Chapter 5 - BEFORE STERLING HOUSE
Alexander demanded a name. The caller hung up.
He wanted Marcus to trace the number. I told him what the caller meant.
“Three years ago,” I said, “a little girl in my preschool class disappeared for forty minutes.”
Alexander pulled out a chair. “What happened?”
“Her name was Ruby. She wandered out through a side door during a fire drill. We found her behind the playground fence. She was frightened, but she was safe.”
“Why would anyone use that against you?”
“Because I was the lead teacher. The center’s owner said I had failed to count the children.”
“Did you?”
“I counted them. Ruby was there when we reached the playground. The side door should have been locked.”
The center had fired me. Ruby’s parents later learned the lock had been broken for weeks, but the report stayed in my employment history. I spent a year taking temporary jobs while I tried to get it corrected.
New Start knew all of this. I had told the agency during my interview.
“Eleanor knew too?” Alexander asked.
“She may have.”
He pressed his hand against his forehead.
A knock came at the study door. Claire Whitmore stepped inside carrying her coat.
“I’m sorry to come without calling,” she said. “Someone sent me a video from last night.”
Alexander’s expression closed. “You can send it to Marcus.”
“I wanted you to see where it came from.”
She showed us a message from Vanessa’s publicist. It contained the cropped footage of the woman entering Noah’s room, along with suggested language about “staff boundaries.” Claire said Vanessa had urged her and Madeline to speak publicly.
“Why bring it here?” I asked.
“Because Noah was scared enough last night.” Claire looked at Alexander. “And because Vanessa told me your mother approved the statement.”
Alexander took the phone and read the exchange.
“I haven’t approved anything,” he said.
“I know.”
Claire hesitated. “There’s something else. Mrs. Bell asked me a strange question before the ceremony. She wanted to know whether I would insist on replacing Noah’s caregivers if I married you.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I said I hadn’t met the child yet. I couldn’t possibly answer.”
Mrs. Bell had spent weeks telling me Noah needed stability. Why was she asking prospective brides which staff they would fire?
That afternoon, Marcus examined the sleep spray. The bottle contained ordinary lavender water. There was no drug and no evidence Noah had been sprayed with it. The danger was the image: Mrs. Bell had entered his room carrying an object that could make the visit look suspicious when cropped.
Alexander went to confront his mother.
I waited with Noah in the garden, but the study windows were open.
“You let Bell build a file on Emma,” Alexander said.
“I had to be sure,” Eleanor answered.
“Of what?”
“That she wasn’t the woman who abandoned Noah the first time.”
My hand tightened around Noah’s.
Alexander’s voice dropped. “His mother died.”
May you like
Eleanor answered so quietly I almost missed it.
“That is what you were told.”
