Chapter 3
Police arrived within twenty minutes.
Nora kept smiling until the detective asked why a missing child was working in my house.
Then her smile cracked.
“She isn’t missing,” Nora said. “She was abandoned.”
Lily gripped my coat.
“No.”
Detective Harris crouched near her.
“Can you tell me who brought you here?”
Lily looked at Nora.
Then at me.
“Nora said if I told Daddy, she’d make me sleep in the cold room.”
My hands curled.
“What cold room?”
Lily pointed toward the service hallway.
Nora said quickly, “She makes things up.”
The detective looked at me.
“May we search?”
“Yes.”
Nora shouted, “Victor, this is our engagement dinner!”
I stared at her.
“You slapped my child for saving my life.”
Her mouth opened.
No words came.
We found the cold room behind the pantry.
Not a freezer.
A small storage room with tile floors and no window.
There was a thin blanket in the corner.
A child’s cup.
A cracked picture book.
On the inside of the door were scratches.
Tiny scratches.
Lily hid her face against my shoulder when she saw it.
“I tried to be quiet,” she whispered.
I kissed her hair before I could stop myself.
“You never have to be quiet for her again.”
Detective Harris photographed everything.
Then she found a box beneath a loose tile.
Inside were old documents.
A false death certificate.
A custody transfer.
A hospital bracelet.
Lily Amelia Cross.
My daughter.
Alive.
May you like
Hidden in my house.
By the woman I nearly married.
