Chapter 2 - The Girl With My Eyes
I did not sleep that night.
I sat in the back of the SUV outside Grace Holloway’s house until sunrise turned the wet street gray.
Ariana had closed the door.
She had every right to.
I could have forced an investigation onto the property. I could have ordered men to search the neighborhood, inspect the house, question Grace.
Four years earlier, I probably would have.
That night, I finally understood the difference between protecting someone and controlling them.
So I stayed outside.
At 2:13 in the morning, Miles opened the SUV door.
“You should go home.”
“No.”
“Ariana knows you’re here.”
“I know.”
“She may see this as pressure.”
That made me look at him.
“Does she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then move the second vehicle two blocks away.”
Miles nodded.
He hesitated before closing the door.
“What do you want me to investigate?”
“Everything.”
“That is not a useful instruction.”
Under other circumstances, I would have almost smiled.
Instead, I handed him the medical record.
“Start with the accident. Rebuild every hour from the day before Ariana was hit until Lily disappeared from St. Catherine’s.”
“And Vanessa?”
“Especially Vanessa.”
Miles studied me.
“What if Mrs. Vale is wrong?”
“She may be.”
“And if the Harringtons had nothing to do with it?”
“Then I will apologize for investigating them.”
“And if they did?”
I looked back at the little house.
“Then Daniel Harrington will learn exactly how expensive it is to threaten my child.”
At six thirty, the front door opened.
Grace stepped onto the porch.
She saw the SUV.
Walked straight toward it.
Miles reached for his jacket.
“Stay here,” I said.
I stepped into the cold morning.
Grace stopped in front of me.
“You’re still here.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t romantic.”
“I know.”
“It isn’t noble either.”
“I know that too.”
She folded her arms.
“Then why?”
“Because if someone has watched this house before, they may come back.”
“And you think your presence makes us safer?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
“I think competent security makes you safer. But Ariana won’t accept my people yet.”
“Smart woman.”
“I agree.”
Grace’s mouth twitched despite herself.
“Lily wakes at seven.”
My heart changed rhythm.
I said nothing.
“She eats breakfast at seven fifteen. Usually scrambled eggs. She hates the green parts of scallions because she thinks they’re grass.”
I stared at her.
Grace’s eyes softened only slightly.
“She loves strawberries. She is afraid of thunder but not dogs. She asks too many questions. She can count to forty-nine, but for some reason she refuses to acknowledge that fifty exists.”
Something painful moved behind my ribs.
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because you looked at that child last night like a man discovering the world kept moving while he was gone.”
“It did.”
“Yes.”
She glanced back toward the house.
“And because whatever I think of you, Lily did nothing wrong.”
The door opened again.
Ariana stepped outside wearing jeans, boots, and a long camel coat.
She saw us.
Her expression sharpened.
“Grace.”
“I was educating him about scallions.”
Ariana stared at her.
Grace walked toward the house.
“I’m old. I get reckless.”
For the first time since arriving, something almost like warmth passed across Ariana’s face.
It disappeared when she looked at me.
“You stayed.”
“Yes.”
“You shouldn’t have.”
“I know.”
That answer irritated her more than an argument might have.
She walked toward the sidewalk.
“Where are you going?”
“Coffee.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No.”
“I’ll walk.”
“No.”
“Ariana—”
She turned.
“Do you understand that I spent years arranging my life around what powerful men decided was best for me?”
The sentence stopped me.
“I’m going to the coffee shop by myself. You are going to stay here.”
I nodded.
She looked suspicious.
“You’re agreeing?”
“Yes.”
“Just like that?”
“It turns out you’re allowed to tell me no.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You don’t get points for discovering consent at thirty-seven.”
“I’m not asking for points.”
She walked away.
I stayed.
Twenty minutes later, Lily appeared behind the front window.
She pressed both hands against the glass.
I froze.
She stared at me.
Then disappeared.
A minute later the front door opened.
Grace stood behind her while Lily stepped onto the porch in a purple coat.
The stuffed rabbit was still under her arm.
She looked at me seriously.
“Are you Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“Mommy says you’re not coming inside.”
“I know.”
She considered this.
“Did you do something bad?”
Grace shut her eyes.
I almost laughed.
Almost.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I hurt your mommy.”
Lily frowned.
“Did you push her?”
“No.”
“Did you yell?”
“Not exactly.”
“What did you do?”
I had negotiated with government ministers who asked fewer questions.
“I made her very sad.”
“Oh.”
Lily looked disappointed in me.
It was unbearable.
Then she held up the rabbit.
“This is Bunny.”
“What is his name?”
She stared at me as though I were an idiot.
“Bunny.”
“Of course.”
“He’s four.”
“So are you.”
“I’m almost four.”
“Right.”
She narrowed her gray eyes.
“How do you know?”
My throat tightened.
Grace intervened gently.
“Your mommy told him.”
That was technically not true, but I was grateful.
Lily descended one step.
“What’s in your hand?”
I realized I was holding the bracelet.
I had not let it go all night.
I showed her.
Her face brightened.
“That’s mine!”
I looked toward Grace.
She nodded.
Lily came closer.
“Mommy said she lost it.”
“It was in a drawer.”
“Can I have it?”
Every instinct in me wanted to keep the first physical proof I had of her existence.
But it belonged to my daughter.
I crouched.
“Of course.”
She held out her wrist.
I stared.
“Do you want me to put it on?”
“Yes.”
My fingers shook so badly I could barely work the clasp.
Lily watched with concern.
“Are you cold?”
“A little.”
“You should wear gloves.”
Grace turned away.
I suspected she was hiding tears.
I fastened the bracelet.
The tiny rose rested against Lily’s skin.
She smiled.
“Pretty.”
“Very.”
She looked at me.
“Why are you sad?”
I had spent years perfecting a face that revealed nothing.
My daughter saw through it in five minutes.
“Because I missed something important.”
“What?”
“You.”
The word escaped before I could stop it.
Lily looked confused.
“You didn’t know me.”
“No.”
“Then how did you miss me?”
I had no answer.
Ariana returned while I was still kneeling on the walkway.
She stopped when she saw the bracelet around Lily’s wrist.
Her coffee cup trembled.
Lily ran to her.
“Mommy! Adrian found my bracelet.”
Ariana looked at me over her daughter’s head.
I stood.
“He gave it back,” Lily announced.
“I see that.”
“His hands were shaking because he’s cold.”
Ariana’s eyes softened despite herself.
“Go inside with Grace, sweetheart.”
“Can Adrian eat eggs?”
Ariana closed her eyes.
“Lily.”
“What?”
“Inside.”
Lily sighed dramatically and walked away.
When the door closed, Ariana looked at me.
“You told her you missed her.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
She studied me.
That seemed to be the moment she decided something.
“Walk with me.”
We moved down the street in silence.
Three houses passed before Ariana spoke.
“The accident wasn’t an accident.”
“I suspected that after last night.”
“I had proof.”
“Had?”
“It disappeared.”
She wrapped both hands around the coffee cup.
“Two days before you flew to Zurich, someone followed me from my doctor’s office. The next morning, I found a note beneath my windshield wiper.”
“What did it say?”
“Babies make powerful men vulnerable.”
My blood turned cold.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I tried.”
I stopped walking.
“When?”
“That night.”
Memory hit.
Ariana in my office doorway.
Vanessa sitting across from me with spreadsheets spread over the table.
Ariana saying, “Can I talk to you privately?”
Me telling her, “Whatever it is can wait fifteen minutes.”
She had left.
I had forgotten.
“You never came back.”
“I did.”
“What?”
“At midnight. You were on the phone with Vanessa.”
My shame deepened.
“I told myself I would tell you the next morning. Then you flew to Zurich.”
“Because Vanessa said the Harrington deal was collapsing.”
“Yes.”
Her voice became bitter.
“And Daniel Harrington later admitted during a charity dinner that he hadn’t even been in Switzerland that week.”
I stared at her.
“You knew that?”
“I overheard him joking about being in Palm Beach.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
I searched my memory.
Nothing.
Her laugh contained no humor.
“You said I was becoming obsessed with Vanessa.”
The past was turning into a courtroom, and every forgotten sentence was evidence against me.
Ariana continued.
“After the crash, I woke in intensive care. They told me the baby was gone.”
“I was told the same.”
“I believed it for nine hours.”
“What happened?”
“A nurse named Claire Donnelly came into my room after midnight.”
I knew the name from the staff list Miles had sent me.
“She told me my daughter had survived.”
Ariana’s voice changed.
“She was tiny, Adrian. Three pounds, eleven ounces. She needed help breathing, but she was alive.”
I closed my eyes.
I could see it despite never having been there.
“She said someone had ordered the baby’s transfer under a private code. Claire thought it was suspicious because no receiving hospital was listed.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to call you.”
My eyes opened.
“You were downstairs.”
“I know.”
“Your security chief took my phone.”
“Marcus Dane?”
“Yes.”
Marcus had been head of Vale security for nine years.
He retired eighteen months after the accident.
I had given him a pension.
A house in Arizona.
A thank-you speech.
“He told me you were meeting doctors.”
“I was.”
“Then he said you were sedated.”
“I wasn’t.”
Ariana nodded.
“I know that now.”
“What happened next?”
“Claire helped me into a wheelchair and took me to the neonatal floor.”
Her breath trembled.
“She was there.”
My daughter.
“I saw her for maybe thirty seconds.”
Ariana wiped at her cheek.
“She had your mouth.”
I looked away because I could no longer pretend I wasn’t crying too.
“There was a transport team waiting. Claire gave me papers to sign because she said someone had already arranged to take Lily away.”
“You signed.”
“I thought I was authorizing a transfer to another hospital.”
She looked at me.
“I wasn’t.”
“Where did she go?”
“Grace.”
I frowned.
“She was a neonatal nurse at St. Catherine’s. Claire trusted her. They realized someone inside the hospital was trying to erase Lily.”
“Why Grace?”
“Because Grace’s daughter had died two years earlier, and she was preparing to retire. Claire convinced her to leave Chicago immediately.”
“And you?”
“I received the photograph.”
The one of me and Vanessa.
“Tell Adrian, and Lily dies.”
My hands curled into fists.
“Why didn’t you come to me anyway?”
Ariana stopped walking.
“Because Marcus Dane was standing outside my hospital room when the photograph arrived.”
That answer silenced me.
“My security chief.”
“Yes.”
“I had no idea whether he was involved, whether Vanessa was involved, whether one of your executives was involved. I had just watched someone erase my living daughter from a hospital record. You were surrounded by the same people I was supposed to trust.”
Her eyes burned.
“And when I tried to warn you about Vanessa afterward, you defended her.”
Every word was deserved.
“How long before you saw Lily again?”
“Six weeks.”
“Six weeks?”
“I was being watched.”
“How did you find Grace?”
“Claire contacted me.”
“Where is Claire?”
Ariana looked away.
“Dead.”
The street seemed to narrow.
“How?”
“Hit-and-run.”
“When?”
“Two months after Lily was born.”
I felt sick.
“And you still stayed with me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Her answer hurt more than anything else.
“Because I loved you.”
I stared at her.
“I also thought staying close to you was safer than disappearing. Whoever threatened Lily seemed to want me silent, not dead. As long as I behaved like the grieving wife everyone expected, they believed the secret was safe.”
“You visited her.”
“Every chance I could.”
“How?”
“Grace moved three times. Wisconsin. Indiana. Then back here after Marcus retired.”
I thought of every time Ariana said she was visiting a friend, attending a charity board retreat, helping with her late father’s estate.
I had barely noticed.
“Why come back near Chicago?”
“Lily developed a heart murmur. She needed a specialist.”
Fear hit instantly.
“What kind of murmur?”
Ariana almost smiled.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The part of you that thinks information gives you control.”
“She has a heart condition.”
“A mild congenital valve defect. Doctors are monitoring it. She is healthy.”
“Can I see the records?”
“Eventually.”
That word struck me.
Eventually.
Not no.
I held onto it.
“What made you leave the bracelet?”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“Then why was the note with it?”
She closed her eyes.
“I wrote that note the night before I left Vale House.”
“Why?”
“Because I had finally decided to tell you.”
I stopped breathing.
“I was going to take you to Lily.”
“When?”
“The morning Vanessa came to the house.”
Three days ago.
Ariana looked directly at me.
“I had spent four years gathering enough proof to believe the threat had weakened. Marcus was gone. Dr. Reeves had retired. Claire’s old documents were safe. Lily needed her father.”
Her voice cracked.
“And then I walked downstairs and found Vanessa wearing white while you told me you had chosen a future with her.”
I felt physically ill.
“The bracelet was in my desk because I planned to show it to you.”
“And the note?”
“I wrote it after you told me to leave.”
She swallowed.
“I thought someday Lily would ask why we weren’t a family.”
“Ariana—”
“I wanted to remember exactly why.”
I had no defense.
None.
We stood beneath bare trees while cars moved at the far end of the street.
Finally I asked, “What do you want from me?”
She laughed softly.
“For once?”
“Yes.”
“I want you to stop deciding what everyone needs before they get a chance to say it.”
I nodded.
“What does Lily need?”
“Safety.”
“I can provide that.”
“Quietly.”
“I can do that.”
“No armed men on the porch.”
“Agreed.”
“No removing her from Grace’s house without asking me.”
“Agreed.”
“No lawyers threatening custody.”
The thought had never occurred to me.
But the fact that she expected it nearly broke me.
“I would never.”
“You sent divorce attorneys to speak to me before you spoke to me yourself.”
I deserved that too.
“No custody fight,” I said. “Ever.”
She studied me.
“And Vanessa?”
“It’s over.”
“Because of Lily?”
“Because it should never have started.”
Something flickered in Ariana’s eyes.
Not forgiveness.
Pain.
“That answer would have mattered four days ago.”
“I know.”
We walked back.
Miles was waiting beside the SUV.
His expression was grim.
I knew before he spoke.
“We found Marcus Dane.”
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Ariana went still.
Miles continued.
“Arizona authorities found him in his garage approximately six months ago. Officially, carbon monoxide poisoning.”
“Officially?”
“There were irregularities.”
I looked at Ariana.
The threat wasn’t history.
It was still breathing.
Miles handed me his phone.
“One more thing.”
A photograph filled the screen.
A black sedan parked across the street from Grace’s house.
Taken fifteen minutes earlier by one of Miles’s men.
The license plate belonged to a shell company registered in Delaware.
The company’s legal agent?
Harrington Holdings.
I lifted my eyes toward Ariana.
“Get Lily inside.”
Her face went pale.
“What?”
“Now.”
She followed my gaze.
The black sedan was already pulling away.
May you like
Four years after someone erased my daughter from a hospital, they had found her again.
And this time, I knew exactly where to start looking.
