Chapter 6 - Natalie’s Warning
Natalie had always been quiet.
Daniel had been the opposite.
He could enter a room and know everyone within ten minutes.
After his funeral, Natalie and I lost touch.
Life happened.
Marriage.
Work.
Mia.
I hadn’t spoken to her in nearly five years.
Now her newborn son was three floors below us under police protection.
And my mother-in-law had somehow ended up driving him across town.
“Why would Mom take a stranger’s baby?” Jackson asked.
I looked at him.
“She obviously isn’t a stranger.”
Officer Grant nodded.
“That’s what we need to understand.”
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I answered cautiously.
“Hello?”
Breathing.
Then a woman whispered, “Emily?”
Every hair on my arms rose.
“Natalie?”
Jackson looked at me.
I turned away.
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“Is Eli safe?”
“The baby?”
“Yes.”
“He’s at the hospital.”
She sobbed.
“Thank God.”
“Natalie, the police are looking for you.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
Silence.
Then she said, “Lorraine has been following me for months.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because of Daniel.”
“What does Daniel have to do with Lorraine?”
“You really don’t know?”
“No.”
Natalie’s breathing grew uneven.
“Daniel kept something from you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Everybody seems to be keeping something from me.”
“He found out before he died.”
“Found out what?”
“That Jackson knew him.”
I looked across the room.
Jackson had gone pale.
He could hear.
I put the phone on speaker.
“What does she mean?” I asked him.
Jackson said nothing.
Natalie heard his voice in the room.
“He’s there?”
“Yes.”
“Ask him about October 14th.”
Jackson’s face changed.
Just enough.
I saw it.
“What happened October 14th?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
Natalie gave a bitter laugh through the phone.
“He’s still lying.”
“Jackson.”
He looked at the floor.
“Daniel and I had an argument.”
I stared at him.
“You told me you’d never met him.”
“I never said that.”
“You let me believe it!”
“We met once.”
Natalie snapped, “Three times.”
Jackson squeezed his eyes shut.
My chest tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel contacted me,” he said.
“About what?”
“You.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Natalie whispered, “Tell her the rest.”
Jackson’s voice became almost inaudible.
“He thought I shouldn’t marry you.”
My mouth fell open.
“Why?”
Jackson looked at Mia sleeping.
Then back at me.
“Because Daniel believed my mother had something to do with your father losing his medical license.”
I stopped breathing.
My father had lost his license after being accused of falsifying prescription records.
The scandal destroyed him.
Two years later, he died of a heart attack.
I had spent a decade believing he had made a terrible mistake.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I was.”
“Why would Lorraine care about my father?”
Jackson looked at me with something I had never seen before.
Fear.
“Because your father knew what she did.”
“What did she do?”
Before he could answer, Natalie screamed through the phone.
A car door slammed.
“Natalie?”
May you like
“Someone found me.”
Then the line went dead.
