a parent company connected to Whitmore Holdings.
It was not coincidence.
It was a net.
At seven in the morning, Grace came outside wrapped in a blanket.
Her face was exhausted.
“You should sleep,” she said.
“So should you.”
She sat at the other end of the porch bench.
For a while, we listened to rain.
Then she said, “Lily asked for you for years.”
My throat tightened.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you were far away.”
“Did she ask why?”
“Every birthday.”
I looked down.
Grace continued.
“She wanted to know if you liked pancakes. If you could swim. If you would like her drawings.”
“I would have.”
“I know.”
Her voice cracked on those two words.
“I hated knowing.”
I turned toward her.
“I need a DNA test.”
She nodded.
“I expected that.”
“Not because I doubt you.”
“You should verify truth now, Nathan. Everyone lied to you.”
That was fair.
Painful.
Fair.
“I also need to protect you legally.”
Her eyes hardened.
“We are not becoming your project.”
“No. You are becoming protected from mine.”
She looked toward the rain.
“Charles won’t stop.”
“I know.”
“He made people disappear from jobs, homes, schools.”
“Then we expose him.”
She gave a bitter smile.
“You sound like a man who has never been powerless.”
I had no answer.
May you like
She stood.
“That’s what scares me.”
