Chapter 2 - THE MUSIC STOPS
Nathan turned toward Grace. “Take Lily where?”
Vanessa stepped into the room. “She means her bedroom. Lily throws fits, so I send her upstairs to calm down.”
Lily pressed herself against Emma.
Nathan had heard enough for one night to know he could not trust an answer Vanessa gave in front of the girls.
“Stay here,” he told them.
He crossed the hall to the electrical panel and shut off the ballroom music. The bass died. Guests shouted in surprise as the green lights went dark.
By the time Nathan reached the ballroom, Vanessa was close behind him.
“Party’s over,” he said.
A few guests laughed, assuming he was joking. Then they saw his face.
Coats appeared. People drifted toward the front doors. A man holding a half-finished drink asked if everything was all right.
“No,” Nathan said. “My daughters have been sitting in the dark with moldy bread while you celebrated downstairs.”
The man set down his glass.
Vanessa folded her arms. “You flew in without warning, found one plate of leftovers, and decided to put on a show.”
“Their water was freezing.”
“The heat in that wing has been acting up.”
“Then why were they there?”
She gave him an exhausted look. “Because they refused dinner. Nathan, you have no idea what raising four children takes.”
One of the guests, a woman Nathan recognized as Vanessa’s friend Celia, stopped at the doorway. Her eyes moved from Vanessa to the service hall.
“Nathan,” Celia said, “I thought the girls were visiting your sister.”
“No.”
Celia went pale.
Vanessa’s voice sharpened. “Go home, Celia.”
The front doors closed behind the last guests. Nathan called his sister, Rachel, then the pediatrician’s emergency line. He asked the cook to prepare soup and bring it to the family room.
No one answered from the kitchen.
He called again. Still nothing.
Vanessa watched him. “I gave the staff Christmas Eve off.”
“The girls still needed dinner.”
“They had dinner.”
Nathan headed for the kitchen himself. As he passed the stairwell, he saw a strip of yellow paper tucked into the molding, low enough for a child to reach. He pulled it free.
It was a note written in uneven block letters.
DADDY, IF YOU COME HOME, PLEASE CHECK LILY’S ROOM.
May you like
At the bottom, in smaller letters, Emma had added:
SHE HIDES THE PHONE THERE.
