Chapter 5
I could not bring myself to read past Lily’s name.
Nathan read it first. His expression changed with every line.
“What is it?” I asked.
He turned the page toward me.
It was a draft agreement. Nathan’s father and Charles Vale had planned to seek custody if I ever tried to contact Nathan. The document described me as unreliable and named a specialist who would supposedly support that claim.
The agreement had never been signed by a judge. That did not make it harmless.
“They built a case against me before she was born.”
Ramirez nodded. “We’re looking into whether anyone created false records to support it.”
I recognized the specialist’s name. She had worked at the clinic where I went during my pregnancy. Once, she had asked strange questions about my finances and whether I felt overwhelmed. I had answered honestly, never knowing where my words might go.
Nathan pushed back from the table.
“Charles was part of this.”
“The draft suggests he was,” Ramirez said. “We’ll follow the evidence.”
Victoria had admitted opening the safe but claimed Nathan’s father had given her the code years earlier. She denied attacking me, despite Nathan seeing her holding the stick and the hospital record of my injury.
Ramirez said Victoria’s lawyer had offered a different story: Victoria was trying to stop me from leaving with Lily.
I gripped the table.
“She told me to keep my child away from the house. She threatened us.”
“We’re taking that seriously.”
I believed Ramirez. I also knew Victoria’s family had spent years preparing a version of me that people would find easier to believe.
Outside the station, reporters waited. Daniel guided us to a side exit, but one woman called my name.
“Did you take your daughter to Nathan’s house to demand money?”
I stopped.
Nathan stopped with me.
“I went there because I worked there,” I said. “My daughter came to find me after her sitter fell ill. She was frightened, and I was hurt. She deserves to be left alone.”
A camera turned toward me. I said nothing more.
By evening, the clip was everywhere. Some people believed me. Others called Lily a trick.
I turned off my phone.
Nathan came by the apartment after dinner. He brought Lily a book about a bear searching for home. She climbed beside him on the sofa while he read. When he stumbled over a long word, she corrected him.
My mother watched from the kitchen.
“He looks like he means it,” she said softly.
“He does.”
“You’re allowed to be scared anyway.”
I was. Every kind moment between Nathan and Lily made me happy. It also showed me how much she could lose if he changed his mind.
When he finished the book, Lily asked him to read it again. He did.
After she fell asleep, Nathan and I sat at the kitchen table.
“I’ve been thinking about my father,” he said. “I spent years trying to prove I could run his company. I never asked what kind of man I was proving myself to.”
“You loved him.”
“I did. I still remember him teaching me to ride a bike.”
“That memory can be real too.”
He looked at me. “How do you do that?”
“What?”
“Leave room for something good after what he did?”
“I’m trying,” I said. “Some days I can’t.”
Daniel called before Nathan could answer. The independent reviewer had located unusual expenses in the company accounts. Northbridge had billed for surveillance under other names, including a property management account Nathan had personally approved.
Charles could use Nathan’s signature to claim he knew.
“Do you have a way to show what you were told?” I asked.
Nathan nodded. “The board receives summaries. I kept them.”
“Then give Daniel all of them.”
“I will.”
He did it that night. We sat beside each other while he searched his records and sent Daniel every approval, meeting note, and message he could find. He did not skip the ones that made him look careless.
Near midnight, he found an email from his father. It instructed him to approve the renewal without reviewing individual assignments because Charles had already cleared them.
Nathan stared at it.
“That’s the year Lily was born.”
I moved closer. He showed me the date. It was three days after I took her home from the hospital.
The next morning, police searched Northbridge’s office. They found photographs of us, records of my moves, and a file that began with my pregnancy. They also found a recent order concerning Lily’s preschool.
I learned about that order when Ramirez called.
“Grace, I need you to keep Lily home today.”
“She hasn’t gone back.”
“Good.”
“What was the order?”
Ramirez paused. “Someone asked Northbridge to document who collected her and when.”
My mother stood across the room, watching my face.
“Who asked?”
“We’re still confirming the signature.”
That afternoon, Charles Vale appeared on television outside his office. He said his family had been unfairly accused and that he cared deeply about every child affected.
Lily wandered in while the sound was on. I switched it off before she saw his face.
A message arrived from Nathan.
Daniel had compared the preschool order to Charles’s records. The signature matched.
A second message followed.
Charles had called an emergency board vote for the next morning. He wanted Nathan removed as chief executive before the review could be completed.
I typed back one sentence.
What are you going to do?
May you like
Nathan called me.
“I’m going to tell them everything I know.”
