Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE RED SCARF
Renata had escaped before anyone understood what was happening.
The two officers who had escorted her downstairs were found unconscious in the security office.
Neither man remembered being attacked.
The police car was discovered ten miles away.
Its rear door stood open.
Renata was gone.
By midnight, every television station in New York was showing her photograph.
But the news reports did not describe her as a child abuser or murder suspect.
They described her as the glamorous fiancée of Grant Callahan who had allegedly been assaulted by a mentally unstable employee.
My photograph appeared beside hers.
They used the worst image they could find.
It came from my employee identification card.
My hair was pulled back.
My eyes looked exhausted.
The headline beneath it read:
DESPERATE NANNY ATTACKS BILLIONAIRE’S FUTURE WIFE.
Grant threw the remote against the wall.
The television screen shattered.
Lily flinched.
Grant immediately stepped back.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
Lily was sitting beside me on the nursery floor.
She had refused to let go of my hand.
A doctor had examined the burn on her scalp.
The injury was painful but not permanent.
The emotional damage was harder to measure.
Nadia entered carrying a cardboard box.
“We found this in the storage room.”
She placed it on the floor.
Inside were Lily’s belongings from before the accident.
Drawings.
Books.
Clothes.
A broken music box.
Lily slowly reached into the box.
She pulled out a drawing made with red and black crayons.
A woman stood beside a car.
The woman wore a bright red scarf.
Black smoke covered the sky.
Grant picked up the paper.
“Who is this?”
Lily pointed toward the woman.
“Renata.”
Grant looked at the date written in the corner.
The drawing had been made three days after Claire’s death.
“That’s impossible,” he whispered.
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Renata told me she first met Lily six months after the accident.”
Nadia’s expression darkened.
“She told everyone that.”
Lily shook her head.
“She came to the house before Mommy died.”
Grant sat down slowly.
“Did Mommy know her?”
Lily nodded.
“Mommy didn’t like her.”
“Why?”
“She made Mommy cry.”
Grant closed his eyes.
I could almost see the memories rearranging themselves inside his mind.
The unexplained arguments.
Claire’s sudden fear.
The calls she refused to discuss.
The night she packed a suitcase and told him she needed time away.
Grant opened his eyes.
“Lily, what happened before Mommy drove away?”
Lily stared at the drawing.
“Renata came into Mommy’s room.”
“What did she do?”
“She gave Mommy water.”
“The bad water?”
Lily nodded.
“Mommy got sleepy.”
Grant’s hands tightened.
“Then what?”
“Mommy said we had to leave.”
“Where were you going?”
“To Grandma’s house.”
Claire’s mother lived in Vermont.
She had died nine months after the accident.
Grant looked at Nadia.
“Claire wasn’t leaving me.”
Nadia said nothing.
“She was taking Lily somewhere safe.”
Lily reached into the box again.
She found a small photograph.
It showed Claire standing beside a red sports car.
Around her neck was a silver pendant.
Lily touched the photograph.
“Mommy hid something.”
“Where?” Grant asked.
“In my rabbit.”
“What rabbit?”
“My yellow rabbit.”
Grant looked through the box.
There was no stuffed rabbit inside.
Nadia stood.
“I remember that toy.”
“Lily had it in the hospital after the accident.”
“What happened to it?”
Nadia’s face became pale.
“Renata took it.”
The nursery door opened.
Malcolm Callahan entered without knocking.
He wore a black tuxedo.
His white hair was perfectly combed.
His expression carried practiced concern.
“Grant, we need to talk.”
Grant stood.
“How did you get past security?”
Malcolm ignored the question.
He looked at Lily’s drawing.
Then he looked at the photograph in Grant’s hand.
For one brief second, his confidence slipped.
Lily saw him.
Her fingers dug into my palm.
“That’s the man,” she whispered.
Malcolm stopped.
Grant’s voice became very quiet.
“What man?”
May you like
Lily pointed at her great-uncle.
“The man who told Renata Mommy’s car was ready.”
