Chapter 3 - Skeletons in the Closet
Two days passed before the girls were strong enough to talk.
They told me things that made my skin crawl.
They told me about the "Dark Room,"
a closet under the stairs where Vanessa locked them when they cried.
They told me about the nannies she had fired,
threatening to ruin their lives if they spoke to me.
"She told us you didn't want us anymore,"
Sophie whispered,
her voice cracking.
"She said we were too expensive."
I closed my eyes,
feeling a physical pain in my heart.
"She lied,"
I said,
kissing her forehead.
"You are the most precious things in the world."
While the girls recovered,
my legal team was uncovering more.
Vanessa wasn't just a cruel stepmother.
She was a professional.
Her real name wasn't Vanessa Miller.
It was Sarah Jenkins.
She had a history of marrying wealthy widowers and "managing" their estates.
Two of her previous husbands had died under mysterious circumstances.
My blood ran cold.
I hadn't just invited a gold-digger into my home.
I had invited a predator.
I had put my children in the cage with a wolf.
"Sir,"
my lead investigator said over the phone.
"We found the medical records."
"What records?"
"She was slowly poisoning you,
Nathan."
I sat down heavily.
"The 'vitamins' she gave you before you left for your trip?"
"They were laced with arsenic in small doses."
"She wasn't just waiting for you to leave."
"She was waiting for you to never come back."
I looked at the glass of water on my nightstand.
I felt a wave of nausea.
If I hadn't come home early for Christmas,
I might have collapsed in a hotel room halfway across the world.
And my daughters?
They would have been left entirely in her care.
Or worse.
I looked at my daughters in their hospital beds.
They were coloring pictures of sunshine and trees.
They didn't know how close they had come to losing everything.
"Marcus,"
I called to my driver.
"Is the new house ready?"
"Yes,
sir."
"The location is private?"
"Completely."
"Security?"
"Round the clock,
armed,
and vetted."
I couldn't stay in the Aspen mansion.
Every corner of that house was stained with her presence.
The ballroom,
the dining room,
the closet.
I ordered my staff to burn everything she had touched.
Her clothes,
her furniture,
even the silver dress she wore.
I wanted no trace of her left in this world.
I sat with the girls that evening.
We watched a movie about a brave lion.
"Are we brave,
Daddy?"
Grace asked.
"You are the bravest people I know,"
I said.
"And soon,
we are going to a place where it's always warm."
"And no more bread?"
Lily asked quietly.
"No more bread,"
I promised.
"Only feasts."
I checked my phone one last time.
The district attorney had enough to charge her with attempted murder,
child endangerment,
and grand larceny.
She was never getting out.
I looked at the moon through the hospital window.
I felt the weight of my past choices.
I had been a successful man,
but a failure as a father.
That ended today.
I was no longer Nathan Caldwell,
the CEO.
I was Nathan Caldwell,
the shield.
May you like
The protector.
The man who would move mountains to see a smile on those four faces.
