Chapter 1 - The Girl Behind the Wall
The little girl called me Daddy, and my wife reached for her before I could ask why.
“Come here,” Emily said.
The child backed into the narrow opening beneath the stairs.
“Don’t.”
One word.
Barely a whisper.
Emily stopped.
I had come home eighteen hours early from a business trip.
My suitcase was still beside the front door.
Ten minutes earlier, I’d heard scratching behind the paneling and assumed something had gotten into the walls.
Then a small hand had appeared through the gap.
Now a girl in a dirty yellow sweater stood barefoot in my hallway, gripping a stuffed rabbit with one ear.
She couldn’t have been older than seven.
“Daniel,” Emily said, “let me explain.”
I crouched.
“What’s your name?”
The girl looked past me.
At my wife.
I moved sideways, putting myself between them.
“You can tell me.”
“Lucy.”
“Okay, Lucy.
Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, but she was holding one arm against her stomach.
Emily gave a tight laugh.
“She wandered in while the back door was open.
I was about to call someone.”
I looked at the panel.
It had been pushed shut from the hallway.
“Then why was she in there?”
“She hid.
Children do that.”
Lucy reached out and touched my cheek.
Her fingers were cold.
“Daddy…”
Emily made a small sound behind me.
I had never seen this child before.
“I’m Daniel,” I said gently.
“I know.”
She glanced toward the ceiling.
“Mommy said you hear everything.”
I followed her eyes to the air vent above the stairs.
“What does that mean?”
Before she could answer, Emily took my phone from the console.
“I’ll handle this.”
I stood and held out my hand.
“Give it back.”
For a second, she didn’t move.
We’d been married eleven years.
I knew every version of her smile.
I had never seen the look underneath this one.
“Daniel, you’re frightening her.”
“Then step back.”
I called the police.
While we waited, I wrapped Lucy in my coat and brought her water.
She drank too fast, stopped, and looked toward the service door.
“Is Mommy coming?”
“What’s your mommy’s name?”
A car door slammed outside.
Emily turned sharply toward the window.
Lucy pressed the rabbit against her mouth.
The responding officer entered a minute later.
Emily met him with her polished voice, already explaining a confused child and an unlocked door.
I stayed on the floor beside Lucy.
“You can tell me,” I repeated.
She leaned close enough that her breath warmed my ear.
“Caroline.”
I stared at her.
Our former nanny’s name.
The woman Emily said had robbed us three years ago.
May you like
Lucy’s fingers tightened around mine.
“Mommy said your wife can’t find me.”
