Chapter 3 - WHAT THE HOUSE HAD HEARD
Daniel laid Lily on her bed and stayed until her grip loosened.
“I’m getting Aunt Kate,” he said. “She’ll sit with you while I go downstairs.”
“Are you leaving?”
“Just downstairs.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
He called his sister from the hallway.
Kate lived twelve minutes away.
“Come now,” he said.
She heard enough in his voice to skip the questions.
Downstairs, a crystal picture frame lay broken beside the kitchen island.
Vanessa stood over it.
Rosa hovered near the back door.
“What happened?” Daniel asked.
“Your housekeeper knocked it over,” Vanessa said.
Mrs. Brooks stood at the sink.
“No,” she said.
The room went still.
Vanessa turned slowly.
“Excuse me?”
“I didn’t knock it over.”
Daniel looked at the shattered frame.
It held a photograph of Lily’s mother.
Emily.
Lily had placed it on the kitchen counter that morning so, she’d explained, Mommy could come to the birthday dinner too.
Daniel’s chest went tight.
“Why was it here?”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“I was moving it. It slipped.”
Mrs. Brooks’s hands shook against the sink.
“Go ahead,” Vanessa told her. “Tell him whatever little story you’ve decided on.”
Daniel stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Then he turned to the housekeeper.
“What do I need to know?”
Mrs. Brooks opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Rosa whispered, “Please.”
Daniel heard the fear in that single word.
“Please what?”
Before either woman answered, his phone buzzed.
A message from Vanessa.
He looked up.
She was standing ten feet away.
On the screen was a photograph of an email he had sent her six weeks earlier.
Lily’s having a hard time. You’re there more than I am. Set whatever rules you think she needs.
Beneath it, Vanessa had typed:
Don’t pretend you weren’t part of raising her.
Daniel stared at his own words.
He remembered the hotel room. The delayed flight. Vanessa saying Lily cried too much and needed structure.
He had answered between meetings.
Set whatever rules you think she needs.
Mrs. Brooks watched his face.
“Mr. Mercer,” she said quietly, “there’s something in Lily’s room you should see.”
“What?”
“The drawer under her bed.”
Vanessa lunged for the stairs.
Daniel caught the banister before she reached it.
“You’re staying here.”
May you like
Her face went blank.
For the first time that night, she looked afraid.
