Chapter 2
Lily had already crossed a mansion in darkness because she believed something terrible had happened to her mother. The last thing she needed was three men standing over her conducting an interrogation.
I walked across the room and sat in the armchair opposite the sofa.
Lily watched me.
“Is Mommy better?”
“Dr. Grant is helping her.”
“That means yes?”
“It means she’s safe and he’s staying with her.”
She considered that answer with the seriousness only a three-year-old could manage.
Then she nodded.
Mrs. Alvarez touched her hair.
“Would you like some warm milk, sweetheart?”
“No.”
“Water?”
“No.”
Lily pointed at me.
“I need Mr. Adrian.”
Daniel made a sound suspiciously close to a laugh and covered it with a cough.
I gave him a look.
He immediately became interested in his phone.
I moved to the edge of the sofa.
“You have me.”
Lily leaned closer.
“The bad man was downstairs.”
My stomach tightened.
“Here in the house?”
She nodded.
“When?”
“Before bedtime.”
“Did you see him?”
Another nod.
“Where?”
She pointed vaguely beyond the walls.
“By Mommy’s work room.”
Claire didn’t have a work room.
At least I didn’t think she did.
Mrs. Alvarez seemed to understand my confusion.
“She means the downstairs laundry room, Mr. Moretti. Claire sometimes folds linens there after dinner.”
I looked at Lily again.
“What was the man doing?”
“Talking.”
“To your mother?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
She frowned, concentrating.
“Grown-up things.”
Despite everything, Mrs. Alvarez smiled.
“What kind of grown-up things?” I asked.
Lily hugged the rabbit tighter.
“He said Mommy had something that was his.”
Daniel and I exchanged a glance.
“Did your mother give it to him?”
“No.”
“What did she say?”
Lily’s small forehead wrinkled.
“She said no.”
“Anything else?”
“She said she didn’t want trouble.”
The words sounded like Claire.
I had heard almost that exact sentence from her once before.
Three months earlier, I had walked into the service corridor and found one of our produce suppliers arguing with a kitchen assistant about an incorrect delivery. Claire had quietly stepped between them, corrected the invoice, and ended the disagreement without raising her voice.
Afterward I’d asked why she had interfered.
She had shrugged and said, I don’t like trouble when it can be avoided.
At the time I had thought it was merely part of her nature.
Now it sounded like a philosophy built through necessity.
“Did you hear the man’s name?” I asked Lily.
She nodded.
“Mommy said, ‘Victor, please.’”
That was enough.
Daniel walked toward the hall.
“Where are you going?”
“To check the footage personally.”
“Daniel.”
He stopped.
“No calls to Kane.”
“I wasn’t going to call him.”
“No one contacts him. Not yet.”
Daniel understood immediately.
If Victor believed Claire hadn’t told me anything, I wanted him to continue believing it.
I turned back to Lily.
“Did Victor see you?”
She shook her head.
“I was behind the towels.”
“You hid?”
“Mommy told me to.”
A quiet ache settled somewhere beneath my ribs.
“What happened after Victor left?”
“Mommy cried.”
Mrs. Alvarez’s hand went still against Lily’s hair.
I kept my voice soft.
“Then what?”
“She told me we might go on another adventure.”
“What kind of adventure?”
“We pack our things and go somewhere new.”
The answer came too easily.
Not like a fantasy invented tonight.
Like something Lily had heard before.
“Have you gone on adventures before?”
“Lots.”
“How many?”
She began counting on her fingers, lost track at four, and started over.
I stopped her.
“That’s okay.”
She smiled faintly.
“Bunny goes too.”
“I’m sure Bunny does.”
“He always does.”
The rabbit was gray beneath years of wear, one ear slightly bent and the stitching around one leg repaired with blue thread that didn’t match.
Something about it bothered me.
May you like
Not the toy itself.
The familiarity.
