Chapter 2 - THE ARREST
Nathan reached the front door before anyone else.
Two uniformed officers stood outside.
A third man in a gray suit waited behind them.
“Mr. Cole?”
“Yes.”
“We received a report involving a possible kidnapping.”
Nathan stared at him.
“Kidnapping?”
Grace appeared at the end of the hallway with Lily clinging to her hand.
One officer immediately looked at her.
“Grace Miller?”
Grace stopped.
“Yes.”
The officer reached for his cuffs.
Nathan stepped between them.
“Hold on.”
“Sir, move aside.”
“No.”
The detective in the gray suit lifted a folder.
“We have a warrant.”
“For what?”
“Custodial kidnapping, fraud, identity falsification, and suspected flight risk.”
Grace felt the floor shift beneath her.
“What?”
The detective opened the folder.
Photographs.
Copies of airline tickets.
A passport application.
Bank transfers.
Nathan snatched one page.
It showed Grace purchasing two plane tickets to Costa Rica.
Departure date: tomorrow.
Grace shook her head.
“I never bought these.”
Victoria appeared behind her.
She pressed a hand to her mouth.
“Oh my God.”
Nathan turned.
Victoria looked horrified.
Perfectly horrified.
Too perfectly.
Grace stared at her.
“You did this.”
Victoria recoiled.
“How dare you?”
The detective stepped forward.
“Ms. Miller, turn around.”
Lily screamed.
“No!”
She wrapped herself around Grace’s leg.
“Don’t take Mommy!”
Grace crouched despite the pain.
“Baby, look at me.”
Lily was sobbing.
“Stay with Mommy.”
Grace touched her face.
Nathan knelt beside them.
“No one’s taking her anywhere.”
The detective looked at him.
“Mr. Cole—”
Nathan stood.
“If this child is mine, I have parental rights.”
“We don’t know that she is.”
“I’m requesting an immediate DNA test.”
Victoria’s head snapped toward him.
Nathan noticed.
That reaction was enough.
He looked at the detective.
“And until then, nobody removes this child from this house.”
The detective lowered his voice.
“We have information that Ms. Miller may be mentally unstable.”
Grace stared at him.
“From who?”
He said nothing.
Nathan looked toward Victoria.
She folded her arms.
“You can’t seriously think I arranged police reports.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Victoria’s eyes hardened.
“Be careful.”
Nathan almost laughed.
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s advice.”
Grace heard the detective speaking into his radio.
Nathan pulled out his phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“My attorney.”
Victoria’s face tightened again.
Nathan dialed.
“Daniel, get to my house.”
Pause.
“No, now.”
Another pause.
“And bring a private physician who can run a legally admissible paternity test.”
Nathan ended the call.
The detective sighed.
“Mr. Cole, this doesn’t erase the warrant.”
“No.”
Nathan looked at Grace.
“But it changes what happens next.”
Grace felt shame burning through her.
“Nathan, I never wanted you dragged into this.”
He turned on her.
“You had my daughter for four years.”
“Because your father threatened to destroy me.”
“My father is dead.”
Grace’s expression broke.
“That doesn’t mean his threats died with him.”
Nathan wanted to argue.
Then he remembered Victoria’s silence.
The officers allowed Grace to sit while they waited for Nathan’s attorney.
Victoria disappeared upstairs.
Ten minutes later, Grace whispered to Nathan.
“She’s going to destroy evidence.”
Nathan looked at her.
“What evidence?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because five years ago, your father didn’t do anything himself.”
Grace looked toward the stairs.
“He always sent someone else.”
Nathan’s eyes narrowed.
“Victoria?”
“No.”
Grace swallowed.
“Her mother.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“Eleanor Sterling?”
Grace nodded.
Nathan knew Eleanor Sterling.
Everyone in Chicago did.
Real estate empire.
Political donors.
Three senators at her birthday parties.
The kind of woman who could make a phone call and get a mayor on the line.
“She met me in a restaurant five years ago,” Grace said.
“She told me she knew I was pregnant.”
Nathan said nothing.
“She put a folder on the table.”
“What was inside?”
“Pictures of my mother’s apartment.”
Grace’s voice trembled.
“My younger brother’s school.”
Nathan stared.
“She knew everything.”
“What did she want?”
“For me to disappear.”
Nathan stood.
Grace grabbed his wrist.
“Where are you going?”
“Upstairs.”
“Nathan.”
He looked down.
Grace whispered.
“Victoria isn’t scared of you yet.”
Nathan frowned.
“She still thinks you’ll protect the Cole name.”
Grace released him.
“The second she realizes you won’t, she gets dangerous.”
Nathan looked toward the staircase.
Then he said, “She already hit you with a hockey stick.”
Grace’s eyes stayed on his.
“That wasn’t dangerous.”
Nathan waited.
“That was panic.”
A crash sounded upstairs.
Nathan ran.
He reached Victoria’s bedroom just as smoke began curling from the bathroom.
He kicked the door open.
Victoria stood beside the fireplace.
A stack of papers burned inside.
“What are you doing?”
She turned.
Nathan rushed forward and grabbed the metal poker.
He pulled several half-burned pages from the flames.
Victoria lunged for them.
“Give me that!”
Nathan shoved her hand away.
One burned page landed on the floor.
Only three lines remained readable.
Nathan picked it up.
DATE OF AGREEMENT: JUNE 14.
SUBJECT: TERMINATION OF CLAIM.
BENEFICIARY: NATHAN COLE’S FIRSTBORN CHILD.
Nathan slowly looked at Victoria.
“What claim?”
Victoria’s face went pale.
May you like
He stepped toward her.
“What the hell did our families sign?”
